Research has demonstrated that interventions designed to improve the social and emotional well-being of students have the potential to improve academic outcomes and address the inequalities faced by students of color and students from high-poverty backgrounds. CAP proposes to incorporate this body of research into policymaking at the national, state, and local levels. CAP will convene researchers, policymakers, and teachers to discuss the programs and initiatives that can translate research on social and emotional learning into practice, as well as the policy barriers that these initiatives might encounter. Based on this convening and additional research, they will develop a policy paper that will identify mechanisms to help schools engage in social and emotional learning. The convening and research findings will help to inform CAP’s policy agenda for federal, state, and local actors to support and extend the research in this field.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) will promote the use of research on social and emotional learning to inform educational policy and reduce inequality in student achievement
