This study investigated the impact of a social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum on the social-emotional competence skills of second grade students in the general education classroom. Twelve classrooms across three schools in a school district in the Southeastern United States participated; one school was considered low poverty and two schools were considered high poverty. Results indicated medium to large effect sizes in all dependent measures in the low poverty treatment condition (.83 to 10.69). All but one teacher rating were also medium to large (.53 to 1.49). The student ratings were inconsistent across conditions, with medium and large positive and negative effects in both treatment and control conditions. Results revealed greater gains in the intervention classrooms for both teacher and self-rated social-emotional competence when compared with the scores from the control classrooms. ANOVA results did not reveal any significant interactions, indicating the impact of the SEL lessons was inconsistent across conditions, poverty status, and individual teachers within groups. Fidelity of implementation was high, and results of the social validity surveys found that both teachers and students rated the lessons favorably
