Education at VIA

Accelerate Social and Emotional Learning through

  • The science of character strengths

  • Social and emotional learning addressing five interrelated sets of competencies (CASEL, 2005) — self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships skills, and decision-making

  • Flexible K-12 curriculum, tools, and parental resources supporting customization and innovation.

The Thriving Learning Communities™ (TLC) program helps students recognize and apply their own unique combination of strengths as they learn how to navigate the world. Using their strengths, students explore how to be the best version of themselves inside and outside school.

Unique in the field of SEL programming, TLC applies the science of character strengths to the practice of teaching and learning.

Science links SEL to student gains.

  • Better social-emotional skills

  • Improved attitudes about self, others, and school

  • Positive classroom behavior

  • 11 percentile-point gain on standardized achievement tests

  • Fewer conduct problems

  • Less emotional stress

  • Lower drug use

And it benefits educators too!

Teachers who possess social and emotional competencies are more likely to stay in the classroom longer because they’re able to work more effectively with challenging students —one of the main causes of burnout.

Statistically significant associations between measured social-emotional skills in kindergarten and key young adult outcomes across multiple domains of education, employment, criminal activity, substance use, and mental health.