Category: Social and Motivational Outcomes

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Educational Administration and Leadership Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Reviewing SEL programs for middle and high schoolers: A comprehensive guide

Social-emotional learning (SEL) continues to garner attention and funding as policymakers seek to address the growing mental health crisis among students. A review by The Easel Lab at Harvard’s GSE and the Wallace Foundation of 18 middle and high school SEL programs aims to provide guidance for practitioners selecting and implementing SEL programs. This comprehensive guide covers SEL program best practices (in design and implementation), possible integration with out-of-school time programming, and integrating equity and trauma-informed responses. Additionally, the resource compares the programs based on included skills, strategies, and components, and provides detailed program profiles.

Fourteen of the programs reviewed have shown positive impacts in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), while the other four are novel programs with only Tier IV evidence. The authors note that evidence on SEL programs for middle and high school students lags behind that for elementary-aged children. Additionally, the review does not include programs like PBIS or Restorative Practices, which are considered systems of support not solely focused on SEL.

Source (Open Access): Jones, S. M., Brush, K. E., Wettje, S., Ramirez, T., Poddar, A., Kannarr, A., Barnes, S. P., Hooper, A., Brion-Meisels, G., & Chng, E. (2022). Navigating SEL from the inside out: Looking inside & across leading SEL programs: A practical resource for schools and OST providers. Ecological Approaches to Social and Emotional Learning Laboratory, Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://wallacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/navigating-social-and-emotional-learning-from-the-inside-out-middle-high-school.pdf… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Student Success Skills’ effects on Hispanic students

Student Success Skills (SSS) is a program designed to help students reflect and develop purposeful academic, social, and self-management skills that ultimately lead to improved performance in school. A guidance counselor delivers weekly classroom lessons in academic goal-setting and in non-academic areas such as tracking health, wellness, and anxiety, which when addressed, have been shown in research to positively affect academic achievement.

Because the Hispanic student population is the fastest-growing of all student subsets, to ensure adequate cultural responsiveness, researchers examined the impact of SSS on attendance, self-regulation, and test anxiety on the subset of 681 Hispanic fifth grade students within a 2019 randomized controlled trial of SSS (383E, 298 C) from 30 schools in a single district. Following a one-day training, school counselors in the experimental group were randomly assigned to deliver SSS weekly for 45 minutes over five weeks, with a monthly booster session January-March. Control counselors continued with regular counseling practices. All students were tested two weeks before the experimental group began receiving treatment, two weeks after the fifth lesson and thirty weeks after the fifth lesson. Students were evaluated using three years’ attendance data and two student surveys: the Student Engagement in School Success Skills (SESSS) Self-Regulation of Arousal subscale and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) test anxiety subscale.

Results showed that at 30 weeks post intervention, students who had been in the SSS group had better attendance and less test anxiety than controls. These improvements were not evident in at the first post-test, but were evident at the second, implying that time is needed both for students to create better habits and for schools to nurture the environments needed to encourage attendance and promote a safe environment. These findings mirror the findings of the overall RCT from which this data was drawn. Self-regulation showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups at either pre- or post-test—while experimental students’ self-regulation scores were indeed higher than controls’, the difference was not statistically significant.

 

Source: Villares, E., Bowers, H., Brigman, G., & Bottini, C. (2024). The effects of Student Success Skills on attendance and emotion regulation. Journal of Counseling & Development, 102(2), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12503… Read the rest

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Kindergarten Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Did a 3E program really enhance child social emotional competence?

A recent study by Lam and colleagues investigated the effects of a 3E (early prevention, early identification, early intervention) social and emotional learning program for second-year kindergarten students in Hong Kong.  A total of 18 kindergartens were recruited evenly from three socioeconomic strata based on district monthly median household income. Participating schools were randomly assigned to the intervention (9 schools, n=624) or the waiting-list control (9 schools, n=375) conditions.

The Little Garden curriculum, comprising 28 30-40-minute weekly lessons plus extended school and home activities, was delivered to the intervention schools in 2017-18. It targeted socioemotional skills through play, stories, hands-on exploration, and life themed activities. A second stage of intervention was conducted for children who underperformed in the first stage. The 9 treatment schools were randomly split into new intervention (4 schools, n=84) and wait-list control (5 schools, n=50) groups with similar socioeconomic statuses. Students with socioemotional competence scores below a pre-set threshold were identified from both groups. The Little Greenhouse curriculum comprised 16 30-40 minute weekly lessons conducted in the following school year for students assigned to the second stage of intervention.

Classroom teachers who implemented both curricula received a 120-minute training workshop and 90-minute on-site coaching for every 3-5 lessons. Children’s socioemotional competence and behaviour outcomes were rated by their classroom teachers using self-report questionnaires. After controlling prior scores and characteristics, analysis results are shown below.

  • Students completing the Little Garden curriculum outperformed the control group on all four socioemotional competence aspects (ES = +0.18 to +0.29), improved most behaviour problems (ES = -0.12 to -0.26), and Chinese word reading (ES = +0.11) but not arithmetic skills.
  • The Little Greenhouse curriculum enhanced empathy and prosocial behaviour (ES = +0.43), cognitive control (ES = +0.23), hyperactivity/attention (ES = -0.21), reading (ES = +0.11), and arithmetic (ES = +0.21) versus the wait-list control group.

While the 3E program was generally effective, children with greater socioemotional difficulties gained limited Little Greenhouse curriculum benefits. The authors suggested longer and tailored interventions for at-risk students. Notably, potential bias exists as classroom teachers conducted the interventions and evaluated the outcomes.

 

Source (Open Access): Lam, C. B., Li, X., & Chung, K. K. H. (2024). Improving Chinese children’s socioemotional competence, behavioral adjustment, and pre-academic skills: Impacts of the 3Es Program. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 68, 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.03.002… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Cultivating connections: Teacher-student demographic matching and student outcomes

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that students benefit from being in classrooms with demographically similar teachers. A recent EdWorkingPaper, authored by Cleveland and Scherer, explored the impacts of teacher-student demographic matching on student academic and behavioral outcomes. The study utilized a comprehensive dataset combining student-level survey responses and state administrative records for 5th-8th-grade students in Boston’s public charter middle schools from 2015 to 2019. Survey data on social-emotional development were collected, along with administrative records including enrollment, attendance, suspensions, and standardized test scores. The research also included teacher data, linking students to teachers based on demographics, and explored the proportion of teachers matching student demographics. The student sample consisted predominantly of Black students (47%), with a high percentage receiving free- or reduced-price lunch (67%). The teacher sample was mostly White (69%) and female (72%).

The research found improvements in social-emotional self-reported measures, particularly in grit and interpersonal self-management, with Black female students driving these positive effects. In terms of academic and behavioral outcomes, limited or negative effects were observed for standardized test scores when matching solely on race, but there was a significant positive effect for Black females taught by Black male teachers. Matching on race and gender significantly reduced absences, especially for Black students. Behavioral and test score effects were larger in the full administrative data sample, indicating that students who struggled more academically benefitted more from teacher matching. Overall, the results suggested a potential link between teacher-student matching, student connectedness, and improved academic and behavioral outcomes during middle school. The research contributes to understanding the broader impact of teacher-student demographic matching on various student outcomes, emphasizing the importance of continued efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.

 

Source (Open Access): Cleveland, C., & Scherer, E. (2024). The Effects Of Teacher-Student Demographic Matching On Social-Emotional Learning. In EdWorkingPapers.com. Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://edworkingpapers.com/ai21-399… Read the rest

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K-12 Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

How effective are universal school-based SEL programs in the U.S.?

Promoting social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools has come under public scrutiny in the United States. Controversies aside, what are the benefits of SEL in U.S. schools? A meta-analysis by Cipriano et al. reviewed 90 studies from 2008 to 2020 on 47 universal school-based SEL programs implemented across the United States. This analysis sought to evaluate the impact of these programs on student academic, social, and emotional outcomes.

The meta-analysis found that SEL programs are effective in improving students’ perception of school climate and safety (ES =+0.32), student civic attitudes and behaviors (ES =+0.18), prosocial behaviors (ES=+0.18), SEL skills (ES =+0.17), and school functioning (ES =+0.10). Notably, SEL programs were found to improve student academic achievement (ES =+0.08). The programs also yielded benefits in reducing students’ externalizing behaviors (ES =+0.15) and emotional distress (ES =+0.12). The program effects were marginally significant in improving student physical health (ES =+0.31) and peer relationships (ES =+0.16). Teacher-delivered SEL programs demonstrated greater effectiveness than programs delivered by others (b =.107, p = .028). Programs were equally effective across elementary and secondary school levels (b = -.042, p = .450), and there were no significant differences in program effects across gender subgroups (ES =+0.01). The study also presented descriptive findings of how program effects differed by students’ racial and ethnic identities.

 

Source (Open Access): Cipriano, C., Ha, C., Wood, M., Sehgal, K., Ahmad, E., & McCarthy, M. F. (2024). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of universal school-based SEL programs in the United States: Considerations for marginalized students. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 3, 100029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2024.100029… Read the rest

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Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Does teacher coaching matter? Insights from 4Rs+MTP

The implementation of social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions has shown significant benefits for students’ social-emotional and academic outcomes. However, studies indicate that low fidelity of implementation can undermine these results. In contrast, structured one-on-one coaching for teachers appears to enhance SEL interventions. Despite the benefits of the validated 4Rs (Reading, Writing, Respect, and Resolution) program, which integrates social-emotional development into language arts, challenges arose due to its original coaching model lacking structure, leading to implementation discrepancies. On the other hand, the MyTeachingPartner (MTP) model, an evidence-based approach, provides structured one-on-one video coaching and access to teaching practices exemplars, yielding positive effects on teacher-student interaction and student outcomes.

Following a successful randomized control trial demonstrating the effectiveness of combining 4Rs and MTP in improving students’ outcomes, a recent study employed a quasi-experimental design (QED) to evaluate the impact of integrating the 4Rs curriculum with the MTP coaching model while isolating the effects of MTP coaching support. To do so, Doyle and colleagues compared nine schools, where the 4Rs curriculum was implemented without MTP in 2005-2006, to six elementary schools from the same district that implemented both programs together during 2012-2013.

The classroom-level outcomes of combining 4Rs + MTP appear promising: there were significantly lower levels of hostile attribution bias (ES = +0.17) and aggressive interpretational negotiation strategies (ES = +0.29), alongside higher attendance rates (ES =+ 0.46) and teacher-reported academic skills (ES=+0.17). Additionally, there was a positive effect on social competence (ES = +0.13, p < .10) for the combined intervention, although it was not significant. This suggests that implementing 4Rs combined with MTP support could have an even greater overall impact. However, interpreting these results requires caution due to the inability to control for potential impacts of policy changes over the years, a higher risk composition, and a greater age variation for the 4Rs + MTP group (including 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade students, compared to only 4th-graders in the 4Rs only group). Additionally, the reliance on teachers’ and students’ perceptions to measure SEL skills rather than using direct or observational SEL skill assessments needs to be considered. Nonetheless, the study highlights the importance of an evidence-based teacher coaching model aimed at supporting high-quality SEL implementation.

 

Source: Doyle, N. B., Gomez Varon, J. A., Downer, J. T., & Brown, J. L. (2023). Testing the integration of a teacher coaching model and a social-emotional learning and literacy intervention in urban elementary schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, 104232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104232… Read the rest