Second Step vs. Ori Learning for Grades 6–12: A Fit Guide

By Dr. Miriam Gayle, EdD, VP of Operations, Ori Learning · Updated August 27, 2026

Second Step® and Ori Learning’s Emotional Well-Being Curriculum both describe alignment with CASEL’s five competencies, but their secondary program models differ. Committee for Children’s current digital offering spans K–12: Elementary and Middle School use weekly teacher-led lessons, while Second Step High School combines schoolwide and educator practices with 12 student activities per grade.¹² Committee for Children cites evaluations in grades 3–8 and CASEL SELect designations for Elementary and Middle School.¹³¹⁴

Ori Learning’s Emotional Well-Being Curriculum covers grades 6–12, with 25 student-facing lessons per grade and formal course- and unit-level pre/post assessments. It can be projected to the whole class, delivered on student devices, or assigned for self-paced work.³⁵ The comparison below is meant to show which requirements each model addresses; lesson and activity counts are not directly equivalent.

The short version

About this comparison

Ori Learning publishes this comparison and is therefore not a neutral party. We reviewed the linked public sources on August 24, 2026, distinguished vendor-reported claims from third-party evaluations, and identified items we could not confirm publicly. Programs, pricing, and availability can change; verify procurement-critical details directly with each vendor.

Last verified: August 24, 2026. We re-check this page quarterly. If you see something outdated or unfair, tell us and we will correct it.

In my district work, I saw that a program’s fit depends on the conditions in which staff will use it. I advise districts to test both options against the same local facts: who will deliver the program, where it fits in the bell schedule, what support staff will need, what reporting is available, and the full cost.

Second Step vs. Ori Learning at a glance

Second Step cells are footnoted to Committee for Children’s published pages; Ori Learning cells come from Ori Learning product documentation.³⁶ Verified August 24, 2026.

How the high-school models differ

Most “Second Step vs.” questions come down to grades 9–12, where the two products differ most. Second Step High School organizes its content into four pathways — Belonging & Connection, Confidence & Capability, Agency & Opportunity, and Well-Being & Community — each with schoolwide practices for leaders, educator practices for classrooms, and student activities. Committee for Children describes it as a program that “integrates into existing schedules,” with published training modules such as a 20-minute program training and five-minute pathway overviews.²²⁰ The published model includes 12 student activities per grade alongside the schoolwide and educator practices.¹

Ori Learning’s grade 9–12 courses are each a sequence of 25 lessons with pre- and post-assessments at the course and unit level; lessons are designed around a 20-minute block, and the grade 12 course ends with post-secondary planning content.³⁶ These counts are not measures of rigor or instructional value: the two models address different implementation requirements and may also be complementary. Decide how much schoolwide and educator-practice guidance you need, how much scheduled student instruction you can support, and what assessment and implementation data you require.

Requirements that may favor Second Step

• PreK–12 continuity from one vendor. Second Step currently provides K–12 coverage and has the longer publication history; Committee for Children markets shared language and aligned practices across the span.³² Ori Learning is not currently an option for grades K–5.
• A K–5 or K–8 priority. The public evaluations summarized here cover grades 3–8, and both the Elementary and Middle School digital programs hold CASEL SELect designations.¹³¹⁴
• Spanish-language program materials for grades 6–8 now. Elementary digital and Middle School are fully available in Spanish at no added cost, with family communications in 13 languages.¹⁷
• Built-in Tier 2 materials for K–8. Small-group lessons, individual-support resources, and an optional Assessment Toolkit are included with the K–8 license.²⁵
• A schoolwide, adult-practice model in high school. Second Step’s high-school research review cites literature suggesting that for older students, strategies aimed at changing school climate can be more effective than direct skill instruction; its design reflects that approach.¹⁷
• Family and prevention components. Family letters, Home Links, weekly family communications for Elementary digital and Middle School, and separate bullying-prevention and child-protection offerings.⁷²²

Requirements that may favor Ori Learning

• A sequenced, grade-specific lesson curriculum for grades 6–12. Every grade has its own 25-lesson course, so a ninth grader and a twelfth grader see different material, and a weekly advisory or health block has a scheduled lesson to run.³⁶
• Students working in the lesson on their own devices. Lessons are student-facing — responses, sorting and matching activities, journal prompts, and a class collaboration board — with a projected front-of-class mode and a self-paced mode also available.³⁶
• Particular access tools in student-facing lessons. Ori Learning documentation lists text-to-speech, adjustable zoom, speech-to-text, and on-demand translation as lesson-level options saved per student.³⁶ Test these features with representative learners and request current accessibility-conformance documentation. These accommodations are not the same as individualized curricular modification or differentiated task tiers.
• Student-level assessment reporting is a requirement. Ori Learning’s documentation describes course- and unit-level results at student, class, and school levels with Excel export. Second Step’s public materials describe implementation reporting in the Leader Dashboard and separate K–8 screening and intervention tools.²³²⁴³⁶ Ask both vendors to demonstrate the complete workflow, including district aggregation and export.
• A special education department buying on the same platform. Ori Learning publishes a separate Transition Curriculum for students with disabilities. It is a separate product; its specialized content and features should not be attributed to the Emotional Well-Being Curriculum.
• Program naming that avoids “SEL.” The product is named the Emotional Well-Being Curriculum, and Ori Learning publishes state-specific terminology guidance (see the FAQ below).

What the published evidence does and does not show

Committee for Children links four WestEd evaluations conducted from 2022 through 2024 involving more than 25,000 students in grades 3–8 across 242 schools in California, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The studies report different findings across different populations and outcomes; review the individual reports rather than treating the results as one pooled effect.¹¹¹²¹³

For Ori Learning, Hunt and Styers’ 2025 report — an evaluation conducted for Ori Learning by researchers at Instructure — describes a nonrandomized comparison involving 1,829 students in grades 9–12 in one suburban New Jersey district and classifies the design as consistent with ESSA Level III. It found an association between completing all 25 lessons and an 11% higher score on its emotional-well-being measure, relative to completing five lessons. Because students were not randomly assigned to lesson dosage, the result should not be interpreted as proof that the curriculum caused the difference. The full report (PDF) is public.³⁴

On directory listings: CASEL’s public guide listed Second Step Elementary and Middle School as SELect when checked on August 24, 2026; we did not find an entry for the current High School program, and Ori Learning is not listed in the guide.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶ For either vendor, non-listing indicates only that no listing was visible on that date — it does not establish whether a program was submitted, reviewed, or rejected. Second Step’s high-school “Review of Research” (PDF), dated July 28, 2025, reviews the literature behind the program’s design; we did not find a program-specific outcome evaluation of Second Step High School as of the same date.¹⁷

Questions to ask both vendors

1. Which grades have a program-specific outcome study, who conducted and funded it, and can we read the full report?
2. For a single lesson or activity, what does the facilitator use, and can we see the actual materials?
3. How do students interact — projected only, on their own devices, or both — and what happens for a student who is absent?
4. Which access features are built in for students with IEPs and 504 plans and for multilingual learners, and can we see current accessibility-conformance documentation?
5. What student-level and district-level data will we see, what exports exist, and who can access them?
6. What student data does the program collect, where is it stored, and what does the data-privacy agreement cover?
7. How does rostering work — SSO, Clever/ClassLink, SIS sync, or manual — and what does setup require from our IT team?
8. What is the license unit and term, what is included versus separately purchased (family materials, Tier 2 resources, training), and what does renewal pricing look like?
9. Can we pilot, and what does a pilot include?

Frequently asked questions

What is Second Step High School, and is it a lesson curriculum?

Second Step High School (launched 2024, grades 9–12) is built from 24 schoolwide practices, 24 educator practices, and 48 student activities — 12 per grade — organized in four pathways, rather than a weekly lesson sequence.¹²³⁰ Committee for Children publishes its scope and sequence and training modules.²⁰³¹

Is Ori Learning an alternative to Second Step for grades 6–12?

It may be evaluated as an alternative when a district needs a sequenced, student-facing grades 6–12 curriculum. It is not a current substitute for Second Step in K–5, and the programs differ in family resources, Tier 2 materials, Spanish localization, evidence by grade band, and high-school schoolwide practices. The products can also be purchased for different grade bands; districts considering that should compare rostering, data governance, shared vocabulary, implementation responsibilities, and district reporting across the two platforms.

How does the published evidence differ by grade band?

The public evidence reviewed here covers different populations. Second Step cites four WestEd evaluations in grades 3–8 and holds CASEL SELect designations for Elementary and Middle School.¹³¹⁴ Ori Learning cites one nonrandomized ESSA Level III study involving grades 9–12.³⁴ Study count, grade-band relevance, design quality, and outcome measures should be considered separately.

Do students need their own devices?

Second Step’s core lessons are teacher-led and projected; individual student devices are not required.⁶ Ori Learning can be projected with no student logins, but students need devices for its Live Participation and Self-Paced modes.³⁶

Which program works in states where “SEL” is a sensitive term?

Both vendors have moved away from “SEL” as a headline term: Second Step now describes its programs as Human Skills™ programs,²⁸²⁹ and Ori Learning’s product is named the Emotional Well-Being Curriculum. Both describe alignment with CASEL’s five competencies. Ori Learning also publishes a state-by-state guide to what each state officially calls SEL, with dedicated pages for Texas and Florida.

A practical next step

Sources

Second Step and Committee for Children sources accessed August 24, 2026.

1. Second Step Digital Programs — store page (license structure, lesson counts, High School components, family-communication languages).
2. Second Step High School — program page.
3. Second Step Middle School — program page.
4. Second Step Elementary — program page.
5. Second Step Early Learning — program page.
6. Second Step technology requirements.
7. Language Availability for Second Step Human Skills Programs — support center and Comparing the Digital Elementary and Classroom Kit programs — support center.
8. Second Step High School Spanish Translation FAQ — support center.
9. Second Step K–12 Digital Curriculum — overview page (subscription terms; included training).
10. Second Step purchasing options.
11. Evidence-Based — client impact page.
12. Second Step research page.
13. Evidence of Effectiveness — support center (four WestEd studies, grades 3–8).
14. CASEL Program Guide — Second Step Elementary entry and Second Step Middle School entry.
15. CASEL Program Guide — program list.
16. Evidence for ESSA — Second Step (Social-Emotional Learning).
17. Second Step High School: Review of Research (PDF), dated 07.28.2025.
18. Second Step state alignments.
19. Second Step alignment charts.
20. Second Step training.
21. Second Step professional development.
22. Information for Families.
23. Leader Dashboard — client impact page.
24. Small Group Reporting — support center.
25. Tiered Interventions — support center (small-group lessons, individual supports, Assessment Toolkit).
26. Accessibility Statement — support center.
27. Committee for Children — About Us.
28. Second Step homepage.
29. “Evolving the Second Step Brand” — Committee for Children blog.
30. “What’s New with Second Step Programs” — Committee for Children blog, April 9, 2025 (High School launch year).
31. Second Step Digital Programs K–12 Scope and Sequence (PDF).
32. The Second Step Advantage — client impact page.
33. Second Step professional development — Elevating Second Step workshops.
34. Hunt, A., & Styers, M. (2025). Ori Learning (2023–24) ESSA Level III report. Instructure; evaluation conducted for Ori Learning. Full report (PDF).
35. Ori Learning — Emotional Well-Being Curriculum.
36. Ori Learning, Emotional Well-Being Curriculum product documentation (internal specification, August 2026; available to evaluators on request).