| To better understand young people’s perceptions of the conditions that support their social, emotional, and academic learning and development, the Center for Promise at America’s Promise Alliance conducted a nationally representative survey of 3,300 high school students aged 13-19 in April and May of this year. The findings from that survey are presented in a new report, What Drives Learning: Young People’s Perspectives on the Importance of Relationships, Belonging, and Agency, which highlights the effect that supportive relationships, a sense of belonging, and feelings of agency can have on students’ self-reported engagement and learning in school.
Key findings from the survey include:
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- Supportive relationships from multiple sources have independent and additive positive effects on young people’s reported engagement and meaningful learning. This is true whether the source of support is adults or peers, and whether the relationship is linked to experiences during school or in an out-of-school time environment.
- Supportive relationships combined with feelings of belonging or agency amplify the positive association between relationships and reported engagement and meaningful learning.
- Most high school age youth do not report experiencing many of the conditions that support their social, emotional, and cognitive learning.
- For those who do experience those four supportive conditions (i.e. relationships, belonging, agency, and meaningful learning), there are notable disparities by gender, first language, parent education, race, and urbanicity.
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| Taken together, the findings affirm what we’ve heard from young people throughout this year: supportive relationships, a sense of belonging, and consistent opportunities to express agency contribute to student learning and engagement in school. Given the mental and emotional toll the COVID-19 pandemic has had on young people—along with the traumatic effects of police brutality and the widespread unrest in response to systemic racism—these social and emotional supports are doubly urgent at this moment in time, particularly for those students who have not previously experienced these supportive learning conditions. As states, schools, and youth-supporting organizations work to ensure this school year runs as smoothly as possible, it remains critical to listen to young people as part of a sustained and evolving response to their needs.
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| What Drives Learning is the third publication in the #HowLearningHappens research series. Together with All of Who I Am and The State of Young People During COVID-19, What Drives Learning places adolescents’ experiences and perspectives at the center of an urgent national conversation about young people’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Collectively, the series amplifies young people’s own perspectives about what shapes their learning.
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