The effectiveness of Social Emotional Learning
Does Social-Emotional Learning Really Work? Educators Had a Lot to Say
The emphasis on teaching social-emotional learning continues to expand across K-12 schools, especially at the high school level. That is the case even though there has been significant pushback against such programs, also known as SEL, in several states and many communities across the country.
Eighty-three percent of principals reported in 2024 that their schools use an SEL curriculum or program, up from 73 percent in the 2021-22 school year, and 46 percent in 2017-18, according to a nationally representative survey by RAND and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL.
Social-emotional learning—which aims to teach students soft skills such as empathy, managing emotions, and setting goals—aims to help kids develop the life skills they need to succeed academically and socially and be better prepared for college and the workforce. But critics say its inclusion in the curriculum de-emphasizes academic learning and often promotes a politically liberal agenda that does not align with the beliefs of many parents and educators.
The New Social Security ‘Fairness’ Act Is Neither Fair Nor Just
On Jan. 5, President Joe Biden signed a law that represents a giveaway to retirees who already have generous state-provided pension benefits.
While union leaders are cheering the bill as a win for their members, it’s a bad deal for the rest of us. It will undermine the progressive nature of the Social Security program, cost taxpayers billions and force painful cuts down the road.
The new bill itself is short and simple, less than 300 words. In a clever bit of marketing, the sponsors dubbed it the Social Security Fairness Act. But the bill isn’t about “fairness”; it’s about giving a windfall to a relatively small group of people at the expense of taxpayers.
FAFSA updates
Lower shares of middle-income students in the class of 2023 completed the federal financial aid form than those who graduated before the health crisis.
Federal student aid in the U.S. depends on one form — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA. But not every student fills it out.
Recently, researchers at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank, looked closely at completion rates for the FAFSA and cataloged some surprising trends.
Among them: Completion rates for low-income students have mostly rebounded after dips seen during the pandemic, while completion rates for most other income groups have declined. Middle-income students, in particular, still have lower completion rates than they did pre-pandemic.
Study: Math Scores Matter More for Adult Earnings Than Reading, Health Factors
When it comes to factors that affect a student’s well-being in adulthood, better math skills might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But as it turns out, increasing math scores helps deliver stronger long-term returns for students — especially related to earnings — than improvements in reading scores and factors involving health.
That’s one of the top-line findings from a 2024 report from the Urban Institute, which sought to understand whether devoting resources to children’s health and social development yields greater benefits than devoting resources to their cognitive development; the study also looks at what aspects of a child’s cognitive development play relatively larger roles in their adult outcomes.
Interventions for Absenteeism
An analysis from Rand and CRPE estimates 19% — or 9.4 million students — were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.
Educators at the school, district, state and federal levels have implemented interventions and emphasized the monitoring of student attendance amid alarming rates of chronic absenteeism reported after school buildings reopened. Chronic absenteeism, generally, is defined as the percentage of students missing at least 10% of the school year, or about 18 days.
Still lagging behind
The findings demonstrate how grade school students are still grappling with pandemic-era learning disruptions.
A third of kindergarten through 12th grade students in the U.S. are performing behind their grade level.
That’s according to a new survey by the National Center for Education Statistics called the School Pulse Panel.
Helping teachers with the workload
K-12 leaders and experts weigh in on whether AI tools have the potential to make teachers’ jobs more manageable and if that can ease staffing challenges.
Teachers are swamped.
They’re working longer hours compared to other professionals, and their job-related stress often comes from managing student behavior, earning low salaries, and performing administrative work that isn’t tied to instruction, according to an educator survey by Rand Corp. released in June.
Furthermore, an April study by Pew Research Center also found that 8 in 10 teachers don’t have enough time in the day to complete all of their work. And 81% of those teachers said a major reason for that is they “just have too much work.”
Academic Gains after the Pandemic
Some Bright Spots in Students’ Learning Recovery, But Still a Long Way to Go
There are “small signs” of improvement in students’ academic recovery, but still a long way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement, concludes a report from Curriculum Associates, a company that provides curriculum and classroom-based testing programs.
Based on an analysis of more than 10 million students in reading and 12 million in math who took the organization’s i-Ready Diagonistic, the proportions of students now performing at grade level are very similar from spring 2023 to spring 2024 across grades and subjects.
Mental Health Improving
Depression and suicidal activity have decreased slightly for teens since 2021, but simultaneously there have been alarming increases in violence, bullying and school avoidance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Advanced Placement Exams show Improvement
Here’s Why More Students Have Passed AP Exams in Recent Years
Some Advanced Placement teachers might have noticed that a higher percentage of their students received passing scores on the program’s year-end exams in the last few years.
This year, 72 percent of students who took the AP U.S. History exam earned scores of 3, 4, or 5—scores that often allow exam takers to claim college credit—up from 48.3 percent in 2022. On the AP Macroeconomics exam, 62 percent of students this year earned passing grades, up from 51.8 percent two years earlier, according to College Board data.
