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STEPS TO RESPECT Newsletter
Spring 2008

Dealing with Workplace Bullying
Summer Reading for Fifth- and Sixth-Graders
Bullying Ed for Early Elementary
Recommended Book: The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
SEL Programs Help with Academics

SEL Programs Help with Academics

[We ran this article in our spring SECOND STEP Newsletter, but we're repeating it for those of you who don't subscribe since this is such good news.]

If colleagues, parents, or school officials ask you why you are spending time teaching SECOND STEP skills to your students when you "should" be spending the time on academics, here's a major confirmation of what you probably already knew:

You CAN help your students academically by teaching them social and emotional skills.

Now you have the combined results of 207 studies to back you up.

Positive Impact on Achievement
A soon-to-be-published study, "The Effects of Social and Emotional Learning on Behavior and Academic Performance of School Children," has found that social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, such as the SECOND STEP program, can have a positive impact on achievement test scores and school grades.

In fact, students who participated in SEL programs scored 11 percentage points higher on standardized achievement tests compared to peers not receiving the program.

The study was conducted by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Based on a meta-analysis of 207 studies of SEL programs involving more than 288,000 students from school districts of all types and sizes, the study is the largest, most scientifically rigorous, most up-to-date review of research on interventions that promote children's social and emotional development to date, according to CASEL.

"In the past, when people would say, 'You're taking away from academic time for these programs,' we would say, 'Well, it's not going to hurt learning,'" Roger P. Weissberg, CASEL president, told Education Week. "What we find now is that when you have these programs, academics improve."

Benefits of SEL
The study found that universal school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, such as the SECOND STEP program, yield benefits in three major areas:

• Feelings and attitudes
• Behavioral adjustment
• School achievement

These gains translate into improvements in achievement test scores; social and emotional skills; school and classroom behavior; and student attitudes about themselves, others, and the school. SEL programs were also shown to decrease conduct problems, such as classroom misbehavior and aggression, and emotional distress, such as anxiety and depression.

How you teach programs like the SECOND STEP program makes a difference. The study also found that when a program is not well-executed, the chances of it benefiting students are greatly diminished.

Resources
Here are some resources for presenting the results of the CASEL study to fellow educators, school board members, community leaders, or parents:

• Details on the CASEL study
• CASEL PowerPoint presentation: SEL: What Is It and How Does It Contribute to Student Academic Success?
  

Share Your Story
ASCD's The Whole Child magazine is asking educators to share real-life stories of what's working with social and emotional learning. Consider sending in stories of SECOND STEP or STEPS TO RESPECT success in your school!

Dorothy Dubia
Communications Specialist
Committee for Children