Spanish Cultural Translation of the Student Success Skills Program to Improve Academic Achievement

http://studentsuccessskills.com

Initiative Description: The SSS program is a school counselor–led, evidence‐based SEL curriculum. A bilingual certified school counselor delivered the intervention program in the 5 treatment classrooms and the classroom teacher was instructed to cue and coach their students to use the intervention strategies. The teachers in the treatment classrooms were also provided with a set of SCT-SSS curriculum posters that were displayed in the classroom and referred to throughout the day. Each intervention session started with reviewing and setting personal goals, progress monitoring, and success sharing based on 5 life skills that the students worked to improve between class meetings. The middle of each lesson reinforced new concepts, skills, and strategies to assist students in making both academic and social gains. The end of each session reintroduced goal setting, progress monitoring, and success sharing specific to academic success and teaches/reinforces students’ use of various stress and anxiety-relieving techniques and memory strategies. Students shared gains or setbacks with peers, monitored their individual progress towards set goals, and developed specific action plans to help them continuously improve. Students in the intervention group received significantly higher scores on reading math achievement tests compared to students in the control group.

Study Results: There was a statistically significant difference between groups on the posttest FCAT reading scores and FCAT math scores.

Reference: Urbina, I., Villares, E., & Mariani, M. (2017). Examining the Efficacy of the Spanish Cultural Translation of the Student Success Skills Program to Improve Academic Achievement. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling,56(2), 127-143. doi:10.1002/johc.12048

Level of Evidence: Good