Dosage effects of a preventive social-emotional learning intervention on achievement loss associated with middle school transition

A number of studies have documented a normative decline in academic achievement across the transition from elementary school to middle or junior high school. The current study examined the effectiveness of varying levels of a social-emotional learning intervention, Talking with TJ, in limiting achievement loss across transition. Data were gathered on 154 students during their fifth and sixth grade years in an urban, low socio-economic school district. Students participated in the Talking with TJ program over their fifth grade years, and curriculum fidelity in individual classrooms was evaluated. Changes in grade point average were assessed across the middle school transition. Overall, students showed a significant decline in GPA across the transition. Students in classrooms where higher dosages of intervention were delivered showed significantly smaller drops in GPA across transition than did students in lower dosage classrooms. Data on differential program effectiveness among demographic groups and along varying levels of baseline emotional intelligence also are presented. Editors' Strategic Implications: The authors present promising findings for a school transition program, link dosage to effects, and raise interesting theoretical questions about the relationships between social-emotional learning and academic growth and achievement.