Studies Link Social, Emotional Skills To Academics

McClatchy Newspapers (10/10, Rubin) reported, "In 2004, Illinois became the first state in the nation to require all school districts to teach social and emotional skills as part of their curriculum and daily school life. That means students are expected to meet certain benchmarks, such as recognizing and managing feelings, building empathy and making responsible decisions." Roger Weissberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago, says that "new evidence shows a strong link between interpersonal skills and academics." He "and his colleagues recently completed an analysis of 300 scientific studies and reached two important conclusions: Students enrolled in such programs scored at least 10 percentage points higher on achievement tests than peers who weren't. At the same time, discipline problems were cut in half."