School value-added models are increasingly used to measure schools’ contributions to student success. At the same time, policymakers and researchers agree that schools should support students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) as well as academic development. Yet, the evidence regarding whether schools can influence SEL and whether statistical growth models can appropriately measure this influence is limited. Recent work shows meaningful differences across schools in changes in SEL scores by grade, but whether these differences represent the effects of schools is still unclear. The current paper...
Children’s physical and mental health play critical roles in their development. Research shows that poor health in childhood adversely affects future success and that children in lower-income households are more likely to suffer health problems. Improvements in child health can lead to higher future economic growth and can improve the upward mobility of children from low-income families. California’s financial commitment to health care, including greater access to Medicaid, has reduced but not eliminated health gaps associated with poverty. Insurance coverage alone does not ensure access to...
This report and accompanying policy brief show that there is good reason to pursue the measurement of social-emotional learning (SEL) and school culture/climate (CC) as a way to better understand student and school performance. Using data from California's CORE districts, we show that SEL and CC measures demonstrate reliability and validity, distinguish between schools, are related to other academic and non-academic measures, and also illuminate dimensions of student achievement that go beyond traditional indicators. We also show how the SEL and CC measures can be used to identify areas of...