SEL programs cannot produce meaningful long-term growth in authoritarian, punitive, or exclusionary environments; restorative practices are needed¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? SEL programs cannot enable meaningful long-term student growth in environments that are authoritarian, punitive, and exclusionary rather than educative and inclusive. → Darling-Hammond 2020
Evidence¶
Darling-Hammond 2020¶
Darling-Hammond, L., Schachner, A., & Edgerton, A. K. (with Badrinarayan, A., Cardichon, J., Cookson, P. W., Jr., Griffith, M., Klevan, S., Maier, A., Martinez, M., Melnick, H., Truong, N., Wojcikiewicz, S.). (2020). Restarting and reinventing school: Learning in the time of COVID and beyond. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. http://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/restarting-reinventing-school-covid
q2 · i? · review · r2
In the Priority 4 section on SEL, the report argues that restorative practices are needed because 'SEL programs cannot enable meaningful long-term growth' in punitive, exclusionary environments. This is the report's own assertion; no study or effect size is printed.
"SEL programs cannot enable meaningful long-term growth for students in environments that are otherwise authoritarian, punitive, and exclusionary rather than educative and inclusive."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Shifting to restorative practices reduced exclusionary discipline and its racial disparities while improving climate and achievement — related
- Restorative practices reduce exclusionary discipline and misbehavior and improve school climate, safety, and achievement, though implementation requires sustained investment — related
- SEL can be improved by both short-term targeted interventions and longer-term strategies to improve school contextual factors — related
- Schools implementing restorative justice report decreases in exclusionary discipline such as suspensions and expulsions — related
- Exclusionary discipline is ineffective at improving school safety and harms both suspended students and their non-suspended peers — related
- School exclusionary policies paradoxically worsen dropout, delinquency, and achievement — related
- Schoolwide SEL programs are associated with long-term achievement gains, with multiple meta-analyses estimating an 11-percentile-point gain on average for participating students — reports the opposite
- Teachers promoted inclusive classroom environments by organizing time and space and fostering peer inclusion — related
- Programs offering the highest levels of active student participation are those aimed at generally improving the school environment (Restorative Justice and SEHER), suggesting broad, systemic scope favors student decision-making roles — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
sel-requires-educative-inclusive-environments |
title |
SEL programs cannot produce meaningful long-term growth in authoritarian, punitive, or exclusionary environments; restorative practices are needed |
description |
SEL programs cannot produce meaningful long-term growth in authoritarian, punitive, or exclusionary environments; restorative practices are needed |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2020 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — darling-hammond-2020 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.