TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-Term Effects of Social-Emotional Learning on Academic Skills
T2 - Evidence from a Randomized Trial of INSIGHTS
AU - McCormick, Meghan P.
AU - Neuhaus, Robin
AU - O’Connor, Erin E.
AU - White, Hope I.
AU - Horn, E. Parham
AU - Harding, Samantha
AU - Cappella, Elise
AU - McClowry, Sandee
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was conducted as a part of a study funded by Grant R305A160177 from the Institute of Education Sciences to New York University with a subcontract to MDRC. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. The authors thank James Kemple and Patricia Chou from the Research Alliance for NYC Schools for all their work in helping the research team access the data used for this study. The authors also thank the NYC Department of Education for sponsoring and supporting this study for the past 13 years.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are school-based preventive interventions that aim to improve children’s social-emotional skills and behaviors. Although meta-analytic research has shown that SEL programs implemented in early childhood can improve academic and behavioral outcomes in the short-term, there is limited work examining program effects on children’s math and language skills in the longer-term. Moreover, few studies have considered variation in impacts by children’s pre-intervention academic skills. Using an experimental design, the current study leveraged administrative data available through school records (N = 353) to examine the impacts of one SEL program—INSIGHTS into Children’s Temperament—implemented in early elementary school on math and language standardized test scores from third through sixth grade. Findings revealed positive average treatment effects on English/Language Arts (ELA) test scores in third and fourth grade, but not in fifth and sixth grade. Students who had higher academic skills at study enrollment showed lasting impacts on ELA scores in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. There were no treatment impacts on math skills, and no variation in effects on math achievement by baseline skills. Implications are discussed.
AB - Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are school-based preventive interventions that aim to improve children’s social-emotional skills and behaviors. Although meta-analytic research has shown that SEL programs implemented in early childhood can improve academic and behavioral outcomes in the short-term, there is limited work examining program effects on children’s math and language skills in the longer-term. Moreover, few studies have considered variation in impacts by children’s pre-intervention academic skills. Using an experimental design, the current study leveraged administrative data available through school records (N = 353) to examine the impacts of one SEL program—INSIGHTS into Children’s Temperament—implemented in early elementary school on math and language standardized test scores from third through sixth grade. Findings revealed positive average treatment effects on English/Language Arts (ELA) test scores in third and fourth grade, but not in fifth and sixth grade. Students who had higher academic skills at study enrollment showed lasting impacts on ELA scores in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. There were no treatment impacts on math skills, and no variation in effects on math achievement by baseline skills. Implications are discussed.
KW - Social-emotional learning
KW - baseline risk
KW - intervention
KW - language
KW - math
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U2 - 10.1080/19345747.2020.1831117
DO - 10.1080/19345747.2020.1831117
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85095727697
VL - 14
SP - 1
EP - 27
JO - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness
JF - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness
SN - 1934-5747
IS - 1
ER -