New directions in assessing emotional competencies from kindergarten to college

This issue of Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment addresses the role of social and emo-tional competencies at every stage of education, from the developing competencies of preschoolers right through to the emotional intelligence of classroom teachers. Emotions and emotion-related skills are important in education for two reasons: (a) as facilitators of traditionally valued out-comes such as academic skills, higher test scores, and better grades; and (b) as a valued outcome in and of themselves. While academic skills are certainly important, it is a worthy goal to have happy students with strong emotional skills, and who are resilient to negative emotions, irrespec-tive of their grades. Contributors to this issue highlight the important role of emotions and emo-tional competencies for both sets of outcomes, considering the role of constructs like emotion regulation, emotional reactions to school, and other aspects of emotional intelligence. Table 1 contains a brief overview of studies that were selected for this special issue. Research on emotional contagion further highlights the importance of emotions in the classroom, suggesting that one individual’s emotional experiences may impact the surround-ing students, class, and even school (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993). For example, a teacher’s emotional tone may translate to a happy or unhappy class, who are more or less well