Second Step
Building Social-Emotional Skills in Early Learners
A social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula for students
Second Step provides SEL curricula for students in kindergarten through 4th grade, helping young learners develop empathy, manage emotions, and solve problems effectively—laying the foundation for lifelong social and emotional well-being.
Participating children exhibited significantly improved social-emotional skills and significantly reduced behavioral issues compared with those at baseline.
Key statistics highlighting the effectiveness of the Second Step program for students
Improved Social-Emotional Skills
In a two-year randomized control trial, students from kindergarten to grade 2 who participated in the Second Step Elementary program demonstrated increased social-emotional skills and decreased disruptive behaviors compared to the control group. These effects were particularly notable among students with the lowest baseline skills at the beginning of the study.
Enhanced Academic Outcomes
A randomized controlled trial involving over 7,400 students across 61 schools found that students who received the Second Step program with high implementation fidelity showed small but significant improvements in oral reading fluency and math computation. Additionally, these students exhibited increased on-task behavior and decreased disruptive classroom behavior.
Increased Executive Functioning in Preschoolers
Preschool children who received the Second Step Early Learning curriculum demonstrated significantly better end-of-preschool executive-function skills compared to students who did not receive the program.
These findings underscore the program’s role in promoting healthy development and preventing behavioral issues among young students.
