What is Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)?
YouthTruth ascribes to the framework developed over the last 25 years at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which organizes social-emotional learning (SEL) into the “big five”: Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. These domains provide a research-based framework for instruction, school-improvement efforts, and for assessing individual students’ SEL aptitude.
Why Measure SEL?
There is strong evidence that social-emotional skills predict a variety of individual academic and life outcomes. There is also consensus that students’ assessments of their own social-emotional skill sets — as well as students’ evaluation of supports for those skills in the environment — are a valuable, viable, and reliable source of data for evaluating school performance. The use of student feedback to improve the school environment for all students’ healthy development is at the heart of the YouthTruth approach.
YouthTruth joined CASEL to share findings from student voice surveys taken before and during the pandemic, as well as how this data is informing efforts in school communities.
Presented Friday, April 23, 2021
Featuring Jennifer de Forest, Ed.D and Jimmy Simpson, Jr. from YouthTruth and Shelly Reggiani, Ed.D from North Clackamas School District.
How YouthTruth Measures SEL?
YouthTruth surveys include individual students’ self-reported SEL results in the context of a holistic set of survey measures about the school. In tune with leading SEL researchers, YouthTruth believes that student self-reports should not be used in high-stakes accountability systems, and we do not report individual student SEL data. We do provide demographic subgroups’ data to identify areas for improvement and to highlight inequities. YouthTruth surveys reflect the reality that positive individual student development is a whole-school effort, and that it is the work of classrooms, schools, and communities to maintain supports for that development.
How are SEL items included in YouthTruth Surveys?
YouthTruth asks students questions about supports in the school environment for their social-emotional development. These questions appear across YouthTruth survey themes which are listed in parentheses after each question.
Below the YouthTruth questions are mapped to CASEL’s big five competencies.
Self-Awareness
Does my school value and support students’ development of self-awareness?
Elementary School Student Self-Awareness Questions
- Does your teacher ask you to keep trying when the work gets hard? (Engagement)
- Do you think your teacher wants you to work your hardest? (Engagement)
- Does your teacher want you to do your best? (Engagement)
- Does your teacher tell you that you can do well if you work hard? (Instructional Methods)
Middle School Student Self-Awareness Questions
- How many of your teachers believe that you can get a good grade if you try? (Relationships)
- How many of your teachers are not just satisfied if you pass, they care if you’re really learning? (Relationships)
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- In most of my classes, we learn to correct our mistakes. (Academic Rigor)
- In order to get a good grade, I have to work hard in my classes. (Academic Rigor)
High School Student Self-Awareness Questions
- My teachers’ expectations make me want to do my best (Engagement)
- How many of your teachers believe that you can get a good grade if you try? (Relationships)
- How many of your teachers are not just satisfied if you pass, they care if you’re really learning? (Relationships)
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- In most of my classes, we learn to correct our mistakes. (Academic Rigor)
Self-Management
Does my school value and support students’ development of self-management?
Elementary School Student Self-Management Questions
- Does your teacher ask you to keep trying when the work gets hard? (Engagement)
- Does your class stay busy and not waste time? (Culture)
- Do students behave well in your class? (Culture)
Middle School Student Self-Management Questions
- Most students at this school are friendly to me. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- In order to get a good grade, I have to work hard in my classes. (Academic Rigor)
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- Most students in this school treat adults with respect. (Culture)
High School Student Self-Management Questions
- Most students at this school are friendly to me. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- Most students in this school want to do well in class. (Culture)
- Most students in this school treat adults with respect. (Culture)
Social-Awareness
Does my school value and support students’ development of social-awareness?
Elementary School Student Social-Awareness Questions
- Is your teacher fair to you? (Relationships)
- Does your teacher treat you with respect? (Relationships)
- Has anyone bullied you at school in the last year? (Relationships, Bullying Questions)
- Do adults in your school respect people from different backgrounds? (Culture)
Middle School Student Social-Awareness Questions
- Most adults in this school treat students with respect. (Culture)
- Most students in this school treat adults with respect. (Culture)
- Adults in my school respect people from different backgrounds (For example, people of different races, ethnicities, and genders). (Culture)
- Discipline in this school is fair. (Culture)
- In the past year, have other students bullied or harassed you? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration, Bullying Questions)
- How many of your teachers try to be fair? (Relationships)
High School Student Social-Awareness Questions
- Most adults in this school treat students with respect. (Culture)
- Most students in this school treat adults with respect. (Culture)
- Adults in my school respect people from different backgrounds (for example, people of different races, ethnicities, and genders). (Culture)
- Discipline in this school is fair. (Culture)
- In the past year, have other students bullied or harassed you? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration, Bullying Questions)
- How many of your teachers try to be fair? (Relationships)
Relationship Skills
Does my school value and support students’ development of relationship skills?
Elementary School Student Relationship Skill Questions
- Do you like the way your teacher treats you when you need help? (Relationships)
- Do you think your teacher cares about you? (Relationships)
- Does your teacher ask you about your life at home? (Relationships)
- Has anyone bullied you at school in the last year? (Relationships, Bullying Questions)
Middle School Student Relationship Skill Questions
- I can usually be myself around other students at this school. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- Most students at this school are friendly to me. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- I really feel like a part of my school’s community. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- How often do you work with other students for your classes because your teachers ask or tell you to? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- How often do you work with other students for your classes even when your teacher doesn’t ask or tell you to? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- In the past year, have other students bullied or harassed you? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration, Bullying Questions)
- How many of your teachers make an effort to understand what your life is like outside of school? (Relationships)
- In your school this year, is there at least one adult who would be willing to help you with a personal problem? (Relationships)
- How many of your teachers try to understand what your life is like outside of school? (Relationships)
High School Student Relationship Skill Questions
- I really feel like part of my school’s community. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- I can usually be myself around other students at this school. (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- How often do you work with other students for your classes because your teachers ask or tell you to? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- How often do you work with other students for your classes even when your teacher doesn’t ask or tell you to? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration)
- In the past year, have other students bullied or harassed you? (Belonging & Peer Collaboration, Bullying Questions)
- How many of your teachers make an effort to understand what your life is like outside of school? (Relationships)
- In your school this year, is there at least one adult who would be willing to help you with a personal problem? (Relationships)
- In your school this year, is there at least one adult who you could ask to write you a recommendation for a job, program, scholarship, or college? (Relationships)
Responsible Decision-Making
Does my school value and support students’ development of responsible decision making?
Elementary School Student Decision-Making Questions
- Does the work you do for class make you really think? (Academic Rigor)
- Does your homework help you learn? (Academic Rigor)
- Does your teacher let you explain your ideas? (Instructional Methods)
- When you make a mistake, does your teacher help you correct it? (Instructional Methods)
- Does your teacher ask you to show your work? (Instructional Methods)
- Does your teacher ask you if you understand what you are learning? (Instructional Methods)
Middle School Student Decision-Making Questions
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- In most of my classes, we learn to correct our mistakes. (Academic Rigor)
- Most of my teachers want me to explain my answers – why I think what I think. (Academic Rigor)
- My teachers give me assignments that really help me learn. (Academic Rigor)
High School Student Decision-Making Questions
- The work that I do for my classes makes me really think. (Academic Rigor)
- Most of my teachers want me to explain my answers – why I think what I think. (Academic Rigor)
- Most of my teachers don’t let people give up when the work gets hard. (Academic Rigor)
- In most of my classes, we learn to correct our mistakes. (Academic Rigor)
- Most of my teachers want us to use our thinking skills, not just memorize things. (Academic Rigor)
- In order to receive a good grade, I have to work hard in my classes. (Academic Rigor)
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Strengthens Social-Emotional Learning
Located in the Dallas suburbs, Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (CFBISD) serves nearly 26,000 students across 36 schools. The district centers around a singular mission: continuous improvement. In 2013, CFBISD partnered with YouthTruth to gather annual feedback from its students in order to learn where targeted improvements could be made to keep the district on track in fulfilling its mission.
When Stephanie Jimenez, principal at Field Middle School, received her first year of student feedback data, it was sobering. “Our biggest takeaways were that our kids don’t feel close to other kids, and they don’t feel close to adults,” says Jimenez. “We had to look at that for what it is.”
This data confirmed what Jimenez and other school leaders knew anecdotally and provided more concrete insights to help prioritize social-emotional learning and relationship building. The student feedback on school culture and relationships with teachers and peers helped lead to the implementation of a new social-emotional learning program called Homeroom/Home-base.
Taking forty five minutes out of the school day to build students’ social-emotional skills and relationships is an investment, and it’s one that has paid off for Field Middle School. As a result of the program, they saw more positive feedback in their YouthTruth data on relationships with teachers, relationships with peers, and overall school culture measures. They’ve also seen the positive impact on their disciplinary referral rates, which dropped nearly 30%.
“Kids and their parents are seeing the huge benefits of this time together, and it’s all evidence of the feedback they gave us in the YouthTruth survey,” says Jimenez. “I’m so glad we get to do this every year.”
First Semester Discipline/Tardy Referrals
HOMEROOM
- Group of 15-20 students and a teacher, grouped by gender to foster trust and understanding
- Meetings at the beginning of every school day
- Use of common lesson plan on a weekly topic to facilitate conversations
- Topics focus on social-emotional learning and character development
HOME-BASE
- Meetings at the end of the school day
- Circle format for conversations
- Engage in peer support practices during student conversations about personal lives
- Relationship building
- Team building exercises to promote trust and to strengthen relationships