Giving Compass' Take:

• Social-emotional learning can hone student leadership skills and help young people become more civically engaged.

• The author argues that students who do not have the same access to leadership-building organizations like boy scouts and girls scouts should be exposed to social-emotional learning in their classrooms to foster similar skill sets. How can SEL instruction expand to more schools?

• Read about how to measure social-emotional learning.

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), students who participate in evidence-based SEL programs showed an 11 percent gain in academic achievement. They stay in school longer, make healthier life choices and are more likely to be civically engaged.

Leadership training is a powerful instructional strategy for engaging students in authentic and experiential activities where they can both learn and apply SEL skills.

Similar leadership opportunities are available through summer camps and community outreach programs offered by organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 4-H Clubs, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

A core belief of these organizations is that all members are potential leaders who can discover the essential skills needed to succeed through authentic experiences and opportunities. Unfortunately, there is little consistency across these efforts in terms of quality or depth of instruction. The result is that students have access to leadership development only if they are in the right school, club or community organization.

At the same time, states, districts and schools are identifying strategies to accelerate their efforts to embed SEL skills across programs to improve student success. Fourteen states have developed K-12 SEL learning standards (referred to in some states as benchmarks, guidelines or competencies), while 21 other states have SEL-related websites that provide guidance and resources to educators.

However, while there is a lot of energy around SEL, many schools still view academics and SEL as separate tracks, with the result that its implementation is not always well defined or consistently implemented across schools or programs. It takes a vision and a commitment to engage and bring together all stakeholders, in and out of school, to develop a clearly articulated framework for SEL implementation.

Read the full article about social-emotional learning by Peggi Zelinko at The 74.