The Emotional Intelligence We Owe Students and Educators

Consider two pairs of schools. In a high-poverty neighborhood in New York, two K–8 charter schools were each established to raise their students' academic achievement. A majority of the graduates of one of these institutions enters college and thrives there. But the other school has large numbers of students who do well up to the middle grades but fall apart under the pressure of high school.

Likewise, two Connecticut high schools I'm familiar with are similar demographically by every measure. But one school suffers from low test scores, frequent bullying, poor attendance, and a low graduation rate. The other has continually improving test scores, high attendance, and graduation rates that surpass most other schools in the state.¹