The Impact of a Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum on English Language Arts Achievement

This study explored the impact of a social-emotional learning (SEL) literacy curriculum on the English Language Arts (ELA) achievement of elementary-age students attending public, high-poverty schools. Schools classified as high-poverty schools have more than 75 percent of the students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The subjects for the study consisted of students attending 10 elementary schools in the Miami Dade Public School System, all having been designated as "persistently lowest-achieving" by the Education Transformation Office of the Florida Department of Education. Nine of the 10 schools had free or reduced-price lunch populations over 90%, with some schools as high as 99%, and all were classified Title 1. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the numbers of students scoring proficient or above on the state ELA standardized exam in the schools using a SEL-based literacy curriculum program versus those using a traditional curriculum.