Leading with data: Using an impact-driven research consortium model for the advancement of social emotional learning in schools.

Abstract

Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, and Gullotta (2015) note that social and emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly recognized as a critical component of academic and life success. In many schools around the nation, SEL is becoming (or has become) part of a comprehensive strategy to strengthen students' academic performance, improve school and classroom climate, and lessen conduct problems. A recent benefit-cost analysis by Belfield et al. (2015) of six prominent SEL programs showed a positive return on the original investments in these programs at a ratio of about 11 to 1. SEL supports the development of skills in emotion regulation, social awareness, conflict resolution, and responsible decision making, all of which are essential to students' success within and outside the classroom. These so called noncognitive skills are associated not only with proximal gains in students' academic performance and reductions in conduct problems but also with their later choices related to education and employment, as discussed by the economist, James Heckman and his team (Heckman, Stixrud, & Urzua, 2006). Furthermore, according to a report by Nagaoka, Heath, Farrington, and Cureton Turner (2015) for the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, evidence shows that not attending to fundamental SEL skills and competencies within and outside the context of formal schooling can actually undermine children's long-term development and keep them from succeeding in adult roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).