Giving Compass' Take:

• This school was able to find success with social-emotional learning curricula by prioritizing students' emotional well-being and in turn, saw increases in students' academic achievement.

• The author notes that while many educators report that they are utilizing SEL curricula, very few programs have been previously vetted. How can school districts share information on successful SEL models to increase effectiveness?

• Read about how to measure social-emotional learning.

It was nearly time to hitch on backpacks and heed the carpool announcements delivered over walkie-talkie. But first, the kids in teacher Meghan Groves’ first-grade classroom were taking a moment to share their favorite part of the day.

“My sunshine share is quiet time,” said 6-year-old Jasmine, seated on a blue rug in a circle with her classmates. To her left, Makayla offered: “My sunshine share is the part where we learned about oak trees.” A third girl, dressed in a pink fleece, pointed at Groves while exclaiming: “My sunshine share is — you!”

Activities like this one have taken on a near-ritualistic quality at Groves’ school, Washington-Lee Elementary, which serves a high-poverty student body in southern Appalachia. And for good reason: Six years ago, low test scores landed the school on a list of the bottom 10 percent of schools in the state. Then the newly hired principal, Faith Mabe, heard about a new strategy for helping students.

Mabe, a former literacy coach at Washington-Lee, felt the school had already attempted every imaginable academic tweak. The new strategy aimed to alleviate the social and emotional needs of students. At a school where many kids were coming to class anxious, angry or upset, the approach seemed worth a try. Mabe and five teachers traveled to Atlanta, where they were trained in a program to help students control their emotions.

That fall of 2015, they began rolling out twice-daily meetings where students could talk about their emotions, exercises in which students mapped out their goals and aspirations and lessons to help teachers improve how they communicate with kids. It’s this change — the adoption of a social-emotional approach known as Responsive Classroom — that people in the school district credit in part for helping Washington-Lee boost its academic performance by one group’s measure above all but 13 percent of schools in the state.

Read the full article about SEL curricula success by Caroline Preston at The Hechinger Report.