This paper began with a conversation about children. At Turnaround for Children, they wanted to understand how children acquire the skills and mindsets for learning. Which skills do we need to build in children for them to be successful in school? And if we know what they are, can they be taught? How does growing up with adversity impact the acquisition of these critical skills? 

In this report, Child Trends indicates that there are five key social and emotional skills that help students thrive in school and in life over time: self control, persistence, mastery orientation, academic self-efficacy and social competence. The report describes tools that educators/organizations could use to assess and monitor the extent to which they are improving low-income students’ social and emotional skills.

In the midst of growing national interest in strengthening children’s “soft” or social-emotional skills as critical for learning, work, and life, a new study from Search Institute highlights the power of family relationships as a critical, but often neglected, factor in the development of character strengths in children.

There is wide agreement that resilience – the ability to respond positively to life’s challenges – is an important asset for positive youth development. However, there is much to learn about how to promote resilience in youth and how to help youth increase resilience. 

“Don’t Call Them Dropouts,” a report by America’s Promise Alliance based on research conducted by its Center for Promise at Tufts University, was funded by Target. In the largest nationwide study of its kind to date, young adults who left high school without graduating spoke at length about their experiences and the reasons they did not complete high school on time. As the nation reaches the all-time high of an 80 percent on-time high school graduation rate, this report listens deeply to what the remaining 20 percent say is happening in their lives, and what they need to stay in school.