We all know the saying: What’s assessed gets addressed. Social and emotional learning (SEL) assessments are important because they provide insight into why a student is struggling — information that traditional measures alone, such as attendance and behavior incident reports, don’t provide.
But data alone doesn’t automatically create improvement. Take action on your SEL assessment data and use it to identify students who need additional supports, understand why they are struggling, and create tailored interventions to meet their specific needs.
How This Works
A common practice many schools utilize to take action on student data is weekly data meetings that combine a variety of data sources, including SEL assessments, academic benchmarks, attendance rates, and behavior incident data. Educators review this data and use it to identify a subset of students with the most need for improvement. They create a plan for these at-risk students to meet their individual needs and check for improvements each week.
By examining traditional data measures, such as attendance and behavior incidents, educators can put together a plan for creating tailored interventions. SEL assessment data is a critical addition to this process because it sheds light on reasons why a particular student is struggling.
How This Looks
Say, for instance, that a student, Johnny, is always tardy or missing class. His grades are starting to slip and his teachers report that he is falling asleep at his desk. When the data team examines his social and emotional data they see a few flags and ask his counselor to have a conversation with Johnny about his home life. The counselor learns that Johnny helps to support his family financially. He works late at night, and that is why he is so tired in school. The SEL data gives insight intowhy Johnny is struggling and enables the data team to create an intervention that more effectively addresses the root cause of Johnny’s absence and poor grades.
In another example, Kira is failing social studies. She acts out during group projects and doesn’t cooperate with others. Teachers assume she just wants attention and isn’t motivated. But when the data team takes into account Kira’s social and emotional data, they discover that she lacks strong relationship skills and doesn’t have someone at home who provides academic support. This information leads the team to create an intervention to help Kira learn how to build strong relationships. They pair her with an older student mentor and reach out to her family to engage them in providing proper supports.
These are just two examples of how SEL assessment data helps educators better understand why students are struggling. Educators can use SEL data alongside traditional academic measures to take action and create effective, individualized interventions.
Ready to get started? Contact our SEL experts through the form below and we’ll help you create a plan that works for your school or district.