Conducting cost-benefit analyses of social and emotional learning programs

This grant supports analyses that will evaluate and enumerate the relationship between social and emotional learning (SEL) programs experienced in childhood and outcomes that manifest later in life, such as employment, educational attainment, and substance abuse. The grantee will begin this work by first identifying measures that are commonly used and well validated and that show a connection with future outcomes. Next, the grantee will conduct analyses with multiple longitudinal datasets to examine the connection between the selected measures and economic outcomes. Lastly, the grantee will use the information generated from the analyses to inform statistical models that examine the return on investment (ROI) of SEL interventions. The deliverables for this project will include a report focused on the recommended measures for future cost-benefit analyses of SEL programs; a report on the results of the ROI of effective SEL programs; and a presentation at the Collaborative for the Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning forum.