Meghan McCormick, Research & Impact Officer, Overdeck FamilyFoundation
 
Title: Long-term Effects of Social-EmotionalLearning: ExperimentalEvidence to Inform Policy and Practice 
 
Abstract: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programsare school-based preventive interventions that aim to improve children’ssocial-emotional skills and behaviors. Although meta-analytic research hasshown that SEL programs implemented in early childhood can improve academic andbehavioral outcomes at the end of treatment, there is limited work examiningprogram effects on children’s math and language skills in the longer-term.Moreover, few studies have considered variation in impacts by children’spre-intervention academic skills or examined how subsequent learningenvironments do or do not sustain initial impacts. Using an experimentaldesign, the current study leveraged administrative data available throughschool records to examine the impacts of one SEL program—INSIGHTS intoChildren’s Temperament—implemented in early elementary school on math andlanguage standardized test scores from third through sixth grade. Findingsrevealed positive average treatment effects on English/Language Arts (ELA) testscores in third and fourth grade, but not in fifth and sixth grade. Studentswho had higher academic skills at study enrollment showed lasting impacts onELA scores in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. There were no treatment impactson math skills, and no variation in effects on math achievement by baselineskills. Implications for policy, practice, and continued research on lastingeffects of early interventions will be discussion. 

No ITP Seminar in lieu of the Midwest Society of Education annual meeting