An Analysis of the impact of a Social Emotional Learning Program on Transient Students’ Competencies and Perceptions of School Climate

With the passing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (2016), schools are now expected to assess more than just the academic achievement of their student body. While states can choose how they meet this expectation, many choose to focus on school climate. This change is important because, while crime in schools has gone down, feelings of being unsafe or bullied have gone up. To support schools in both assessing and improving their student’s perception of safety, schools have the opportunity to use social and emotional learning to improve measures of school climate, which provides indicators of student perceptions of the school setting. This research assessed one of those programs, Conscious Discipline, with a focus on transient students, a group of students significantly impacted by feelings of isolation, bullying, and victimization. With the use of the Delaware School Climate Survey student perceptions of school climate were assessed and through multiple ANOVAs it was revealed that a school using one specific SEL program, Conscious Discipline, did not improve their students’ perceptions of school climate as compared to a peer school, though it did support transient students in feeling more in line with their peers. Implications of this work include a focus on principal’s hiring methods of teachers and their perceptions of the use of a specific SEL within their classrooms. Additionally, future research should focus on integrating teacher and student perceptions of school climate when analyzing Conscious Discipline