Well, hello again. I'm Dan Liston, and for today's talk, I'll outline middle and high school classroom based SEL programs that have been shown to work and also those that show promise. In contrast to the large number of SEL programs at the elementary level, we don't find as many develop programs at the middle or high school level. Given the smaller pool to select from, our reviewers found fewer programs that work and is a pass muster in three successful experimental studies. So today, I'll underscore programs that work and some of the ones that show promise. At the middle school level, I'll be summarizing the findings reported at Robert Jagers, Alexis Harris and Alexandra Skoog's chapter entitled, A Review of Classroom-Based SEL Programs at the Middle School Level. Like many of the other reviews in this collection, Harris and I'll report that they frame their understanding of SEL programs utilizing Cassell's framework. Most notably the five SEL competency domain. The authors found two programs that met the criteria of showing positive effects in three different experimental control studies. Those were the LifeSkills Training program and the Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways program. Now LifeSkills Training program is a substance use prevention program that helps students with drug-resistant skills while promoting students competence in self-management, healthy relationships and responsible decision making. Some of the skills taught include; decision making, problem solving, coping with anxiety and frustration, and assertiveness. Specific drug resistance competence is approach to information, attitudes and norms around alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, as well as the promotion of students resistance skills. The LifeSkills Training program or LST, utilizes 15 core sessions followed by 15 booster sessions. The teaching methods emphasized cognitive behavioral skills training through didactic instruction, discussions, classroom demonstrations and experiential learning. The authors found a number of large randomized controlled studies, documenting positive effects of LST on middle school students. Students exposed to LST had lower alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, and higher resistance self efficacy skills. Students who received the LST program had fewer driving violations and points on their licenses, driving licenses, and less HIV risk behavior at age 24. And LST has been associated with positive impacts on students social emotional competencies. The second education middle school program, The Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways approach or RIPP is a violence prevention curriculum, and was initially developed for urban African-American middle school youth. It has also demonstrated efficacy for diverse rural middle school students. RIPP is designed to be taught by a trained prevention specialist and used in conjunction with a school-wide peer mediation program. The program offers both experiential and didactic activities to affect knowledge, attitudes and school wide norms and to promote skills for problem solving and conflict resolution. The authors maintain that research evidence supports the efficacy of RIPP for preventing violence and other problem behaviors among students. Evaluation studies have demonstrated intervention impacts on knowledge and attitudes about violence, conflict resolution strategies and self-reported violent behavior. And in a separate evaluation study, RIPP improve students life satisfaction outcomes relative to the controls. Although the authors could identify only two programs as efficacious, they did designate eight programs of promising. To fit within the promising designation, studies must show some evidence, usually in a controlled study, of positive expected effects. Here I'll described three such promising programs: the Aban Aya Youth Project, MindUp, a mindfulness program, and the history sometimes characterized as character education program known as Facing History and Ourselves. The Aban Aya social development curriculum includes 16-21 lessons across grades five through eight. These lessons promote social emotional development, a sense of self and a sense of purpose while focusing on attitudes beliefs and peer norms, that can prompt problem behaviors such as violence, delinquency, substance use and unsafe sex. The Aban Aya's school and community intervention target school climate and parenting practices through school, family and community activities. Studies of Aban Aya show that it can reduce the growth of violent behavior, substance use, unsafe sex and school misbehavior for boys. And it was noted that the violence reduction effects of AAYP were due in part to the growth in student's empathy. The second and final promising middle and in this case, high school also program that I'll highlight is the Facing History and Ourselves program. This program is designed to integrate with the existing social studies and language arts instruction and utilizes historical examples of conflict and injustice to teach tolerance and civic responsibility. Targeted student outcomes include social and ethical awareness, civic Learning and historical understanding. One study found that this program demonstrated a significant impacts on student's psycho social competence and racist attitudes. Another study, which is in progress, reported promising results in the areas of students social or emotional functioning, civic attitudes and perceptions of school and classroom climate. Finally, the MindUp or mindfulness program has as its goal, to bring of one's complete attention to the present experience on a moment to moment basis with a non-judgmental stance. Teachers employ a 10-lesson curriculum to help students accomplish four goals: quieting the mind, developing mindful attention, managing negative thoughts and feelings, and acknowledging self and others. In one study, results indicated that compared to the students in the controlled classrooms, MindUp students were more attentive displayed, more emotional regulation and were more socially and emotionally competent. And now, onto the high school SEL programs. In their SEL handbook chapter entitled, SEL Program in High School: Ariel Williamson, Katherine Modecki and Nancy Guerra. It has included Facing History and Ourselves as one of those promising programs. And what remains in my talk, I'll describe two more promising high school SEL programs, Changing Lives Program and The Positive Life Changes Program. The Changing Lives Program or CLP is a high school intervention program for at-risk youth. One that utilizes a participatory transformative approach so as to empower adolescents to change positively their sense of self and identity. Students in the program are active participants in the intervention and are asked to identify problems in their lives and methods to resolve them. One study found that CLP participants increased their positive identity and these increases in positive identity helped to lessen students internalization of problems. Williamson A.I claimed that CLP offers promising directions for future research especially given the lack of research on change mechanisms in SEL and other interventions. Positive Life Changes or PLC is a competency based social cognitive program that are designed to reduce adolescent problem behaviors through the promotion of five core competencies: self-esteem, self-control, decision making skills, pro-social connectedness and moral beliefs. These five competencies align with Cassell's five school domains. The program was designed for older at-risk adolescents in juvenile justice settings. Positive Life Changes offers 30 lessons to achieve these goals. Now PLC has not been examined in a study that includes a control group. But in one study, the researchers found that PLC participants increased participants self-esteem, decision making skills, and moral beliefs and reduce their propensity for physical and verbal aggression. Well, that does it for today's research talk. I hope it was informative.
