For the past 35 years, the prevailing narrative about America’s public education system is that it is “broken.” Reform efforts have failed to find a fix because they fundamentally misunderstand this reality: the system is not broken. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do-educate the masses in a standardized fashion that completely Read more about Evidence for Student-Centered Learning[…]
Social emotional learning (SEL) holds great potential for improving learning and college and career-ready outcomes for all students. But there is much work to do to ensure that high-quality, integrated SEL is present in a meaningful and asset-based manner in all schools. How should funders and other SEL supporters invest their resources to make the greatest Read more about Social & Emotional Learning: Looking Back, Aiming Forward[…]
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process by which children and adults learn to understand and manage emotions, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. With research pointing to both immediate and long-lasting effects of attention to student social and emotional learning in schools, states and districts are working to integrate SEL into evaluation Read more about August Issue Brief: Social & Emotional Learning[…]
Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, which previously have been shown to immediately improve mental health, social skills, and academic achievement, continue to benefit students for months and even years to come, according to new research (Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects) from the Collaborative Read more about SEL Programs have Long-term Impact[…]
Education researchers at Pearson teamed up with the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) to conduct a review of the research literature on the importance of collaboration skills for employers, as well as how to teach and assess these skills in K-12 and higher-education classrooms. The ability to work in teams is one of the Read more about Skills for Today: What We Know about Teaching and Assessing Collaboration[…]
As states and districts work to develop new accountability systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act, six California districts who received federal waivers under the Obama administration are getting the first hints of how more holistic accountability systems might work. Researchers and district officials discussed the first evaluations of the California Office to Reform Education, Read more about Early Results in California’s CORE Districts[…]
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has published a vast set of online guidance and practical tools to help school districts and schools systemically implement practices that promote social and emotional learning (SEL). The SEL District Resource Center includes more than 500 resources that address priorities from setting a vision, to aligning Read more about CASEL Guidance, Tools and Resources for SEL[…]
Schools with a more positive student-reported climate had higher academic achievement in English language arts and mathematics than schools with a less positive climate, according to a new study from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West. While there is widespread consensus that positive school climate leads to higher academic performance, most of the research has compared Read more about How Are Middle School Climate and Academic Performance Related Across Schools[…]
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states are allowed to include at least one non-academic indicator of school quality or student success within their accountability systems. The law lays out several possibilities: student engagement, educator engagement, student access to–and completion of–advanced coursework, postsecondary readiness, and school climate. In a new essay, professors Amity Noltemeyer and Read more about Why States Should Focus More on School Climate Under ESSA[…]
What does it mean to be really ready for college, work, and life? The staff at Getting Smart worked with Apex Learning to publish Really Ready: Preparing ALL Middle and High School Students for College, Work and Life. The report finds that there is a direct connection between increasing graduation rates and student readiness. Students Read more about Really Ready: Preparing ALL Middle and High School Students for College, Work and Life[…]
Becoming Brilliant, a new book by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff explores the definition of brilliance in the modern information age. Below, excerpts from a post in the Brookings Blog provide an overview of this new way of thinking: The amount of knowledge available in books and online is doubling every two and a Read more about Becoming Brilliant: Reimagining Education for our Time[…]
They are called non-cognitive skills, skills for success, soft skills, or social-emotional learning skills. These are the elusive student abilities to persevere, collaborate, make decisions, communicate, and exhibit agency, self-discipline, self-direction and conscientiousness. Employers tell us that these skills are essential for success in the workforce, and researchers are reporting that students who have developed Read more about Core Education Issue Brief: Non-Cognitive Skills[…]
In the American Youth Policy Forum, Jennifer Brown Lerner writes a thoughtful piece about the terminology that the education sector is using to refer to ESSA’s fifth indicator, the “non-academic” indicator. The language in the legislation names student engagement; educator engagement; access to and completion of advanced coursework; postsecondary readiness; school climate and safety as Read more about What Exactly is a Non-Academic Indicator?[…]
Brooke Stafford-Brizard, an adviser for Turnaround for Children, recently created a student-development framework for nonacademic skills. Building Blocks for Learning is grounded in the concept that, like academic skills, nonacademic skills are developmental and can be taught. This resource serves to guide practitioners at all levels, informing teacher-student relationships, classroom instruction, and school design. Policymakers at Read more about Nonacademic Skills – The Building Blocks for Learning[…]
Recently in The Atlantic, Paul Tough expounded on what we know about teaching kids resilience. This work argues the importance of the noncognitive for student life outcomes, reviews the little we know about how to improve student academic perseverance and mindset, and raises questions about our nation’s current measures of teacher effectiveness. Below are excerpts Read more about How Kids Learn Resilience[…]