Throughout the U. S., there is huge interest in improving students’ social emotional skills and related behaviors. This is indeed important as a means of building tomorrow’s society. However, measuring SEL skills is terribly difficult. Not that measuring reading, math, or science learning is easy, but there are at least accepted measures in those areas. In SEL, almost anything goes, and measures cover an enormous range. Some measures might be fine for theoretical research and some would be all right if they were given independently of the teachers who administered the treatment, but SEL measur ..read more

This blog was co-authored by Elizabeth Kim I’m delighted to see all the interest lately in social and emotional skills. These range widely, from kindness and empathy to ability to delay gratification to grit to belief that effort is more important than intelligence to avoidance of bullying, violence, and absenteeism. Social and emotional learning (SEL) has taken on even more importance as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows states to add to their usual reading and math accountability measures, and some are adding measures of SEL. This makes it particularly important to have rigorous ..read more

I just read an outstanding study that contains a hard but crucially important lesson. The study, by Woodbridge et al. (2014), evaluated a behavior management program for students with behavior problems. The program, First Step to Success, has been successfully evaluated many times. In the Woodbridge et al. study, 200 children in grades 1 to 3 with serious behavior problems were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. On behavior and achievement measures, students in the experimental group scored much higher, with effect sizes of +0.44 to +0.87. Very impressive. The researchers ca ..read more

Evidence junkies (like me) are reacting to the disappointing news on the evaluation of the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE), a program implemented at Rikers Island to reduce recidivism among adolescent prisoners. Bottom line: The rigorous independent evaluation of the program failed to find any benefits. What makes this experiment especially interesting is that it is the first U.S. application of social impact bonds. Goldman Sachs put up a $7.2 million loan, and Bloomberg Philanthropies committed to a $6 million loan guarantee. Since the program did not produce the expected ou ..read more

We are proud to announce the launch of two new sections of our Evidence for ESSA website (www.evidenceforessa.org): K-12 social-emotional learning and attendance. Funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the new sections represent our first foray beyond academic achievement. The social-emotional learning section represents the greatest departure from our prior work. This is due to the nature of SEL, which combines many quite diverse measures. We identified 17 distinct measures, which we grouped in four overarching categories, as follows: Academic Competence Academic perfo ..read more

Throughout the U. S., there is huge interest in improving students’ social emotional skills and related behaviors. This is indeed important as a means of building tomorrow’s society. However, measuring SEL skills is terribly difficult. Not that measuring reading, math, or science learning is easy, but there are at least accepted measures in those areas. In SEL, almost anything goes, and measures cover an enormous range. Some measures might be fine for theoretical research and some would be all right if they were given independently of the teachers who administered the treatment, but SEL measur ..read more

This blog was co-authored by Elizabeth Kim I’m delighted to see all the interest lately in social and emotional skills. These range widely, from kindness and empathy to ability to delay gratification to grit to belief that effort is more important than intelligence to avoidance of bullying, violence, and absenteeism. Social and emotional learning (SEL) has taken on even more importance as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows states to add to their usual reading and math accountability measures, and some are adding measures of SEL. This makes it particularly important to have rigo ..read more

I just read an outstanding study that contains a hard but crucially important lesson. The study, by Woodbridge et al. (2014), evaluated a behavior management program for students with behavior problems. The program, First Step to Success, has been successfully evaluated many times. In the Woodbridge et al. study, 200 children in grades 1 to 3 with serious behavior problems were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. On behavior and achievement measures, students in the experimental group scored much higher, with effect sizes of +0.44 to +0.87. Very impressive. The researcher ..read more

Evidence junkies (like me) are reacting to the disappointing news on the evaluation of the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE), a program implemented at Rikers Island to reduce recidivism among adolescent prisoners. Bottom line: The rigorous independent evaluation of the program failed to find any benefits. What makes this experiment especially interesting is that it is the first U.S. application of social impact bonds. Goldman Sachs put up a $7.2 million loan, and Bloomberg Philanthropies committed to a $6 million loan guarantee. Since the program did not produce the expecte ..read more

In a recent article in The New York Times, David Kirp wrote in opposition to “business models” being applied to education: Assessments, accountability, charters, vouchers, technology, and competition. In place of these, he notes that truly effective programs that have stood the test of time focus not on charters or vouchers or technology alone, but on building strong personal bonds between teachers and students. He gives as examples our Success for All model, Diplomas Now, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and YouthBuild. All of these help teachers, administrators, and community members to build pos ..read more