Students need to develop strong social-emotional skills to thrive in school, career, and life. Test scores matter, but do your students have the SEL training they need to succeed?

The current U.S. Department of Education budget sets aside dedicated funds for education initiatives that support social-emotional learning programs. For information on their programs and grants, visit their Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety.

In addition, ASCD is now offering free resources to Support Social-Emotional Learning. These are designed to help students:

• regulate their emotions,
• manage stress,
• cooperate with others,
• set and achieve goals,
• teach self-awareness, and
• build self-confidence.

According to research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, social-emotional learning helps students to be “twice as likely to attain a college degree in early adulthood; 54% more likely to earn a high school diploma; and 46% more likely to have a full-time job at the age of 25.”*

The resources above should give you a great start on providing this important training for your staff and helping your students develop these vital skills.

* Research from “Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship Between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness,” published on October 09, 2015, in American Journal of Public Health.