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Luck is Not a Strategy: Making the most of your SEL measurement

March 9, 2022

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Melissa Spadin

Director, System of Supports

Learning and Leadership Services

Felicia Singleton

Director, System of Supports

Student Services and Programs

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Acknowledging the Land

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Community Agreements

Assume goodwill

Be fully present

Share the air

Stay curious

Listen and speak from the heart

Breathe and take care of yourself

Tell your own story

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GRENZIA

The SEL 3 Signature Practices

Engaging Practices

Optimistic Closure

Welcoming Activity

Greetings designed for inclusion

Reflections and looking forward

Attentive Listening

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“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

-Albert Einstein

Welcoming Activity

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Breakout Room Activity:

What do you wish you could measure? What would you like to quantify or make tangible?

Welcoming Activity

  • How did that feel?
  • Was the purpose of the welcoming activity clear?
  • How could you bring this to your workplace?

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  • Establish a shared, safe community of learning
  • Explore the many different purposes of SEL assessments
  • Engage in an assessment experience
  • Understand the decision making process to select and/or create appropriate SEL assessments

Intended Outcomes

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How do you feel about assessment?

1.

4.

7.

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3.

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2.

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Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) is an

integrated, comprehensive framework that aligns academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning in a fully integrated system of support for the benefit of all students.

MTSS offers the potential to create needed systemic change through intentional design and redesign of services and supports to quickly identify and match to the needs of all students.

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Assessment is the process of systematically gathering information to inform education-related decisions.

Data use is the practice of using data or information to inform practice- at the individual level, or at the program, site, or organizational level- to drive improvements in practice.

Defining Assessment and Data

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Assets Based Framing

Those who intend to measure and assess SEL must guard against bias, assess for sound reasons, protect individual privacy, and consider the strengths of youth and adults.

Those assessing must be clear on why, what, and to what end they are assessing. Otherwise, schools, districts, programs, and service providers run the risk of assessing SEL through a deficit lens.

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Ensure that data are used only to help and empower youth, never harm them or violate their privacy. Consider the equity implications of interpreting and sharing data.

When transparent and accessible, data can empower youth and families to drive positive changes in their schools and programs.

Transparency and Accessibility

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A Student Assessment Bill of Rights

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Making SEL Assessment Work: Ten Practitioner Beliefs

1. Begin intentionally and with a strong vision.

2. Assess strengths, not deficits.

3. Create a positive culture and climate.

4. Implement and assess with an equity lens.

5. Recognize the importance of adult social-emotional competence.

6. Measure for growth, not an endpoint.

7. Foster adult capacity continuously.

8. Authentically engage and collaborate with youth and families.

9. Use data to continuously improve SEL practice.

10. Implement universal and differentiated approaches to SEL development.

Making SEL Assessment Work

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Types of Social Emotional Learning Assessments

  • SEL Screener Assessments
  • Accountability/Outcome Assessments
  • Program Evaluation/Implementation Assessments
  • SEL Competency Assessments

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SEL Screener Assessments

  • Screeners can assess students’ overall general behavior, strengths, and needs.
  • Data from screeners can be used to show patterns among larger groups of students, identify the most appropriate instructional and classroom supports, and inform planning for whole class practices and instruction.

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Accountability/Outcome Assessments

Outcome assessments are typically large scale, end of year, point in time measures to determine the current state and see if there has been any change or improvement from the previous year. In California, this includes collecting climate data from a variety of educational partners for the LCAP and SPSA plans to fulfill accountability purposes.

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Program Evaluation/

Implementation Assessments

  • When implementing a new program, practice, or system it is important to have measures in place to determine whether or not the new action is successful and how to improve.
  • These measures can be fidelity of implementing the practice, the way users or recipients experience the practice (students and teacher perceptions), as well as measures of success such as improvement in well-being data or even academic performance.

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SEL Competency Assessments

  • Competency assessments are intended to measure student strengths, needs, and identify systematic needs related to teaching and learning of the SEL competencies.
  • Measures can also be used to determine adult needs and strengths in SEL competencies for coaching and support. They can be used summatively as outcome measures, or formatively to monitor progress.

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Let’s Reflect!

  • Take the self- assessment here (linked doc)
  • Reflection:
    • In what ways am I taking care of myself and others? In what areas do I need to strengthen my focus?
    • What next steps will I take to better support myself and others?
  • How could you use this data?

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A decision making

conversation process

“What’s assessed is what’s addressed”

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What…

    • What do we want to measure?
    • What data do we currently collect? Do some of our existing measures address social and emotional competencies? What’s missing?
    • What data protocol can we develop to help us interpret data and support us to achieve our goals?
    • Do we have a framework or specific standards or competencies we are trying to assess?
    • Will this be administered to every student, selected grades/classes, or a representative sample?
    • Are the assessments we are considering developmentally appropriate for the youth we serve?

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Why?

  • For what purpose are we collecting this data? Actionable information, Communication, Accountability?
  • What decisions are we trying to make with the data?
  • What theory of action or change are we using?

GRENZIA

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Who?

  • Do we have the correct people on this decision making team to ensure equity in voice, knowledge of technology, and data reporting? Are these decision makers reflective of our students in terms of race, lived experience, socioeconomic status, gender identity, context & culture?
  • Who will be making the decisions based on the data, and how frequently?
  • Who will take the next steps, by when, and how will we follow up?

GRENZIA

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Where?

  • Is there a central place (SIS, other documentation system) for documenting and tracking this information?
  • Where will data be shared publicly?

GRENZIA

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How?

  • Will we use the data formatively or summatively?
  • How can we encourage the use of multiple types of data (qualitative and quantitative), gathered in diverse ways and at various times?
  • Do we have the appropriate next steps and interventions aligned to these decisions? How will we know when youth need more intensive support in SEL; what are the indicators?
  • How will this be paid for? What is the current and ongoing budget to purchase and manage ongoing costs?

GRENZIA

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How?

  • Will we push out the assessment in our own system, or is it housed in a vendor’s system?
  • Do we currently have a way to visualize the data either on its own, or along with other pertinent data?
  • How will we communicate the results to staff, students, families, and other educational partners?
  • How will we ensure that we highlight strengths and areas for growth (avoiding stigmatizing language) when communicating assessment results?

GRENZIA

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When?

  • What is our timeline for selection, adoption, implementation, and reporting of data?
  • Will we have control of the assessment window, as well as the data reporting timeline?
  • If using data formatively, how quickly can data be collected and reported?

GRENZIA

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  • What do you want to know at your school or district?
  • Where can you start this process?
  • Who should be part of this conversation?

What Next?

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Q & A

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Optimistic Closure

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Thank you

We all need feedback to improve and grow!

bit.ly/MarchSEL22Feedback