Student engagement and hope are significantly related to student academic outcomes

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With the current shift in U.S. education policies putting a priority on social-emotional learning (SEL), the importance of teachers and schools having SEL resources -- proven to create positive student outcomes -- is growing rapidly. As the new goals and guidelines are implemented in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools have, unfortunately, been flooded with instructional guides, curriculum advice, and other implementation options that are founded on minimal research or unproven outcomes.

For the past 12 years, Gallup and been surveying students through the Gallup Student Poll to research and fine-tune an SEL-based solution with proven impacts and outcomes. Statistically linked to a majority of the mandated ESSA accountability measures, the outcome of Gallup's research is two indexes that measure students' engagement and hope. These indexes consist of nine and seven items, respectively, and indicate students' "involvement in and enthusiasm for school" and "ideas and energy for the future." The outcomes of these indexes go beyond showing the level of engagement and hope of a school's students -- they are linked to the overall success of districts and schools, based on the measures to which they are being held accountable.

One recent Gallup study including 128 schools and more than 110,000 students found that student engagement and hope were significantly positively related to student academic achievement progress (growth) in math, reading, and all subjects combined, along with postsecondary readiness in math and writing. Focusing specifically on student engagement, the study found that schools in the top quartile of student engagement had significantly more students exceeding and meeting proficiency requirements than schools in the bottom quartile of engagement.