Joseph E. Zins

Enhancing school-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning.

A comprehensive mission for schools is to educate students to be knowledgeable, responsible, socially skilled, healthy, caring, and contributing citizens. This mission is supported by the growing number of school-based prevention and youth development programs. Yet, the current impact of these programs is limited because of insufficient coordination with other components of school operations and inattention to implementation and evaluation factors necessary for strong program impact and sustainability. Widespread implementation of beneficial prevention programming requires further development of research-based, comprehensive school reform models that improve social, health, and academic outcomes; educational policies that demand accountability for fostering childrens full development; professional development that prepares and supports educators to implement programs effectively; and systematic monitoring and evaluation to guide school improvement.

The Scientific Base Linking Social and Emotional Learning to School Success

Schools will be most successful in their educational mission when they integrate efforts to promote children’s academic, social, and emotional learning (Elias et al., 1997). There is general agreement that it is important for schools to foster children’s social-emotional development, but all too often educators think about this focus in a fragmented manner, either as an important end in itself or as a contributor to enhancing children’s health (e.g., drug prevention), safety (e.g., violence prevention), or citizenship (e.g., service learning). Although social and emotional learning (SEL) plays important roles in influencing these nonacademic outcomes, SEL also has a critical role in improving children’s academic performance and lifelong learning. This chapter and book make a compelling conceptual and empirical case for linking SEL to improved school attitudes, behavior, and performance. Intrinsically, schools are social places and learning is a social process. Students do not learn alone but rather in collaboration with their teachers, in the company of their peers, and with the support of their families. Emotions can facilitate or hamper their learning and their ultimate success in school. Because social and emotional factors play such an important role, schools must attend to this aspect of the educational process for the benefit of all students. Indeed most do. There is a long history of

Social and Emotional Learning: Promoting the Development of All Students

High-stakes tests. Substance abuse. Suicide. Academic standards. Delinquency. Media and technology. Teacher retention. Interpersonal violence. Dropouts. Changes in families. The list of issues faci...

Examining Opportunities and Challenges for School-Based Prevention and Promotion: Social and Emotional Learning as an Exemplar

The last decade has seen significant changes in the social conditions of our country that have had a major impact on young people. Dryfoos (1997), for example, estimated that as many as 30% of youths 14 to 17 years old regularly engage in multiple high-risk behaviors, and 35% more experiment with similar behaviors at various times. Correspondingly, there has been a growing interest in the schools in prevention and promotion activities to deal with these issues (e.g., Minke & Bear, 2000). In support of this interest, researchers have been able to demonstrate that prevention and promotion programs can lead to positive, cost-effective change (e.g., Durlak & Wells, 1997). To examine challenges and opportunities for school-based prevention and promotion, social and emotional learning (SEL) is introduced in this article as an example of the types of efforts that have tremendous potential to bring about positive development in our youth. Next, examples of several selected barriers to such initiatives are described, and the discussion concludes with suggestions about how SEL might become more of an essential component of the educational system, with a primary focus on preservice training for future professionals.

Consulting to Facilitate Planned Organizational Change in Schools

We present an update of our 1984 chapter on organizational interventions in educational settings. Our view of the organizational change process is described, followed by a discussion of the gap between current theory and practice. We describe several examples of promising organizational change initiatives, followed by our observations of future directions for the field. We suggest that there will continue to be dramatic changes in our nations educational institutions and that the primary question is whether planned change efforts will allow us to have some control over these changes and how they transpire.

Comparison of interrater reliability on the torrance tests of creative thinking for gifted and nongifted students

Despite their widespread use in identifying and evaluating programs for gifted and talented students, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were standardized on samples that excluded gifted children. The interrater reliability of measures like the TTCT has been questioned repeatedly, yet studies with average students have demonstrated high interrater reliability. This study compares the interrater reliability of the TTCT for groups of gifted and nongifted elementary-school-aged students. Results indicated most interrater reliability coefficients exceeding .90 for both gifted and nongifted groups. However, multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant mean differences across the three self-trained raters for both gifted and nongifted groups. Consequently, use of a single scorer to evaluate TTCT protocols is recommended, especially where specific cutoff scores are used to select students.

Has consultation achieved its primary prevention potential

Since the practice of consultation first began, primary prevention has been posited as an important outcome. In this article the empirical basis for this element of consultation is examined. It is concluded that consultations preventive benefits should not be oversold, as at this time there is only emerging evidence for this aspect of the process.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and School Achievement: a Validity Study

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) was designed to measure problem-solving skills in a manner not directly related to prior academic achievement. As with any new instrument, it is important to study the relationship of the K-ABC to traditional measures. This study compared the results of the K-ABC to the Wide Range Achievement Test with a nonreferred sample of 40 children. The results suggest for the most part that integrated cognitive processes are related to tasks found in the two achievement tests. Both tests appear to measure different skills, although the reading subtests were substantially correlated.

Report writing: Legislative, ethical, and professional challenges

Abstract Report writing continues to be one of the most serious and underestimated problem areas facing school psychologists. Current guidelines have not been generally responsive to changes in professional practice stemming from recent legal and legislative mandates, changing professional roles, and contemporary theory and practice. This article reviews various approaches to assessment and their potential influence on psychological report writing. A contemporary approach to report writing is then discussed.

Promoting Quality Implementation in Prevention Programs

This is the second of two special issues of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation (JEPC) that are the result of the joint efforts of the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) of the American Psychological Association. Once again, we would like to express our thanks to both organizations for their support of this project. We especially appreciate the members of the organizations who were willing to share their knowledge about how to improve the measurement of the quality of implementation in prevention programs. It is our hope that these special issues will provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of the complex issues involved in implementation and in measuring the implementation process, and that they also will encourage researchers and practitioners to attend more closely to how well programs are implemented. An increasing concern in the field is JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION, 11(2), 173–174 Copyright