Integration of social and emotional learning in middle schools and its relationship to adequate yearly progress: Perceptions of administrators, teachers, parents, and students

This study explored the perceptions of administrators, teachers, parents, and students on the integration of social and emotional learning in the middle school and its relationship to adequate yearly student progress. The independent variables included perceptions on the integration of social and emotional learning in the middle school based on 5 categories, a school\u27s socioeconomic index, and overall cognitive skills index (CSI). The dependent variable was adequate yearly student progress as measured by Indiana\u27s ISTEP+ examination. An existing survey, School As A Caring Community Profile-II (SCCP-II) (Lickona & Davidson, 2003), was used to gather data on five subscales related to social and emotional learning in the middle school including perceptions of student respect, student friendship and belonging, student shaping of environment, support and care by and for faculty/staff, and support and care by and for parents. Separate surveys were used to gather information from adult and student participants in twelve schools serving grades 6–8. Responses were compared among students, parents, teachers, and administrators. One school from each of 12 Indiana Middle Level Education Association regions was included in the study. Three statistical procedures were used to answer seven research questions and seven hypotheses. A two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze data. Scheffe\u27s post hoc test was used in general linear model calculations. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient determined corollary relationships. Perceptions of social and emotional learning were different in four of the six combinations of population groups. Differences existed between students and administrators, parents, and teachers as well as between parents and teachers. Differences could not be detected in perceived social and emotional learning among teachers or parents and administrators. A relationship could not be detected between perceptions of social and emotional learning and adequate yearly student progress