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Social and emotional learning in the early years likely to enhance academic skills, studies show
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Credit: EdSource
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Hansen cites research that finds "
a child's self-control at age four was directly correlated to his or her math scores in first grade. Extrapolating this result, learning SEL skills in early childhood classrooms may help a variety of young students enrich their academic learning experiences in subsequent years.
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In addition, EdSource's Jane Meredith Adams, whose reporting focuses on school climate and social and emotional learning,
points to a recent study from researchers with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning who analyzed 82 studies that tracked students who had participated in youth development programs that included social and emotional skill-building.
Eight of the studies tracked academic results for a period that averaged 3.75 years. Participants in social and emotional learning activities performed about 13 percent higher in grades and test scores than their peers, the study found.
But effective teaching of a nuanced skill set like social and emotional learning depends greatly on the training educators receive -- and few are being trained in SEL. As Hansen points out, "the direct costs to states in providing training to pre-K teachers to implement such a change at scale are not trivial." However, a cost-benefit study from Columbia's Teachers College examined a variety of SEL programs and one program, Second Step, includes pre-K classrooms. The estimated benefits were nearly 10 times as large as the cost.
Click here for EdSource's guide to understanding social and emotional learning.
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Christopher Futcher / iStock
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Nearly 90 percent of California voters want the next governor of the state to commit to improving early childhood education by putting more money into programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, according to a new poll of 800 California residents.
The poll, released Thursday, found that 87.7 percent agree it is important for the next governor to support greater investment in programs for the state's youngest learners. The same poll found that, of those residents, 73.1 percent said they would support a candidate who favors creating high-quality, publicly funded childcare and preschool programs for every child in California.
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For the first time, more than
100 California-based agencies and advocacy groups that have teamed up to raise awareness about the impact of early childhood trauma on families and communities took that effort to state policymakers, urging them to create legislation that can reduce childhood trauma, often associated with long-term illness and academic and behavior problems in school.
Early childhood trauma occurs when a child, from birth to age 6, experiences or witnesses a painful and harmful
incident, which can include abuse and neglect, domestic violence and loss of, or separation from, a parent. It may also result from high levels of stress associated with living in poverty, according to a recent
report titled, "Helping Young Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: Policies and Strategies for Early Care and Education."
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Credit: Liv Ames, EdSource |
A new report, titled "Early Childhood Program Participation, Results from the National Household of Education Surveys Program of 2016" based on surveys of families in 50 states and the District of Columbia found that among families who said they had difficulty finding child care, 31 percent cited cost as the primary reason.
While the study didn't break down responses by state,
an EdSource survey of 640 parents in California earlier this year found that 72 percent who have young children in child care or preschool said they spend more than 10 percent of their incomes on child care or preschool. In the study released Tuesday, the availability of child care slots was listed as the second most common barrier to child care, cited by 27 percent of parents. Twenty-two percent of families said it was difficult to find quality child care.
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In an
 EdSource commentary, Al Mijares, Orange County's Superintendent of Schools writes, "...our next step is for schools and districts to embrace an effective model that addresses not just the academic performance of our state's six million public school students, but also their social and behavioral needs, which are prerequisites to educational achievement. Fortunately, such a model exists, and it's already being leveraged throughout California."
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In a commentary for EdSource, Tara Kini, a former teacher and now Director of State Policy at the
Learning Policy Institute suggests that parents should focus less on whether their child got the "good" teacher, and more on how a school supports its entire teaching team.
She writes, "Whether your child is going to learn and grow, feel safe and nurtured, love and succeed in school depends in part on their individual teacher(s), but perhaps even more on the environment in which that teacher is teaching."
"Teachers - like other professionals - don't work as sole operators; they are part of a team. While your child's teacher certainly matters, parents should care at least as much about the whole team their child's teacher is working with, including the principal. Two teachers, with similar skills and experience but in different school settings, will likely vary in their effectiveness based on the school environment and the level of support available."
"So, what other factors should parents look at to determine whether their child has access to effective teaching? What makes for an effective teaching context where teachers can be their best?"
Go here to read more of Kini's commentary.
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The Washington Post reports that home visiting early-intervention programs have grown in the past few decades alongside research showing the first years to be a critical time for brain development. President Barack Obama included home visiting in his first budget, and the program got a jolt of federal funding through the Affordable Care Act in 2010 with $1.5 billion in state grants. The legislation, which has been extended twice, is set to expire at the end of the month.
Read more
According to KPCC, a new proposed law --
AB 752 -- which passed in the Assembly and is now awaiting Governor Jerry Brown's signature, would prohibit state-funded preschools from expelling a child because of behavior issues without due process, and create a process for addressing consistent behavior challenges. There are currently no other regulations on expulsion for the California state preschool program.
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