{"title":"Coping With the Pandemic: Implementing Social and Emotional Learning in the California K-12 School System","authors":"Agnes M. Varghese, Misaki N. Natsuaki","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033003","url":null,"abstract":"In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Among the massive shutdowns that occurred across the United States in response, all K-12 schools in California closed to protect the health of students. However, such a closure and its resulting consequences were associated with a host of negative mental health implications for youth. Furthermore, many of these youth may not have had adequate resources to tackle issues impacting their psyche in this unprecedented time. Social and emotional learning (SEL), a method in which children can acquire the knowledge and skills to understand and manage emotions, has a proven track record of positive social, emotional, educational, and career consequences. The California Department of Education should convene a task force to develop guidelines for local school districts that provide all K-12 students in the state with effective SEL to assist them in mental health recovery from the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"136 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65677700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Critical Pedagogy and Children’s Beneficial Development","authors":"Andres Pinedo, Nadia Vossoughi, Neil A. Lewis","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033000","url":null,"abstract":"Ongoing controversy debates whether public schools should implement critical pedagogy—curricula centering on the perspectives of marginalized peoples. Despite much contention, students (particularly racially marginalized students) enrolled in courses that employ critical pedagogy demonstrate more school engagement, higher grade point averages (GPAs), and more civic engagement than students who do not. Building on previous reviews, this article briefly summarizes the history and controversy of critical pedagogy, evaluates the scientific evidence surrounding it, and offers suggestions on how to make the most of critical pedagogy in academic curricula.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"183 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44085120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christina Mulcahy, Crystal A. Day Hess, D. Clements, Jasmine R. Ernst, Sarah E. Pan, M. Mazzocco, Julie Sarama
{"title":"Supporting Young Children’s Development of Executive Function Through Early Mathematics","authors":"Christina Mulcahy, Crystal A. Day Hess, D. Clements, Jasmine R. Ernst, Sarah E. Pan, M. Mazzocco, Julie Sarama","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033005","url":null,"abstract":"Early childhood teachers face competing instructional priorities to support specific academic skills and general skills that underlie learning, such as executive function (EF) skills that allow children to control their own thinking and behavior. As the evidence shows, EF skills predict later mathematics achievement, and early mathematics predicts later EF. These relations between mathematics and EF suggest high-quality mathematics teaching has a dual benefit: Teachers can promote children’s math and EF competencies by embedding support for EF in high-quality mathematics activities. Children benefit when guided to reflect on solutions and alternative strategies, and teachers benefit from guidance on how to support both math and EF. Finally, research on teachers developing both domains can inform educational policy.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"192 - 199"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43998207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephen T Russell, Meg D Bishop, Victoria C Saba, Isaac James, Salvatore Ioverno
{"title":"Promoting School Safety for LGBTQ and All Students.","authors":"Stephen T Russell, Meg D Bishop, Victoria C Saba, Isaac James, Salvatore Ioverno","doi":"10.1177/23727322211031938","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23727322211031938","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Schools are often unsafe for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students; they frequently experience negative or hostile school climates, including bullying and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at school. Negative school climates and discriminatory experiences can threaten LGBTQ students' well-being. Simultaneously, a consistent body of research identifies strategies to support LGBTQ and all students to be safe and thrive at school. First, policies that specifically identify or enumerate protected groups such as LGBTQ students create supportive contexts for all youth. Second, professional development prepares educators and other school personnel with tools to support and protect all students. Third, access to information and support related to sexual orientation and gender identity or expression (SOGIE), including curricula that is SOGIE-inclusive, provides students with resources, support, and inclusion, creating school climate. Fourth, the presence of student-led clubs or organizations such as gender-sexuality alliances (i.e., GSAs) improve students' school experiences and well-being, and contribute to positive school climate. This article reviews the research foundations of each of these strategies and concludes with recommendations for multiple audiences: policy-makers, school personnel, parents, and students.</p>","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 2","pages":"160-166"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8454913/pdf/nihms-1740286.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39444336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving Preschool Accountability Systems: Bringing Individual Children’s Experiences Back to Child Policy","authors":"Terri J Sabol","doi":"10.1177/23727322211031591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211031591","url":null,"abstract":"Preschool accountability systems, including Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), seek to assess, monitor, and improve children’s outcomes across the early care and education (ECE) landscape. QRIS have a number of strengths, especially by focusing on classroom-level quality inputs for all children collectively across multiple domains that are well aligned with developmental science. This article considers how to build on the QRIS framework by highlighting children’s individual experiences within classrooms as a key indicator of quality in addition to the more traditional classroom-level measures. The article first provides the theoretical rationale and empirical evidence for focusing on children’s individual experiences based on new insights from developmental science. The article then illustrates key factors that relate to variation in children’s experiences, including child temperament, gender, age, and race/ethnicity. The article concludes by considering opportunities for innovation to better measure individual children’s experiences in QRIS.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"217 - 224"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48132116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
L. Gennetian, Natasha J. Cabrera, Danielle A. Crosby, L. Guzman, J. Smith, E. Wildsmith
{"title":"A Strength-Based Framework for Realizing Latino Young Children’s Potential","authors":"L. Gennetian, Natasha J. Cabrera, Danielle A. Crosby, L. Guzman, J. Smith, E. Wildsmith","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033618","url":null,"abstract":"Hispanic children experience poverty at rates two to three times higher than white children. Latino households with children, in general, have high parental employment coupled with low levels of parental education and stagnant parental earnings relative to non-Latino peers. While many Latino children live in neighborhoods that do not have access to high-quality early education, Latino children, on average, are raised in a home environment that offers economic stability and security, the presence of two parents, and socially supported family and community networks. Furthermore, though Hispanic children’s school achievement outcomes lag behind those of their peers, their socio-emotional developmental outcomes are on the same level or better. Latino children are raised in environments with the ingredients needed to achieve their potential. We use this foundation to propose a strength-based framework for guiding policy investment on Latino children and families.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"152 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43865286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caroline P. Martin, Jaclyn M. Russo, Hayley J. Goldenthal, Carmen Holley, Karen R. Gouze, Amanda P. Williford
{"title":"Supporting Young Children Exposed to Potentially Traumatic Events: Implications for Early Care and Education Policy","authors":"Caroline P. Martin, Jaclyn M. Russo, Hayley J. Goldenthal, Carmen Holley, Karen R. Gouze, Amanda P. Williford","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033880","url":null,"abstract":"Every year in the United States, millions of young children under the age of 5 are exposed to potentially traumatic events that threaten their safety, security, and well-being. Decades of scientific research clearly demonstrate the pervasive negative consequences of trauma exposure on young children’s neurocognitive, psychosocial, and physical development, with adverse effects extending into adulthood. In addition, early childhood trauma is now widely recognized as a significant public health concern warranting comprehensive intervention. Federal, state, and private early care and education (ECE) programs serve a large number of the 0 to 5 population and can mitigate the harmful consequences of trauma exposure for children’s health and well-being. The literature on early childhood trauma should guide the creation of policies that strengthen ECE, enabling the delivery of high-quality, equitable, trauma-informed care to young children prior to formal school entry.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"119 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48337635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Is Social Inclusion? Insights From Interventions With Youth Across Migration Systems","authors":"C. Daiute, Bengi Sullu, Tünde Kovács-Cerović","doi":"10.1177/23727322211033001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211033001","url":null,"abstract":"Social inclusion is a goal of 21st-century education and social welfare, yet research with violently displaced youth leaves gaps in its meaning. Social inclusion, a societal aim, lacks the perspectives of youth at its center. Given the pressures and power relations involved in learning how young people think and feel about social injustices and the support they need, developmental researchers must find innovative ways to study youth experiences and intentions in relation to environments, especially environments that threaten young lives. Emerging research highlights how displaced youth, peers along their journeys, and adults guiding supportive interventions make audible the meaning of social inclusion. Policy paradigms would benefit from research on sense-making in interventions rather than from emphasizing behavioral assessments and assimilation to local norms, as implied by social inclusion.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"143 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42670573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elevating the Objectives of Higher Education to Effectively Serve Students From Diverse Socioeconomic Backgrounds","authors":"Mesmin Destin, R. Rosario, Shirin Vossoughi","doi":"10.1177/2372732220980766","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220980766","url":null,"abstract":"As colleges and universities expand the socioeconomic diversity of their student populations, many policies and practices require reconceptualization to better serve all students. Recent social psychology and learning sciences research directly informs how to support the achievement and well-being of students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds, with attention to intersecting minoritized identities. These approaches challenge assimilationist and deficit-based views of student identities in addressing factors at multiple levels of their sociocultural contexts. Building from the evidence, recommendations emphasize committing financial resources to allow for full access and participation in higher education. Also, specific faculty practices and development opportunities can enhance teaching. Finally, community emerges as a central theme; recommendations enhance student connections within and beyond the college environment.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"59 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2372732220980766","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48398535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"People Downplay Health Risks to Fulfill Their Goals: A Motivational Framework for Guiding Behavioral Policy","authors":"Catalina E Kopetz, J. Woerner","doi":"10.1177/2372732220980093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220980093","url":null,"abstract":"Risky behaviors represent serious threats to health and the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the developed world. Despite known negative consequences, people continue to abuse alcohol and drugs, to smoke, overeat, engage in risky sexual behavior, and drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs. This might happen because they perceive these behaviors as the best and sometimes the only means to fulfill important goals. To understand and to prevent health-risk behavior, scientists and policy-makers should consider the function that these behaviors serve. A theoretical framework based on the principles of goal pursuit helps explain (a) why health-risk behaviors become a means to people’s goals and (b) the psychological processes that facilitate initiation and maintenance of health-risk behaviors despite known negative consequences. Principles of goal pursuit could inform policy to reduce health-risk behaviors and their negative consequences.","PeriodicalId":52185,"journal":{"name":"Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"92 - 100"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2372732220980093","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45857200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}