Although few educators, youth development practitioners, and student support services personnel question the importance of helping children to develop the skills necessary to be successful in the workplace, make ethical decisions, and be engaged and contributing citizens, these skills are rarely taught explicitly and effectively. The pressures of accountability for student performance, accelerated by the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, lead educators to focus solely on improving test scores in the core areas of reading and mathematics. Today's out-of-school-time programming is also overwhelmingly under pressure to maintain an academic focus. This focus on testing means that too often, academic subjects are divorced from the social context in which they are taught. Educators feel they must choose between teaching content or teaching character; between engaging students in the study of great literature or nurturing great values; between preparing for high-stakes tests or preparing for the high-stakes tasks of learning to cooperate with peers, avoiding risk-taking behaviors, and engaging in positive civic activities. In this article, the authors describe social and emotional learning (SEL) which is the process of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively. SEL provides educators, both in and out of schools, with a way to address the needs of all students by teaching critical skills for success in school and life, while still focusing on their primary academic mission. (Contains 1 figure and 7 notes.)