* The 74…

A recent study out of the University of Chicago showed high schools that prioritized social- emotional development had double the positive long-term impact on students as compared to those that focused solely on improving test scores.

As part of their work, researchers determined school’s effectiveness based upon its impact on students’ social-emotional development, test scores and behaviors. They concluded that the most effective schools provide a welcoming environment for students, an experience that shapes their later years. […]

Researchers drew their data from six cohorts of 160,148 of eighth and ninth grade students who attended CPS between 2011–12 and 2016–17: 42% were Black, 44% were Hispanic and 86% received free or reduced-price lunch, a key indicator of poverty. The college attendance-related data came only from those who attended ninth grade for the first time between 2012 and 2014. They totaled 55,564 students. […]

The study found that students who attended a highly effective school — one ranked by the researchers as being in the 85th percentile based on their collected data and student and teacher survey responses — saw their test scores improve more than those at other CPS campuses. They noted, too, that attendance increased for this group while suspensions and disciplinary infractions dropped. The likelihood of graduation by 2.41 percentage points and the chance of attending college within two years of graduation by 2.57 percentage points. They also were 20% less likely to be arrested on campus as compared to the average rate of arrest for all high schoolers in the district.

* From the study…

Three aspects of school climate—Supportive Environment, Ambitious Instruction, and Collaborative Teachers— were the strongest predictors of school effectiveness. These results are consistent with other evidence pointing to the importance of relationships in educational settings, which feature prominently in these climate measures.

One important implication of this work (and other work with similar findings) is that it may be more productive to understand rigor and relationships as functioning in concert rather than independently.

Consider, for example, a school community in which educators collaborate with one another to develop rigorous instructional strategies, teachers and students build relationships that enable the creation of classwork and experiences that feel relevant to students, and students feel empowered to deeply engage with challenging work given the support of their teacher and peers.

* The study also looked at the short and long-term impact of social-emotional development on students…

In the short-run, we examined the impact of attending an effective school on ninth-grade measures, including math and ELA [English, Language Arts] test scores, SED [social-emotional development], and behaviors. We found that, on average, attending a school at the 85th percentile of school effectiveness, vs. one at the median, improved test scores by 8.90% of a standard deviation, self-reports of SED by 10.2% of a standard deviation, and observed behaviors by 5.71% of a standard deviation.

In the long-run, effective schools promoted successful progression through high school and into post-sec education. Attending a high school at the 85th percentile of effectiveness, vs. the median, increased the likelihood of high school graduation by 2.41 percent- age points and college-going (within two years of high school completion) by 2.57 percentage points (see Table 2). It also reduced the likelihood of being arrested on school grounds by 0.80 percentage points. The average school-based arrest rate was 3.72%, and thus this seemingly small reduction in school-based arrests amounted to about a 20% reduction in the likelihood that a student was arrested on school grounds. […]

We found that relative to schools’ impacts on test scores, schools’ impacts on SED mattered about as much or more for students’ short-run trajectories. […]

The long-run impact of fostering SED was also greater than fostering test score growth. Fostering SED yielded nearly double the impact on high school graduation relative to fostering test score growth. Fostering SED was also 15–20% more impactful for improving enrollment in college and reducing school-based arrests relative to fostering test score growth. Comparing across all VAMs, fostering SED had the greatest impact on educational attainment and fostering behaviors had the greatest impact on reducing school-based arrest.

* Related…

* WTVO | Rockford educators learn how to better serve students with trauma: Over 170 educators from Northern Illinois were at Rockford University on Thursday of the first of its kind “Social Emotional Learning Conference.” The educators got exposed to more than 25 different workshops, diving deeper into things like trauma response.

* Daily Herald | DuPage County Regional Superintendent retires after 20 years of service: As the first female chief administrative officer of the DuPage Regional Office of Education, Ruscitti’s achievements in education have increased graduation rates, decreased dropout rates, and produced many of the top-scoring schools in Illinois. […] Because of Ruscitti’s relentless commitment to the most vulnerable student populations in DuPage, her work in Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) was lauded by the state of Illinois, and DuPage County was designated a “Hub” for providing professional development, training, and support to teachers and students. These inroads in SEL have significantly contributed to the promotion of mental wellness and a reduction of student absenteeism in DuPage schools.

* SJ-R | ISBE’s Tony Sanders wanted to be ‘the next Johnny Fever.’ He wound up in his dad’s office: The work that we’re doing already, investing in these social-emotional learning hubs across the state to try to empower teachers to help their students using trauma-informed care practices, is critical. The work that we’re doing to try to make sure that our students, the behavioral task force work that the governor established where ISBE is working with DCFS and DHS and other agencies that deal with youth around mental health, trying to make sure we’re meeting the mental health needs of kids, is also critical. That’s not an immediate fix. It’s a longer-term solution, but much like our students, our teachers also need to recall that they have resources available to them for counseling and support as well.