This is the second part in our blog series about how to evaluate the merits of an SEL assessment. The last post provided an overview of judging whether an assessment is up to the task. Upcoming blog posts will demystify …
A Consumer’s Guide to Social and Emotional Assessment Before getting into the business of assessing student social and emotional competence, most people would agree that it is wise to critically evaluate assessment options. Here’s the catch: Most people don’t have …
Why do you believe the SEL field is gaining momentum, and how do you hope the upcoming SEL Exchange captures and advances that momentum? First, it is pretty universally accessible—most people can grasp the kinds of competencies it takes to …
Why, How, and When to Get Help with SEL Program Evaluation Most of us want to know if what we’re doing is making a difference. It’s human nature. In the world of school-based social and emotional learning, there are other …
Read MoreEvaluating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Program Impact
Well-intended colleagues in the SEL community sometimes encourage school districts to create their own social and emotional competence assessments. They do so, as far as I can tell, with the intention of encouraging educators to create SEL competence assessments that …
Read MoreSocial Emotional Learning (SEL) Assessment: Build or Buy?
Since I received my PhD, I have worked hard to unlearn the copious amounts of jargon endemic to the social sciences. Don’t get me wrong: The right jargon can be an economical way to pack a lot of information in …
Read MoreEvidence-Based SEL and Data-Informed SEL: Not the Same; Both Important
(Spoiler Alert: The Answer is, Carefully) I just attended a terrific meeting with educational leaders and educational innovators. It was inspirational to engage attendees as we all struggled with important questions about how best to support student academic, …
Educators who want to focus on supporting student social and emotional learning (SEL) face very real challenges as they move from intention to action. One of the more obvious challenges is how to go about teaching social and emotional skills. …
Read MoreSocial and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs and Practices
Specialization in Social and Emotional Learning The field of social and emotional learning (SEL), like most fields, has its silos. This, as I see it, is the inevitable and natural consequence of the high level of sustained effort required to …
In the last blog post, I suggested using a student SEL assessment that is designed to measure the skills your SEL program is designed to teach. I noted that xSEL Labs has crosswalked several widely used SEL programs with SELweb, …
Read MoreStrengthening SEL Program Implementation with Assessment Data
