Just about one year ago, ASCD set out to change the conversation about education by launching the Whole Child Initiative, a multiyear effort to infuse policy and practice with five elements of a compact to educate the whole child. We—and our organizational partners—are committed to ensuring that each child is healthy, safe, supported, challenged, and engaged.
At a time when too many policymakers define education as achievement on a standardized test, it can be challenging to swim upstream and assert that academics alone do not compose a whole education. However, voters are showing support for providing students with a wide range of skills and knowledge.
A poll conducted for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in late 2007 indicated that 80 percent of U.S. registered voters believe the skills students need for the jobs of the 21st century are different from what they needed 20 years ago. Yet, a majority of Americans say that schools need to do a better job of keeping up with changing educational needs.
In addition, 88 percent of voters say they believe that schools can and should incorporate 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and self-direction, as well as computer and technology skills, into their curricula. Further, 50 percent of voters believe that No Child Left Behind's focus on reading and math has reduced instructional time in other subjects they value like the arts, civics, and science. Even recess has been threatened with elimination from the elementary school day.
We know that an important foundation for all learning is readiness—academic, social, emotional, and physical. We also know that learning occurs through positive relationships with peers and adults. And yet, because of our recent emphasis on academic measurement, social and emotional learning (SEL) has been relegated to the realm of "nice, but not essential."
Later this month, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) will release a study that finds school-based programs designed to foster SEL skills—such as self-control, empathy, problem solving, cooperation, and responsible decision making—can improve academic achievement. While the current trend is to add time to direct instruction and subtract time from other areas, this study indicates that spending time on the social and emotional dimensions of learning may yield greater payoffs than another hour of phonics drilling.
CASEL researchers identified 207 school-based intervention studies that promoted students' emotional and social skills, with a focus on studies that included typical students, rather than a particular profile, and a control group. The students in these studies exhibited not only improved social and emotional health compared to their peers, but also improved grades and test scores.
The report will be available atwww.casel.org and should provide support for proponents of a whole child approach to educating our children. As the study shows, emphasizing social and emotional learning bolsters academic learning.
CASEL's meta-analysis is significant on several fronts. First, it offers a research-based foundation for assertions about the importance of SEL for academic learning: a student's capacity for academic rigor is demonstrably linked to her social and emotional well-being. Second, it demonstrates that classroom teachers can successfully integrate multidimensional learning into their classrooms without sacrificing subject-matter content.
Using what we know about the power of incremental increases in health care (e.g., dental and vision screening) to improve student learning, it becomes clear that academic progress is not solely dependent on more instruction, more drills, or more testing. The CASEL study is the start of a foundation of research and evidence supporting the precepts of whole child education. We hope that more such studies will follow.
SEL Student Learning Standards in Action
What types of standards might SEL include? Illinois has adopted student learning standards for SEL.
SEL Goal 1: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success.
SEL Goal 2: Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships.
SEL Goal 3: Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.