What's the Buzz About Social-Emotional Learning?

It is mid-August and #backtoschool is upon us. Many parents have concerns about their children’s well-being, especially after the tumult of three school years in a pandemic.?Educators and researchers are concerned too. Schools nationwide are turning to social emotional learning (SEL) as a way to help. While SEL was part of many schools’ curricula prior to 2020, the pandemic has made SEL more important than ever.

SEL is growing in popularity, but there is a lot of confusion around exactly what it is (and what it isn’t), how schools use it, and its impact on students.?As a researcher who studies programs and policies that affect schoolchildren, I often wonder what parents, educators, and the general public know about K12 lingo. After all, I want our reports to be as accessible and easy to understand as possible.

You may have seen the quiz question I shared on Twitter as fun way to test your knowledge of the basics of SEL. This article offers a short Q&A explainer on how SEL works, the benefits of SEL for kids, and a look at what GAO’s recent research tells us about its effectiveness.

Question:?What is SEL and how does it work?

Answer: ?SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. A group called CASEL developed a framework for understanding SEL. At the center of that framework are five core competencies—that is, broad areas that support learning and development: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-management, (3) social awareness, (4) relationship skills, and (5) responsible decision making.

In GAO’s 2018 study on discipline disparities, we reported on how some districts use SEL and other approaches – such as restorative practices and positive behavior supports– as an alternative to traditional discipline. Traditional discipline is generally punitive, often removes students from classrooms even for less serious infractions, and disproportionately affects Black students, boys, and students with disabilities. Districts shifting their disciplinary approach are doing so partly because they’ve noticed a growing trend in behavioral challenges and increasing numbers of kids with mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety. Educators described to us a complex set of factors they’ve noticed influencing student behavior (see figure). Beyond emphasizing positive behaviors, SEL can help prevent challenging behaviors from occurring in the first place by addressing the root causes contributing to them.

Question: How do schools use SEL?

Answer: In a nutshell, it varies. Every US state has its own ?SEL standards for preschool, for example, and more than half of states extend them into elementary and high school. It makes sense when you think about it, because skills like self-regulation, conflict resolution, decisionmaking, and teamwork are essential life and career skills that affect everything from employability to relationships. SEL practices can be integrated into lessons and curriculum and can also be explicitly practiced throughout the school day in developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive ways like morning circle time, check-ins, journaling, and small group problem solving. SEL curriculum can be adopted within a single classroom or as a schoolwide or districtwide program, or even in afterschool programs. Federal education law supports states’ and schools’ use of SEL with a broad definition of “student success” than can include indicators like student engagement and school safety, the ability for states and schools to create improvement plans that include social and emotional growth, and specific recommendations for activities to support a safe and healthy student population.

Question: What does research suggest about the effectiveness of SEL on children’s school experiences? What do we know about the impact of SEL on different student populations, like kids of different racial or cultural backgrounds and experiences?

Answer: The U.S. Department of Education has synthesized existing research on SEL, as has CASEL. Taken together, research suggests that SEL programs have positive effects on students’ academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Regarding the impact on different groups of kids…honestly, we don’t know a lot there. Rarely have efforts been made to assess the applicability of SEL programs to different racial and ethnic groups. Yet, we know from GAO’s 2022 studies chronicling the plight of K-12 students during the pandemic, that certain subgroups of students were more profoundly affected than others during the pandemic, among them students from low-income families and students who are learning English. As schools nationwide continue to emphasize SEL, hopefully in a culturally competent way, we will be watching to learn more about its effectiveness for all students.