SEL Field Notes – May 17, 2019

This newsletter is curated by the American Institutes for Research and CASEL for the MeasuringSEL Collaborator Network and aims to keep you engaged with news, research, and resources relevant to measurement and data in the field of social and emotional learning.
Please let us know what you are reading, doing and seeing in the field that’s worth sharing. Tell us about it here!

Measurement in Practice

Education Dive: Uniform privacy policy could help safeguard student data
As chief information officer (CIO) for Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, Andrew Moore believes a uniform privacy policy would benefit students and allow for ed tech growth. In an interview with Edscoop, Moore pointed to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as a good example of how this can be done. A uniform national policy would save a lot of time and resources, which would be especially helpful for smaller districts with more limited resources, Moore said.

Research and Deep Dives

Brookings: Schooling and skills reduce gender wage gaps – but not completely

Increasingly globalized economies and profound technological shifts are placing enormous pressure on the skills that people must bring to the workplace. In the case of girls and women, these stresses are compounded by constraints that stem from social norms and labor market structures that shape labor forced participation, livelihood, and earnings. Despite convergence in schooling levels between men and women in many countries, gaps in earnings and labor force participation between men and women persist. Are differences in cognitive and noncognitive skills the missing piece of the puzzle?

Brookings: A collaborative approach to teaching and assessing 21^st century skills in Africa
Millions of students around the world are leaving school without learning the most basic skills – often referred to as a “global learning crisis.” But, just as importantly, education systems are not preparing these students for the jobs of the future. In today’s globally interconnected world – a world that is constantly and rapidly changing – 21^st century skills such  as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration are more important than ever before. Content knowledge is no longer sufficient; students need to be able to think creatively and critically, work collaboratively, analyze information, and solve complex problems.

Inside Higher Ed: ‘Born to win, schooled to lose’
Race and class matter when it comes to who gets ahead educationally in American society, according to an analysis released by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The report, “Born to Win, Schooled to Lose: Why Equally Talented Students Don’t Get Equal Chances to Be All They Can Be,” analyzes various federal education databases to show that children who are black or Latinx or are from low-socioeconomic-status families perform worse over time academically that those who are white, Asian American or are from higher socioeconomic levels. The part of the report that may be particularly alarming is that these trends hold true even for disadvantaged students who are academically talented and for those who are privileged but less academically talented.