A practical guide for North Dakota educators and administrators on the state's NDMTSS SEL goals and scales, the Portrait of a Graduate's social-emotional attributes, the health education standards, and how to build an elementary program aligned with North Dakota's framework.
North Dakota has done something that many larger states have not: it has developed specific, grade-level SEL goals with measurable scales, embedded them in the state's Multi-Tiered System of Support, and connected them to a Portrait of a Graduate that explicitly includes empathy, collaboration, perseverance, and learner's mindset as attributes every North Dakota graduate should demonstrate.[1][2]
The NDMTSS Social Emotional Learning Goals “provide North Dakota school districts and educators a framework to guide quality explicit instruction of social and emotional learning skills to foster an engaging school climate for all students, guide selection of evidence-based programs and steer professional learning with regards to SEL in North Dakota.”[1]
That is a clear, direct statement of purpose from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. The goals are not mandated standards in the regulatory sense, but they are the state's official framework for SEL instruction, and they come with grade-level expectations and measurement scales that districts can use for implementation and progress monitoring.
Framework vs. Mandate: What North Dakota Provides
What the State Provides
- ✓ Grade-level SEL goals with measurable scales
- ✓ Portrait of a Graduate attributes
- ✓ Health Education Standards (required)
- ✓ NDMTSS framework and support
- ✓ Assessment scales for progress monitoring
What Districts Decide
- ● Which curriculum to adopt
- ● How many minutes per week
- ● Which staff delivers instruction
- ● How to assess student growth
- ● How to communicate with families
North Dakota provides the “what” — districts choose the “how”
NDMTSS SEL Goals
What NDDPI Provides
The NDMTSS SEL Goals provide learning expectations organized by grade span that describe what North Dakota students should know and be able to do in social-emotional domains.[1] NDDPI publishes these goals in multiple formats:
SEL Goals by Grade Level: Specific expectations at each grade span, showing the developmental progression of social-emotional skills across elementary school.
SEL Goals by Competency: The same goals organized by competency area, allowing educators to trace a single skill domain across grade levels.
SEL Scales: Measurement tools that provide a framework for assessing student progress toward the SEL goals.
This is a more detailed and practically useful toolkit than many states provide. The combination of grade-level goals and measurement scales gives North Dakota educators both a curricular target and an assessment framework.
CASEL Alignment
North Dakota's SEL goals align with the CASEL framework of five core competencies:[1]
Self-Awareness: Recognizing emotions, personal qualities, strengths, and how thoughts and feelings influence behavior.
Self-Management: Regulating emotions, managing stress, setting goals, persevering, and making constructive choices.
Social Awareness: Empathizing with others, taking perspectives, appreciating diversity, and understanding social norms.
Relationship Skills: Communicating, cooperating, resolving conflict, seeking and offering help.
Responsible Decision-Making: Making constructive choices, evaluating consequences, considering the wellbeing of self and others.
A CASEL-aligned curriculum maps directly to North Dakota's SEL goals because both frameworks use the same competency structure.
The MTSS Integration
North Dakota's SEL goals are embedded within the state's MTSS framework, which means social-emotional instruction is positioned as a tiered support system rather than a standalone program:[1]
Tier 1
Universal SEL instruction for all students through quality explicit instruction of social-emotional skills.
Tier 2
Targeted support for students who need additional skill development beyond Tier 1 instruction.
Tier 3
Intensive, individualized support for students with significant social-emotional needs, including IEP-aligned goals.
North Dakota's Portrait of a Graduate
The Seven Attributes
North Dakota's Portrait of a Graduate, unveiled by Governor Burgum during the 2021 Summit on Innovative Education, identifies seven attributes critical to ensuring graduates are prepared for career, college, and community:[2]
Critical Thinking
Analyzing information and solving problems effectively.
Communication
Expressing ideas clearly and listening actively.
Understanding and sharing the feelings of others — a direct CASEL social awareness competency.
Collaboration
Working effectively with others toward shared goals — a direct relationship skills competency.
Learner's Mindset
Approaching learning with curiosity and openness — connected to growth mindset.
Adaptability
Responding effectively to change and setback — connected to self-management and resilience.
Sustaining effort toward goals despite obstacles — directly connected to self-management.
Four of the seven attributes (empathy, collaboration, learner's mindset, perseverance) are explicitly social-emotional competencies. The remaining three (critical thinking, communication, adaptability) have strong social-emotional components. The Portrait of a Graduate effectively makes social-emotional development a core outcome of North Dakota education.
Portrait of a Graduate
Empathy
Collab-oration
Persev-erance
Learner's Mindset
Adapt-ability
Commu-nication
Critical Thinking
SEL-explicit attributes SEL-connected attributes
The Essential Skills and Learning Continuum
The Portrait of a Graduate is supported by Essential Skills competencies and the North Dakota Learning Continuum, a statewide framework identifying key qualities within learning expectations at each developmental level.[2] For elementary schools, the Learning Continuum describes what empathy, collaboration, perseverance, and the other attributes look like at the K-2 and 3-5 levels, giving teachers concrete targets for instruction and observable indicators for assessment.
Health Education Standards
Required Instruction
North Dakota's Health Education Standards, adopted in 2018 and revised in May 2024, provide the required instructional framework for health content at every grade level.[3] The standards include mental and emotional health content that overlaps with SEL competencies.
| Health Education Content | CASEL Competency |
|---|---|
| Recognizing emotions and healthy expression | Self-Awareness |
| Managing stress and strong emotions | Self-Management |
| Communication and relationship skills | Relationship Skills |
| Decision-making for health and safety | Responsible Decision-Making |
| Understanding others' perspectives | Social Awareness |
A comprehensive SEL curriculum addresses the health education standards' mental and emotional content while also meeting the NDMTSS SEL goals and supporting the Portrait of a Graduate attributes.
Native American Essential Understandings
The Cultural Connection
NDDPI has developed the North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings (NDNAEUs) and the “Teachings of Our Elders” program, which connect cultural education to social-emotional development.[4]
NDDPI's SEL promotion explicitly includes strategies for promoting positive cultural identity that emphasizes connectedness and interdependence, building positive and trusting relationships, and developing social-emotional skills including belonging, positive identity development, interpersonal skills, emotional competence, growth mindset, and perseverance.[4]
What This Means for Elementary Schools
North Dakota is home to five tribal nations and four reservations. For schools serving Native American students, the NDNAEUs provide a culturally specific framework for connecting SEL instruction to students' cultural heritage and community values. Even for schools without significant Native American enrollment, social-emotional instruction that includes diverse perspectives, honors cultural differences in emotional expression and social interaction, and builds empathy across cultural boundaries aligns with NDDPI's commitment to culturally responsive education.
How to Build an Elementary Program Within North Dakota's Framework
Step 1: Map to the NDMTSS SEL Goals
Document how your instruction addresses each of the five competency areas at the appropriate grade levels. Use the NDMTSS SEL goals by grade level to verify that your curriculum matches the state's expectations for each grade span.[1] A 40-week scope and sequence delivered through weekly lessons covers all five competency areas with the sustained instruction that produces genuine skill development.
Step 2: Use the SEL Scales for Progress Monitoring
The NDMTSS SEL scales provide a measurement framework for tracking student progress.[1] Use these scales to establish baseline data at the beginning of the year, monitor growth at regular intervals, identify students who may need Tier 2 or Tier 3 support, and document outcomes for school improvement planning. This is a significant advantage that North Dakota provides. Many states offer competencies without assessment tools. North Dakota offers both.
Step 3: Connect to the Portrait of a Graduate
Document how your SEL instruction builds the Portrait of a Graduate attributes. When a lesson teaches empathy, it is building a Portrait attribute. When a lesson teaches perseverance, it is building a Portrait attribute. When a lesson teaches teamwork, it is building the collaboration attribute. Making these connections explicit strengthens the institutional justification for SEL instruction.
Step 4: Address Health Education Standards
Document how your curriculum covers the mental and emotional health content within the Health Education Standards.[3] A CASEL-aligned curriculum addresses this content as part of its comprehensive approach.
Step 5: Embed in MTSS
Position your SEL instruction within North Dakota's MTSS framework, consistent with how the NDMTSS SEL goals are designed:[1]
Tier 1
Universal SEL instruction delivered weekly to all students, addressing all five competencies.
Tier 2
Targeted small-group support for students needing additional skill practice, using SEL scales to identify who needs support and in which competencies.
Tier 3
Individualized intervention for students with significant needs, including IEP-aligned goals.
Step 6: Connect to School Safety
North Dakota houses SEL under Youth Behavioral Health within its Safety and Health division.[1] This positioning connects SEL directly to the behavioral health and school safety priorities that all North Dakota communities support. Social-emotional skills support school safety directly: students who can regulate emotions produce fewer behavioral incidents, students who can resolve conflicts de-escalate situations, and students who trust adults report concerns.
North Dakota's Context
Rural and Small-District Realities
North Dakota has approximately 170 school districts, many serving small, rural communities. The practical implications are familiar across the northern Great Plains:
- Limited staff and counselor access in many buildings
- Technology infrastructure that varies widely between urban and rural districts
- Teachers covering multiple subjects and sometimes multiple grades
- Professional development access constrained by distance and staffing
Device-free, teacher-led programs with minimal prep requirements serve these settings effectively. A program that requires technology infrastructure, extensive training, or specialist delivery will not reach many North Dakota students.
Energy-Sector Communities
North Dakota's oil-producing regions (particularly the Bakken formation area) have experienced rapid population growth and demographic shifts. Schools in these communities serve increasingly diverse student populations, including families who have relocated from across the country and internationally. Bilingual curriculum and culturally responsive content support these students' access to social-emotional instruction.
Military-Connected Students
North Dakota is home to Minot Air Force Base and Grand Forks Air Force Base. Schools serving military families deal with frequent student transitions, deployment-related stress, and the unique social-emotional challenges of military-connected children. SEL instruction that addresses emotional regulation, relationship building, and coping with change supports these students directly.
Choosing a Curriculum for North Dakota Schools
When selecting curriculum for your North Dakota elementary school, verify that the program:
Addresses all five NDMTSS SEL competency areas
Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making must all be covered.
Provides grade-band differentiation
The NDMTSS SEL goals specify expectations by grade span. K-2 and 3-5 content should differ in complexity and approach.
Offers a full-year scope and sequence
Weekly instruction across the school year produces skill development. Isolated lessons do not.
Supports the Portrait of a Graduate attributes
Empathy, collaboration, learner's mindset, perseverance, and the other attributes should be addressed through the curriculum.
Aligns with health education standards
The mental and emotional health content within the health standards should be covered.
Produces measurable outcomes compatible with the SEL scales
The NDMTSS SEL scales provide a measurement framework. Your curriculum should generate observable behaviors that connect to these scales.
Supports bilingual learners
North Dakota's growing multilingual population benefits from bilingual English and Spanish curriculum.
Works in rural and small-district settings
No device requirements, minimal prep, all materials included.
Connects to school safety and behavioral health
North Dakota houses SEL under Youth Behavioral Health. Curriculum that bridges social-emotional skills and safety serves this organizational alignment.
Requires minimal prep
North Dakota teachers in small districts need ready-to-use materials that work without extensive preparation or training.
What to Avoid
Overlooking the NDMTSS SEL goals and scales
North Dakota has developed specific, grade-level SEL goals with measurement scales. Schools that implement SEL without connecting to these state-developed tools miss the alignment and assessment framework that North Dakota provides.
Treating the Portrait of a Graduate as separate from SEL
Four of the Portrait's seven attributes are directly social-emotional. Schools that pursue Portrait alignment without structured SEL instruction are trying to build attributes without teaching the underlying skills.
Assuming small means simple
Small North Dakota schools face the same social-emotional challenges as large urban schools: peer conflict, emotional regulation difficulties, bullying, anxiety, family stress. The scale is smaller. The needs are not.
Selecting curriculum without checking NDMTSS alignment
Not every SEL program aligns with the specific grade-level expectations in the NDMTSS SEL goals. Verify that your chosen curriculum maps to the goals at each grade span before adopting.
Final Thoughts
North Dakota has built a more developed SEL framework than its small size might suggest. The NDMTSS SEL goals provide grade-level expectations. The SEL scales provide measurement tools. The Portrait of a Graduate defines social-emotional attributes as core outcomes. The health education standards require mental and emotional health content. And the Youth Behavioral Health division connects SEL to the safety and health priorities that every North Dakota community values.
For North Dakota elementary schools, the path forward involves selecting a CASEL-aligned curriculum that addresses the NDMTSS SEL goals, delivers weekly instruction across the school year, supports the Portrait of a Graduate attributes, and works within the realities of your community, whether that is a city of 70,000 or a town of 200. The goals are set. The scales are available. The Portrait is defined. The framework is in place. Implementation is the step that serves students.
References
- North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. (n.d.). Social emotional learning. https://mybrightwheel.com/early-learning-standards/north-dakota/social-emotional/
- NDSBL. (n.d.). Resources: Portrait of a Graduate and Essential Skills. https://ndsbl.org/resources/
- North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. (2024). Health education standards K-12 (revised May 2024). https://www.nd.gov/dpi/districtsschools/north-dakota-education-content-standards/health-education
- North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. (n.d.). NEED: Promoting social-emotional learning. https://www.nd.gov/dpi/need-promoting-social-emotional-learning-sel
- NASBE State Policy Database. (n.d.). Social-emotional learning or character development: North Dakota. https://statepolicies.nasbe.org/health/categories/social-emotional-climate/social-emotional-learning-or-character-development/north-dakota
- Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405-432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
- Cipriano, C., Strambler, M. J., Naples, L. H., et al. (2023). The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions. Child Development, 94(5), 1181-1204. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13968
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