Middle school SEL shows normative decline in self-efficacy and self-management but an increase in growth mindset¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change
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? Average students drop about 0.2 SD in self-efficacy and 0.15 SD in self-management across middle school, while growth mindset rises about 0.25 SD. → Soland 2019
Evidence¶
Soland 2019¶
Soland, J. & Kuhfeld, M. (2019). Identifying students who are off-track academically in 9th Grade: the role of social-emotional learning trajectories. (NWEA Collaborative for Student Growth Research Brief). https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/identifying-students-who-are-off-track-academically-in-9th-grade-the-role-of-social-emotional-learning-trajectories/
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Descriptive/latent-growth results for the district cohort shown in Figure 1, based on IRT-scored spring surveys in grades 6 through 8. The printed changes are descriptive standard-deviation shifts; no effect size or significance test accompanies them.
"Self-efficacy and self-management show clear negative trends across middle school, with the average student dropping approximately 0.2 standard deviations in self-efficacy and 0.15 standard deviations in self-management. Growth mindset, on the other hand, increases by about 0.25 standard deviations in middle school."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Self-Efficacy — outcome: instruction changes it
Related Claims¶
- Self-efficacy declines steadily for all students between 5th and 8th grade even while math and reading achievement grow — related
- Self-management and self-efficacy show highly collinear growth during middle school, with slopes correlated .95 and intercepts .74 — related
- Teacher emotional support buffers the negative association between low math self-efficacy and low engagement — related
- Engagement peaked at the middle of the Mindsets program and declined slightly by post-test, showing a significant negative quadratic trend — related
- Teachers' growth mindset is positively associated with their self-efficacy (r = .180) — related
- Math self-concept declined then leveled off (U-shaped), L1 self-concept declined slightly, math interest declined while L1 interest increased across Grades 7–9 — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
sel-trajectory-trends-middle-school |
title |
Middle school SEL shows normative decline in self-efficacy and self-management but an increase in growth mindset |
description |
Middle school SEL shows normative decline in self-efficacy and self-management but an increase in growth mindset |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2019 |
recheck_by |
2024 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-09 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — soland-2019 |
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