Update on the Growth and Diversity of the Collaborator Network

Over a year ago, the Assessment Work Group created Measuring SEL and the Collaborator Network for Social and Emotional Competence Assessment as a powerful opportunity for members to exchange ideas, forge new relationships and collaborations, and provide input to ultimately help address some of the most critical questions about SE assessment facing educators and researchers today.

The collaborator network has been steadily growing and is now almost 11 times larger than a year ago with almost 1800 members (see graph)! We have members from all 50 states and 67 different countries representing all continents and both developed and developing nations!

Members play a range of roles with respect to SEL as well, with 70% indicating they are in practice roles, 52% indicating research roles, almost a third in administrative roles (32%), and a quarter in policy roles (24%). Network members could select more than one role. Network members also come from the full range of developmental age groups from preschool through post-secondary schools.  Primarily using the Collaborator Network, we were able to generate over 200 nominations for the National Practitioner Advisory Group that met recently.

We are especially excited about the connections the Measuring SEL blog has facilitated and grateful to our wonderful authors who have contributed blog posts.  All are archived and searchable to make it easy to find topics relevant to your work.  If you are interested in contributing a blog to the Measuring SEL site, please contact Teresa Borowski at tborowski@casel.org.

We hope Collaborator Network members will continue to respond to surveys, read the blog, and add perspectives by commenting on the blog. We are also exploring ways to help members connect with each other in the year ahead.  If you haven’t already, Join the Network here to learn about current SEL initiatives, be inspired by stories from people using assessment in practice, provide input and share your experiences, and see projects in the SEL community! Weekly emails will notify you when the newest blogs are released each Wednesday.

We are proud to have a growing network of people who are working to create better lives for children and foster their success in school, work, and life.