Assessing Social and Emotional Learning

Can we measure the growth of our students’ social and emotional learning skills? Our country’s K-12 principals suggest a resounding yes.

According to a 2017 survey from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), over 80% of K-12 principals believe in the importance of social and emotional skills, and over 70% recognize that these competencies can be accurately measured. The question is how.

The CASEL results suggest that only a mere 17% of principals report that they are familiar with assessments that measure social and emotional learning—but they do exist.

At the Housman Institute lab school, Beginnings School and Child Development Center, the pioneering begin to ECSEL approach works to actively promote social and emotional skills in young children. These competencies, foundational for lifelong success, mental health, and well-being, include emotional competence, self-regulation, and prosocial skills, such as empathy. The training and research institute integrates assessments that measure these competencies in order to accurately assess children’s skills and the effectiveness of the begin to ECSEL approach.

Says Dr. Donna Housman, founder and CEO of the Housman Institute: “When we talk about social and emotional learning, we are really talking about promoting social and emotional competencies, such as self-regulation and empathy. Children need to be aware of, express appropriately, manage, and regulate the intensity of both their emotions and those of others. We need to be actively training our teachers in how best to support the growth of these competencies and, at the same time, evaluating how effective we are in meeting our teaching objectives.”

One tool that Beginnings utilizes to measure these competencies is the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA), which assesses self-regulation, attachment, and initiative. The school also employs other psychometric measures to gauge emotional competence, empathy, and other pro-social skills for children as young as two-and-a-half years old.

“Just as it is accepted that we need to be assessing literacy and numeracy skills during school years, we need to be addressing not only pre-literacy and pre-numeracy but also other social and emotional skills during preschool years,” stresses Dr. Housman. Pointing to the growing recognition of the important role these skills play in children’s development, Dr. Housman notes that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expanded their assessments this past May to include the Baby Pisa early learning assessment that measures academic, social and emotional competencies for five-year-olds including self-regulation and empathy.

The CASEL report further suggests that while 70% of principals expect their teachers to be social and emotionally competent, 60% reference a lack of teacher training for supporting students. Dr. Housman agrees, explaining that she conducts weekly teacher trainings to scaffold her staff in incorporating these competencies.

Concludes Dr. Housman: “Teacher training and assessment need to be fully incorporated into evidence-based early childhood programs to strengthen our ability not only as educators and caregivers but also as champions of our children and their future success.”