Using the Character Skills Snapshot for Program Planning and Student Success

• In Event: 25.079 - Leveraging Social and Emotional Learning for Student Success: From Assessment to Program Implementation

Abstract

Character development is at the core of many independent schools and often serves as a differentiating factor for families when choosing a school for their children. In fact, in a recent survey of over 2,700 families, 92% stated that developing their child’s moral character was an extremely important factor when deciding on a private school (EMA, Ride to Independent School, 2017). For families considering private school, the admission process has not changed in over 50 years. Every school has local variations on what they include in the application packet but generally what is required is some combination of grades, test scores, recommendations, extracurricular activities, an interview, a writing sample, financial aid information and a personal statement.
Although not formally assessed, admission teams would extract information about an applicant’s character when reviewing the applicants file. Last year, as an addition to our process, our school decided to accept Character Skill Snapshot results from our applicants. As a school very interested in character development, we have spent the last 4 years collaborating with 40 other independent schools to guide the development of a standardized character assessment. The 2017-18 admission cycle was the first time the Snapshot was available for schools to use.
This paper will detail our decision logic to introduce a new requirement into our admission process. It will highlight the difficult conversations held between various stakeholders in the school community. The paper will focus on how the admission team decided to use the Snapshot in the process and how the information provided helped our team know the applicant better. The paper will highlight challenges when introducing a new tool into a high-stakes process. The paper will conclude with some considerations for next steps.

Author

• Nandita Bajaj, University of Toronto Schools