Can We Measure High-Quality Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Instruction? Exploring Teacher Effects on Students' SEL

• In Event: 47.090 - Social-Emotional Learning Measurement and Continuous Improvement: Lessons From the CORE Districts

Abstract

Teachers play a critical role in helping establish classroom and school environments that contribute to students’ social and emotional development (Blazar & Kraft, 2017; Kraft, 2017; Jackson, 2014). In order to explore whether this role can be measured for the purposes of assessing school quality, it is necessary to examine whether we can reliably estimate teacher effects on students’ SEL. This paper aims to evaluate whether we can develop a teacher-level measure of student growth in SEL by applying statistical methods (i.e., value-added models) often used to assess teacher impacts in math and English language arts to students’ self-reported surveys of SEL. In doing so, this paper starts to explore possible uses of students’ self-reported SEL within schools, districts, and states. By assessing whether we can develop a sound approach for measuring teachers’ impacts on students’ SEL, we aim to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about appropriate and innovative uses of data on students’ non-cognitive and social-emotional learning (CASEL, 2017).

In this paper, we analyze data from the 2016-17 and 2017-18 administrations of student self-report surveys within six California school districts, which include responses from nearly 500,000 students each year. We focus on students in Grades 4 and 5, since these are typically self-contained classrooms with one teacher of record for a group of students. By first establishing whether we can estimate teacher-level effects of students’ SEL for self-contained classrooms, we can build a statistical foundation for estimating such effects before exploring possible generalizations and applications to more complex teacher-student links (e.g., in middle and high school, in co-teaching environments, or for special education teachers pushing into general education classrooms). We estimate separate value-added models for each of the four SEL constructs assessed—growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness. Finally, we compare the results of these models to value-added models for math and English language arts, in order to assess the relative strength and robustness of the SEL value-added models.

As conversations around using students’ SEL in possible school accountability systems continue—particularly in response to the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015—this paper aims to provide some preliminary evidence as to whether we can measure teachers’ impact on students’ SEL. In addition, these results begin to shed light on whether embedding SEL into teachers’ existing pedagogical practices might produce measurable impacts on students’ SEL, which further informs how schools and districts think about programs, policies, and initiatives to intervene on students’ SEL.

Authors

• Robert H. Meyer, Education Analytics

• Libby Pier, Education Analytics

• Jordan Mader, Education Analytics

• Andrew B Rice, Education Analytics Inc.