Disentangling the Effects of Social and Emotional Learning Programs on Student Academic Achievement Across Grades 1-12: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Ha C, McCarthy M, Strambler M, Cipriano C · 2025
grade Bmeta-analysisdeveloper-involvedfailed
Sample
40 studies published 2008-2020, 33,737 students, 76 achievement effect sizes, grades 1-12
Population
School students in grades 1-12, international.
Design
The most direct test of Durlak's +0.27 achievement claim, conducted by the SEL field's own research group and restricted to achievement outcomes.
Key findings
Academic achievement g = 0.101. The abstract reports improvements in both standardized test scores and grade point average and in both literacy and mathematics, and states that student test scores are the most proximal and accurate estimate of an SEL programme's effect on achievement. Sub-breakdowns and publication-bias analyses were not obtained.
Genetic confound
Medium - the underlying pool includes quasi-experimental designs.
Replication notes
A failure to reproduce the 0.27 figure, from the same research tradition that produced it. The published sequence is 0.27 (2011) to 0.109 (2023) to 0.101 (2025).
DOI / URL
10.3102/00346543251367769
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic achievement | Hedges g | 0.101 across 76 effect sizes from 40 studies | mixed | post-intervention | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | domain-skill |
Cited by
- Should a school buy a social and emotional learning programme?mixedconf: highgc: low