Giving Compass' Take:

• Sam Moulton, Director of Research for Panorama Education, found that SEL can have a huge impact on the factors that affect students' outcomes in academics.

• What are some ways that donors can advance research on social-emotional learning?

• Read about SEL and the future of education. 

To Sam Moulton, Director of Research for Panorama Education, a student failing a course is a wailing siren, signaling deep academic and personal challenges.

Research has shown that traditional variables like attendance and in-class behavior play a role in course failures. But in working at Panorama, Moulton discovered little research analyzing the relationship between course failures and students’ social-emotional learning (SEL).

Thanks to Panorama’s national dataset, Moulton had exactly the data he needed at his fingertips. He got to work analyzing the connection between SEL and course failures.

Moulton says, surprisingly, SEL variables weren’t just linked to course failures; they were among the top variables associated with failures. Here he shares the details of what he discovered and how schools can use these findings to reduce course failures.

EdSurge: Tell us about your research; what data did you gather and how?

Sam Moulton: Panorama has a unique national dataset because our platform combines what are typically siloed data streams from student information systems, assessment platforms and behavior management systems with data from Panorama’s SEL surveys.

How can schools use your findings going forward?

Begin to gather SEL data and integrate them with other data. There are many schools who don't yet measure social-emotional variables—they don't think there are good measures or feel that these don’t matter as much as other factors traditionally valued in education. This research speaks to the value of measuring SEL.

You can use social-emotional data as part of a multi-tiered system of supports or response-to-intervention framework, to identify the kids who are most at risk of a serious event like a course failure.

Read the full article about the impact of SEL on student outcomes by Wendy McMahon at EdSurge