Inspire Archives - Page 4 of 9

Before we try to measure their skills, let’s assess the environment in which they are learning

February 6, 2019 Inspire

Rose Pennington is a classroom teacher, education consultant and PhD student at the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University. Contact: rose@penningtoneducation.com. Like many teachers, I focus the assessment in my classroom on formative as well as summative measurements of what my students can do. While I am interested in the knowledge they have gained following a five week mathematics program for example, I pay just as much, if not more attention to the knowledge my students bring with them to the classroom on the first day. By taking care to understand what I must build upon, I can ensure that my students develop in the most efficient manner possible. The same perspective applies to…

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Balancing and Aligning District and School Leader Approaches to SEL Assessment

Eric Moore, Chief of Accountability, Research and Equity and Interim Chief of Academics Erin Rathke, Principal Justice Page Middle School Minneapolis Public Schools As a district level administrator and middle school principal, we wanted to jointly write this blog in an attempt to align theory with practice around SEL measurement. From our experiences in education, there is often a disconnect between the grandiose ideas and practices of district office staff and the day to day experience of building principals. In 2017, Minneapolis public schools became a member of the CASEL collaborating district initiative. Our goal as a district is for all seventy-two of our schools to begin integrating elements of social and emotional learning, including SEL measurement, into all…

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New Year, New Approach: One Organization’s Re-SEL-utions for Overcoming SEL Measurement Challenges

January 16, 2019 Inspire

By: Linda Galib, Urban Initiatives Social emotional learning. Such a complex concept wrapped up into three words. As the Research and Evaluation Director for Urban Initiatives–a nonprofit, sports-based positive youth development organization that partners with 55 Chicago Public Schools and serves nearly 17,000 K-12 youth–my job is to ensure that our evaluation efforts accurately and systematically capture the change our program staff sees day-in and day-out in our participants. We use the power of sport and play to empower Chicago youth during recess and out-of-school time programming. Concerning social emotional learning specifically, we believe the hands-on and experiential nature of this sports-based approach allows us to strategically impact social emotional growth with long-term outcomes. Social emotional learning is critical to…

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Washoe County Schools Embeds SEL Assessment in their Climate Surveys

November 20, 2018 Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

Washoe County Schools uses an SEL assessment embedded in their climate surveys. All students in grades 5-9 and 11 take the survey annually. It is administered online via a link on their website. Washoe County staff didn’t feel comfortable putting SEL scores on student profiles, so they focus on aggregate reporting. They report on SEL in a simple way: for each SEL domain, they report the percent of students who rated the competencies within that domain as easy or difficult. The data are publicly accessible on their website. The climate survey reports (including SEL data) are generated by a vendor. PDFs of overall school results are compiled with other data and given to schools. They developed survey items in part…

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Creative Ways SEL Assessment Informs Curriculum Around the World

November 14, 2018 Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

By Cherilyn G. Leet and Dr. Susan Stillman (Six Seconds) The results of SEL assessments can be intriguing, motivating, and tied to curriculum. They do not have to be dry, feared, or detached. In our experience working with educators from the Americas to Europe, from the Middle East to Asia to Africa, data from SEL assessments have the potential to imbue a school with life. When all stakeholders come together with curiosity to explore the data and wisdom that can be derived from SEL assessments, the insights gained can lay the groundwork for positive change. Strong SEL assessments can become the axles which bring the school’s curriculum design, behavioral intervention, parent engagement, and teacher collaboration into sync. The…

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Before we try to measure their skills, let’s assess the environment in which they are learning

Balancing and Aligning District and School Leader Approaches to SEL Assessment

New Year, New Approach: One Organization’s Re-SEL-utions for Overcoming SEL Measurement Challenges

Washoe County Schools Embeds SEL Assessment in their Climate Surveys

Creative Ways SEL Assessment Informs Curriculum Around the World

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