Social and Emotional Skills and Academic Outcomes. Research Brief for the Houston Independent School District [Brief 2]

The Study of Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) is an international effort led by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Houston Independent School District (HISD) served as the only U.S. site for this study. Over 6,400 10-year-old and 15-year-old students from 119 HISD schools participated in the SSES in the fall of 2019. This brief provides an understanding on whether and how social and emotional skills related to students' academic outcomes. Social and emotional (SE) skills refer to the process by which children acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (OECD, 2015). SE skills can lead to improved outcomes in education, employment, health, and well-being (Kankaraš & Suarez-Alvarez, 2019). In both 10-year-old and 15-year-old students, students who reported higher levels of persistence earned higher course grades in both math and reading. In addition, empathy was negatively associated with 10-year-old students' math grades, and trust was positively associated with 15-year-old students' math grades. [For Brief 1, see ED617758 and ED617735.]