

Educators have long recognized that students need more than just academic skills to thrive. Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills—such as self-efficacy, growth mindset, and problem-solving—are also critical to success. SEL skills have been linked to better academic outcomes, more positive interactions with peers, and higher levels of health and happiness well into adulthood. Given the losses and disruptions to public life that have resulted from COVID-19, questions about how to support students’ SEL are more salient now than ever.
For the last five years, the Research Alliance and the Student Success Network (SSN) have been engaged in a unique research-practice partnership aimed at measuring and supporting New York City students’ SEL. Through our work together, we have developed a robust set of SEL measurement tools, practices, and insights—which have been used by SSN’s network of nearly 80 nonprofits and schools to refine their program offerings. A centerpiece of this work is the SEL-focused survey that member organizations administer to youth in their programs twice a year.
Over time, our partnership has:
Our new report, Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Growth, leverages this foundation to investigate a set of questions that emerged directly from our research-practice partnership:
The report, which was co-written by the Research Alliance and SSN, explores the answers to these questions, drawing on data for nearly 6,000 middle and high school students in New York City. Our findings were mixed. While many of the associations we tested were not borne out in these analyses, the report highlights some small but notable relationships:
With the goal of informing programming, as well as future research, the report raises some fundamental questions about how SEL is defined and taught, as well as the overall purpose of schooling (i.e., a narrow focus on academics, vs. a broader vision for developing young adults). The report recommends actions that schools and youth programs can take to further explore and build on the insights from our partnership’s work to date. Future analyses from this project will examine other important questions, including questions about the relationship between SEL growth and students’ perceptions of school climate.
This project was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.