Integrating social-emotional learning and standards-based grading: Principles, barriers, and future directions

Classroom grading reform and students’ whole child development are two important and timely topics in today’s schools. In this article, the authors draw parallels between CASEL’s five core competencies of social and emotional learning and the guiding principles of standards-based grading (SBG). This article helps educators understand SEL competencies and SBG principles as well as barriers to implementation. The authors outline how explicitly developing students’ social-emotional learning skills and implementing SBG are complementary. Implications for practice and research are discussed.