Starting Off on the Right Foot: An Exploratory Study of Social-Emotional Learning Needs Among High School Freshmen Students in Special Education

Background and Purpose: The over-representation of African American (AA) students in special education (SPED) has been a longstanding issue in schools. The fact that disproportionately large numbers of AA students are persistently placed in SPED suggest that more research is needed to better understand their needs. One such area of work is in the understanding of their social-emotional learning (SEL) needs as they transit into high school. The movement from smaller middle schools to larger high schools require the forging of new social relationships. While it is stressful for all students, those in SPED may be more adversely impacted by this transition. For students of color, this movement into high schools may be even more challenging if they are not provided with the adequate school supports in response to their SEL needs. Mindsets are internal representations of students’ perspectives of their world, and no studies have looked at the mindsets of AA students in SPED as it relates to their SEL needs. The purpose of this study is to examine the SEL needs of 9^th grade AA students in SPED, and to compare their SEL and social skills mindsets with their counterparts in general education.

Methods: Data is from two cohorts of 9^th grade students from one high school in Central Illinois (n=590; 46% White, 38% Black, 12% Asian). Sixty students (10.2%) had an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP; 25% White, 68.3% Black, 5% Asian). All students completed the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), which measures frequencies of displaying seven social skills domains: communication, cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, engagement and self-control. A consolidated measure of social skills frequency was calculated based on the means of these domains. Additionally, the SSIS measures their social skills mindsets by asking students to rate how critical these domains are to them. A similar consolidated measure of mindset was also calculated based on the means. Independent sample t-tests were first used to compare the social skills frequencies and mindsets between all students with and without an IEP. Subsequently, t-tests were conducted with the sub-group of AA students with and without IEPs.

Results: Across the two cohorts of 9^th grade students, students with IEPs reported significantly lower frequencies of displaying social skills as compared to those without an IEP (p ≤ 0.001). As expected, students with IEPs displayed significantly lower levels of mindsets on the importance of their social skills (p ≤ 0.05). For AA students, similar with the entire study sample, those with IEPs reported significantly lower frequencies of social skills (p ≤ 0.05). However, contrary to our expectations, there were no significant difference in levels of mindsets between those with and without an IEP.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings highlight the need for more research on the social skills mindsets among AA students in SPED. Findings may be explained by the lived experiences and family/community influences on their feelings and perceptions of the importance of social skills trainings in secondary education. Results have implications for developing culturally responsive pedagogical approaches that are student centered.