High-Quality Elementary Education What ingredients go into a high quality education for elementary school children -- and what does the literature reveal? What has been the impact of "No Child Left Behind" in terms of achieving that seemingly unachievable goal? These and other issues are covered in this paper.

Improving Elementary School Quality: Social-Emotional / Character Development

A research study in the peer-reviewed Journal of School Health reveals that a school-wide program involving a "social-emotional and character development education program" can "significantly improve" the quality of the education experience for elementary school children (Snyder, 2012, 11). The program, called "Positive Action," was conducted involving 20 elementary schools in Hawaii -- racially and ethnically diverse schools -- between the 2002-2003 school years and 2005-2006 school years.

In brief, the six-unit Positive Action (PA) program utilized in Hawaii involved 140 sessions -- lasting 15 to 20 minutes each -- per elementary grade per academic year (Snyder, 13). The total time for the PA lessons over the school year was about 35 hours, Snyder reports. The units that were presented include: a) "self-concept"; b) "physical and intellectual actions"; c) "social-emotional actions for managing oneself responsibly"; d) "getting along with others"; e) "being honest with yourself and others"; and f) "continuous...

As to Hawaii's "school quality survey" (SQS) goals: "…teacher, parent, and student reports indicated that PA schools had significantly higher SQC scores…" in comparison to the control schools (Snyder, 16). The PA program "consistently outperformed the control schools" on "nearly all 9 indicators of school quality" (Snyder, 18).
In Laura Berk's text, the author delved into behavioral theories such as Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It appears that the PA program discussed in this paper follows along closely with Piaget's theory. That is because a child's development in the "concrete operational stage" -- roughly the elementary school age -- is pivotal in terms of brain development. Piaget believed that at this age a child has the awareness that actions can be reversed, and given the PA emphasis on "managing oneself responsibly" the Piaget theory links up very effectively.

Meanwhile the No Child…