What Skills Are Most Important for Student Success? Student and Parent/Caregiver Perspectives. Research Report

Given recent interest and increasing popularity of social and emotional learning (SEL) in education settings, the authors surveyed students taking the ACT test and parents/caregivers of ACT test-takers on their beliefs around social and emotional (SE) skills. The study had three primary goals. First, the authors were interested in obtaining student and parent/caregiver perceived value levels of SE skills and their utility in students' academic success. Second, the authors were interested in asking, in an open-ended fashion, what skills students and parents/caregivers perceived as being most important to student success. Last, the authors were interested in whether favorability ratings or skills perceived as most important to student success differed across student and parent/caregiver subgroups. Results from this study underscore the importance of SE skills from student and parent/caregiver perspectives. Furthermore, findings show more consistency across demographic subgroups than differences, further highlighting the universal perceived importance. These findings show SE skills are perceived as valuable and important in educational contexts.