The Unfulfilled Promise of Education: Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral
Skills
Why the “Soft Skills” are the Hard Skills,
and Why they are Essential for Students’ Academic Success
Dear
Colleagues,
For
all of the rhetoric about ensuring that students are “college and career”
ready, the reality is that our schools are still focused almost exclusively on students’
academic success and—because of federal legislation pushed even further by the
U.S. Department of Education—academic success that is measured largely by a
single, high stakes, standards-based test.
And
yet, we know that—despite earning a high school degree— many university freshman
are spending a significant amount of time in remedial courses because they do
not have the prerequisite skills to be successful at the college level.
We
also know that many students do not complete their college careers—perhaps
again, because they lack the academic skills to be successful.
And, finally,
we know that many high school graduates—who enter the job market directly from
high school—need significant levels of (re)training in order to apply their
reading, math, oral, and written skills to their new-found jobs.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Students’
Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills
But today’s
discussion is not explicitly about ways to improve students’ academic
proficiency. Instead, it is about the importance
of also teaching students—from preschool through high school—social, emotional,
and behavioral skills. Some call these
skills the Soft Skills.
But
these are Essential Skills, because they facilitate students’ academic
success, as well as their ability to relate and collaborate with others in
groups and on project-based teams in high school, college, and once employed.
And
yet, for many students, these are the Hard Skills, because our schools
are not systematically and progressively teaching these skills in any way or at
any level.
The
importance of teaching students—from preschool through high school— interpersonal,
social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional
coping skills is supported both by research and practice.
Relative
to the research:
* A
recent study reported in the American Journal of Public Health tracked
750 youngsters in four diverse U.S. communities from 1991, when they were in
kindergarten, until they were 25 years old.
They found that the youngsters with good social skills (sharing
materials with others, resolving peer problems on their own, cooperating with
peers without prompting, being helpful to others, listening to others’ point of
view, understanding other people’s feelings) were more likely to graduate from
high school and college, and have full-time jobs; and less likely to drop out
of school, commit crimes, or need government assistance.
*
This study followed research published in 2011 that pooled data from 213
well-designed studies (involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school
students) that compared schools teaching their students social, emotional, and
behavioral skills versus schools that were not.
The students from the “social skill” schools were more emotionally
well-adjusted and exhibited fewer conduct problems, they demonstrated better
stress-management and interpersonal problem-solving skills, and they had more
positive attitudes toward themselves, others, and school.
But,
critically, the students in the social skill schools had an 11 percentile gain
in academic achievement over those in the non-social skill schools. And significantly, all of these
results occurred at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Relative
to practice:
* As
instruction at the upper elementary and secondary levels becomes more and more
dependent on project-based and cooperative learning, students need to know how
to interact effectively in group situations.
Indeed, they need to be able to listen to each other, plan, discuss,
debate, make decisions, agree, disagree, and agree to disagree.
These social skills are almost prerequisite to
the academic outcomes that are the focus of these project-based groups. If students are not taught the social skills
that relate directly to effective group functioning, the ineffective group
functioning will undermine the academic process and results.
*
Student teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, and physical aggression
still are ever-present problems in our schools.
Without essential interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict
prevention and resolution skills, and emotional coping skills, these problems
are unlikely to diminish. However,
rather than waiting for these problems to occur (and teaching the skills
reactively), these skills should be taught proactively—thereby creating the
positive and prosocial school and classroom climates that prevent these
problems from ever occurring.
*
Finally, as alluded to earlier, when students graduate without
well-developed social, emotional, and behavioral skills, they are not “college
and career” ready. Clearly, when someone
causes continual conflicts and is unable to get along with others at work,
there typically is a very simple “intervention.” It is called “unemployment.”
Employers spend millions of dollars every year
in this county training employees to excel in the technical aspects of their
jobs. Very little time or money,
however, is invested in teaching them to how to get along with others at the
job site so that they can work together as a team.
Employees are expected to have the soft skills
mastered before they enter the workforce. Without these skills, their chances for full
employment diminishes—as does their productivity, their customer service and
collegial interactions, and their job satisfaction and security.
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What are
these Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills ?
One
of the most fundamental goals for all schools is to help students become independent
learners. And while “independent
learning” varies from kindergarten to fourth grade to eighth grade through high
school, we (and our students) invest at least thirteen (barring dropping out)
pre-collegiate years in pursuit of this goal.
Similarly, another fundamental, complementary educational goal should be
to help students become independent social, emotional, and behavioral
self-managers. And while this will also
look different from kindergarten to fourth grade to eighth grade through high
school, this is largely an unfulfilled educational goal in most of our schools
and districts.
But,
what are these social, emotional, and behavioral skills?
From
a “competency” perspective, students need to progressively develop—from
preschool through high school—at least the following competencies:
•
Social
Competencies
Listening, Engagement, and Response Skills
Communication and Collaboration Skills
Social Problem-Solving and Group Process
Skills
Conflict Prevention and Resolution Skills
•
Emotional
Competencies
Emotional Self-Awareness, Control, and
Coping
Skills
Awareness and Understanding of Others’
Emotions and Emotional Behavior
Positive Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and
Self-Statement Skills
•
Cognitive-Behavioral
Competencies
Self-Scripting, Self-Monitoring,
Self-Evaluation,
Self-Correction, and Self-Reinforcement Skills
Social, Interactional, and Interpersonal
Skills
Classroom and Building Routine Skills
Instructional and Academic Supporting Skills
_ _ _ _ _
Drilling this down to a more functional
level, below are twelve social, emotional, and behavioral skill clusters that
all students should learn and master before they graduate from high school—as
individuals, in small project-based group situations, and in large-group
instructional settings:
Listening, Following Directions, Staying On-Task
Accurately interpreting Non-Verbal Cues and Voice Inflection
Being Positive, Motivated, and Persistent
Communicating Clearly, Constructively, and Courteously
Knowing how to Discuss, Interrupt, Debate, Agree, Compromise,
and
Disagree
Cooperating with and Accepting Others’ Opinions
Respecting Others, Being a Team Player, Taking on Different
Group Roles
Knowing how to Ask for Help, and Accept Frustration or
Consequences
Knowing how to Accept Failure, Losing, and Being Wrong
Showing Confidence, Dealing with Peer Pressure, Standing up
for
Self/Others
Controlling and Expressing Emotions, Responding to Others’
Emotions
Demonstrating Goal-oriented Planning and Time Management
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How do We
Prepare to Teach these Skills ?
In order to teach these skills, schools and
districts need to recognize that they are an inherent and essential part of
school discipline and safety, classroom climate and management, and student
self-management and academic engagement.
Teachers, especially those in states where
their instructional effectiveness is formally evaluated, might parenthetically
recognize that—when students are taught and demonstrate these skills—their
teacher evaluations will benefit in both the classroom management and student
academic outcome areas.
And students—based on our thirty years of
work in this area across the country—will feel safer and more secure in school,
will find school more enjoyable, and will find themselves more productive and
successful.
And so, as they prepare to teach students
these essential skills, districts and schools need to invest a similar level of
investment and preparation in this area as in their academic areas. This investment could include the following
activities:
·
Develop
and implement a preschool through high school “Health, Mental Health, and
Wellness” program guided by a scaffolded scope and sequence of courses,
curricula, modules, skill, and/or experiences
·
Systematically
teach students social, emotional, and behavioral skills consistent with their
developmental levels
·
Identify
classroom and common school area behavioral expectations and standards for all
students, and develop and implement a school-wide behavioral accountability
system involving incentives and differentiated responses to progressive levels
of inappropriate student behavior
·
Have
related service and other staff available to provide consultation to classroom
teachers, to complete functional assessments of behaviorally-challenging
students, and to help implement strategic or intensive instructional and
intervention services, supports, strategies, and programs to underachieving,
unresponsive, or unsuccessful students
·
Reach
out to parents and engage community resources in areas and activities that support
students’ academic and social, emotional, and behavioral learning, mastery, and
proficiency
·
Evaluate
the outcomes of all these activities, especially in the following areas: positive school and classroom climate; high
levels of student engagement and achievement; high levels of prosocial student
interactions; low levels of school and classroom discipline problems requiring
office discipline referrals or school suspensions or expulsions; low levels of
student drop-out rates (at the secondary level) or placements in alternative
schools or settings; high rates of student high school graduations and
post-secondary school successes
While
some educators may say, “Another thing to do !!!” please remember, once again, the research and
practice results described earlier.
These approaches will both enhance students’ academic
achievement, and help them to be completely college and career ready.
But
let’s also recognize that the recommendations above will also save a
significant amount of training and implementation time if schools are engaging
in time-consuming and redundant efforts implementing different programs that
actually have the same core skills and outcomes.
That
is, many schools nationwide are already spending a significant amount of
money, time, and training on a number of programs whose “common denominators”
are the social, emotional, and behavioral self-management skills that all
students need. Some of these
programs focus on:
* School
teasing and bully prevention
*
Decreasing office discipline referrals and disproportionate
(minority and
student with
disabilities) school
suspensions and expulsions
*
Establishing progressive discipline systems that counter
historically-based
“zero tolerance”
policies and practices
*
Creating “trauma sensitive” classrooms
*
Improving school climate and preventative mental health
services
*
Increasing gender, multi-cultural, racial, LGBT, disability,
and other
awareness, equity,
safety, and acceptance
*
Introducing “mindfulness” into the classroom
*
Facilitating students’ “executive functioning”
Critically, many of these programs are not implemented
preventatively. Instead, they are
reactively implemented after the district or school has a problem. Moreover, many of these programs do not have a
sound scientific foundation; they have not been appropriately and independently
field-tested in a diversity of schools and settings; they do not teach (from
preschool to high school) all students the social, emotional, and behavioral
skills discussed above; they often focus on their niche to the exclusion
of broader student, staff, and school needs; and some (quite honestly) are more
about marketing and sales, than long-term and sustainable student success.
Our
evidence-based work (as evaluated and designated by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration as far back as 2000) has demonstrated that a
science-to-practice focus on consistently teaching, reinforcing, and holding
students accountable for demonstrating developmentally-appropriate social,
emotional, and behavioral skills results in virtually no need for most of
the niche programs above.
As
noted, schools do not have the money, time, staff, or wherewithal to implement
substantially separate initiatives that are redundant, might actually compete
with each other, and wear teachers down.
What schools need is a single, integrated, multi-tiered school,
grade-level, and classroom blueprint that results in the social, emotional,
and behavioral self-management skills that reflect their essential goals and
outcomes and that all students need.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
What is
Needed to Complement the Skill Instruction ?
But
teaching the social, emotional, and behavioral skills is not enough. In order to facilitate students’
self-management, while supporting effective classroom management and sound
school safety processes, the following scientific components are needed (NOTE
that the skills instruction is #2):
* Staff,
Student, and Parent Relationships that establish Positive
School and Classroom Climates
* Explicit Classroom and Common School Area Expectations
supported by Social, Emotional,
and Behavioral Skill/
Self-Management Instruction (that—as discussed
above—
are embedded in preschool through high school "Health,
Mental
Health, and Wellness" activities)
* School-wide and Classroom Behavioral Accountability systems
* School-wide and Classroom Behavioral Accountability systems
that include Motivational Approaches reinforcing "Good
Choice" behavior
* Consistency—in the classroom, across classrooms, and
across
staff, time, settings, and situations
* Applications of the above across all Settings in the school, and
relative to the Peer
Group interactions (specifically targeting
teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment,
hazing, and physical
aggression)
For students exhibiting significant behavioral challenges, or who are not responding to the preventative approaches above, a data-based problem-solving process is used (guided by school psychologists, counselors, and other behavioral assessment and intervention specialists) to determine the underlying reasons for the student’s inappropriate behavior. The assessment results are then linked to strategic or intensive interventions that are focused on eliminating the “problems,” and replacing them with self-management skills.
Below is a YouTube presentation that describes the five components above
in more detail, and explains how they were implemented in schools across
Arkansas as part of its ten year positive behavioral support initiative.
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Summary
In
order to fulfill the real promise of education—to truly prepare our students to
be college and career ready, and to ensure that the next generations of adults
are personally, interpersonally, and professionally successful, districts and
schools need to systematically invest in integrated approaches that teach
students the social, emotional, and behavioral self-management skills that they
need.
This
needs to be a proactive and planned process for all students; not a reactive
and reflexive process for just the inappropriate, challenging, disengaged, or
disaffected students.
This
can be done. And it has
been done successfully in thousands of schools nationwide over the past 30
years.
But
it requires school,
grade-level, classroom, teacher, and student science-to-practice approaches that
focus on consistently teaching, reinforcing, and holding everyone accountable
for demonstrating these skills.
As the
beginning of your school year continues, I hope that you will reflect on this
message’s information and thoughts. As
you embark on this year’s educational journey, let’s prepare our students not just
academically - - but socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.
I
appreciate everything that you do as educational leaders in our country. I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
Best,
Howie
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