Researchers Link 'Responsive' Classes to Learning Gains

First graders Will McDowell and Jonathan Fulton practice a proper handshake during morning meeting in their classroom at the William H. Rowe School in Yarmouth, Maine. The school uses a social-emotional-learning approach known as Responsive Classroom.

—John Tully for Education Week

Fifth graders in schools where teachers faithfully used theResponsive Classroom teaching approach performed better on statewide assessments of mathematics and reading skills than their peers at schools that did not use the social-emotional-learning program's strategies as much, according to new research presented at a national conference here month.

The findings, discussed at the fall meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, are part of a comprehensive, three-year study of the program, which trains 10,000 teachers each year. A team of researchers led by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, an associate professor of leadership, foundations, and policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has also been examining the program's effect on teacher-student dynamics in the classroom and on standards-based math instruction. Those and other findings are being shared in a series of upcoming and recently published papers.

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