The Mission Skills Assessment in Action: What Is Happening in Schools?

• In Event: 65.071 - Measuring Social and Emotional Learning Skills Using the Mission Skills Assessment

Abstract

The catalyst for initial collaboration between the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Independent Schools Data Exchange (INDEX) was a question posed by INDEX: “How can we prove, with scientific data, that we are doing what we say we are doing in our mission statements?” INDEX member schools believe that, in addition to the traditional cognitive curriculum, they promote and develop a number of other skills, often referred to as noncognitive or social emotional skills (e.g., resilience, motivation, and ethics), that are important for success in academics, the workforce, and life in general (Heckman et al, 2010; Peyton, et al, 2008). These skills are even highlighted in the schools’ various mission statements. The Mission Skills Assessment (MSA) was created to provide a way for schools to evaluate the levels and growth of key noncognitive skills in their students.

However, what schools do with these results remains somewhat unclear: Are schools using MSA results to help guide or change class or school-wide curriculum? to establish dialogue among schools, parents, teachers? or to compare themselves with each other to help identify best practices? Anecdotally evidence indicates that INDEX schools are using the MSA for all of these purposes, yet this has not been formally investigated and documented since the inception of this project four years ago. The focus of this paper is to understand how data from the Mission Skills Assessment is translated into actionable change within individual schools.

This paper will utilize a holistic multiple-case study design (Yin, 2009) to understand how schools use their MSA results in their classrooms. For the present study, a case is defined as an individual school currently participating in the MSA study. Four cases will be selected to satisfy the following categories: (1) two cases that have demonstrated history and active involvement with the MSA; (2) one case that has a long-standing character program; and (3) one case that is initiating a new program based on MSA results. These cases most accurately represent the total INDEX MSA sample.

Several sources of evidence will be collected during the 2014-1015 academic year, including direct classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with schools administrators and teachers, and archival records (e.g., newsletters, marketing materials). All data sources will be transcribed and uploaded into NVivo 10 for analysis. Analysis of data will use an explanation-building technique with an application of replication logic to interpret the findings across multiples cases (Yin, 2003).

As interest in this assessment and the project continues to grow, there becomes a need to identify best practices in order to sustain the project and continue to bring it to scale. Information gathered from the case studies will help inform the larger INDEX community of best practices to further promote the MSA.

Authors

• Meghan Wilson Brenneman, ETS

• Jennifer Phillips, Far Hills Country Day School

• Lisa Pullman, Independent School Data Exchange