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SEL Assessment in Action

The SEL Assessment in Action series is an ongoing effort to collect stories from educators who are using measures of SEL competencies. These vignettes are the product of written testimonies and qualitative interviews, conducted by the guide team, of educators who are using SEL competence assessments in practice.

Over time, this series will represent an increasing variety of contexts and uses of assessment to help illustrate for other practitioners how assessments can be used to improve the social and emotional skills of students.

Two For One: Using Our Academic Assessment Practices to Measure SEL

Two For One: Using Our Academic Assessment Practices to Measure SEL

Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

By: Rose Pennington, Institute of Positive Psychology and Education   Having spent last year out of the classroom and devoted to my PhD studies, I am loving being back with students (albeit three days a week) because I can apply much of what I have been studying to my practice, to see how it looks like ‘in real life.’ Given that my thesis is examining the ways in which teachers can promote both academic potential and social and emotional skills, I have been considering whether the strategies touted for academic assessment would also serve to measure the social and emotional competencies I want my students to demonstrate.   At my school there is a targeted focus this year on formative […]

Austin’s Experience Using Multiple Measures of SEL

Austin’s Experience Using Multiple Measures of SEL

Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

By Lindsay Lamb, Program Evaluation Coordinator, Austin Independent School District   Measures of students’ SEL competence can be used alongside other data to support decisions around program implementation. Currently, the Austin Independent School District’s (AISD) Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) uses multiple measures to assess effective SEL implementation, including an SEL Implementation Survey; AISD Student Climate Survey; Teaching Empowering, Leading, Learning (TELL) AISD Staff Climate Survey; Family Survey; PK-6th grade students’ personal development skills (report card ratings); and academic performance, attendance, and discipline data. Elementary school teachers’ assessment of their students’ SEL skills Every 9 weeks, teachers assess the frequency with which their PK-6th grade students engage in SEL-related skills using the personal development skills report card ratings. These ratings are […]

How Student SEL Competence Assessment Can Improve Teaching and Learning

How Student SEL Competence Assessment Can Improve Teaching and Learning

Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

By: Clark McKown, xSEL Labs A recent survey reported by Ed Week Market Brief indicates that 90% of instructional leaders are considering or have committed to investing in social and emotional learning (SEL). Much of that investment will go towards purchasing SEL programs, such as those listed in CASEL’s program guide. We know from quantitative summaries of many, many program evaluations that, when implemented well, these programs can lead to improved academic, social, and emotional outcomes (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). The program evaluations summarized by Durlak and colleagues carefully measured student outcomes to understand program impact. Outside of the context of this kind of study, however, educators rarely have an opportunity to use high-quality student assessment in […]

Connecting the Dots of SEL Assessment: Methodologies that Matter for Students, Teachers, and Policy

Connecting the Dots of SEL Assessment: Methodologies that Matter for Students, Teachers, and Policy

Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

By: Christina Cipriano, Ph.D.   You can’t have evidence-based practice without evidence. You can’t have evidence without assessments. But, what are the “right” assessments for SEL? Assessments that matter for students. Accessible assessments match students’ needs, and their results direct student pathways to engagement and learning. Assessments that matter for practice. Good assessments capture learning in a meaningful way and promote the building of an evidence base of best practice for instruction. Effective assessments provide real-time information for educators to teach from — scores that support student growth and inform teacher instruction. Assessments that matter for policy. Formative, summative, and standardized assessment structures play a key role in federal education and accountability mandates, and scores contribute to funding distributions at the […]

Balancing and Aligning District and School Leader Approaches to SEL Assessment

Balancing and Aligning District and School Leader Approaches to SEL Assessment

Inspire SEL Assessment in Action

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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