What do K-12 schools need to do to prepare their students for adult success? This was the question that originally catalyzed the standards-and-accountability movement some 30 years ago, though it seems somehow to have gotten lost. Today the question merits revisiting, because addressing it makes a strong case for taking an integrated approach to the social, emotional, and academic development of children rather than focusing on academics in isolation. Calls for schools to develop the "whole child" are far from new. However, as the study of education moves from a practice-based field to one that is more evidence-informed, it is becoming increasingly clear that developing students' social-emotional skills not only has value on its own, but, when based on emerging findings from the learning sciences, also improves academic outcomes. In this article, the author argues that learning science favors an approach to schooling that addresses all aspects of development--social, emotional, and academic. [For "A Prevalence of 'Policy-Evidence Making.' Forum: Should Schools Embrace Social and Emotional Learning?," see EJ1217947.]