If one of your primary focuses is supporting students’ social-emotional learning needs this school year, consider this to assist your evaluation of SEAD assessments. This resource, developed by EdTrust, a nonprofit that advocates for advancing politics to dismantle racial and economic barriers within education, is broken into four sections, which we’ll briefly break down.
The first focuses on equity-centered design, which helps leaders identify Social, Emotional, and Academic Development assessments that value students’ assets and recognize the impact of systemic inequities on students’ experiences. For instance, are you using assessments that focus on students’ assets and recognize their contexts and cultural identities?
The next section covers the purpose and context in which a SEAD assessment should be used. There are many different assessments in the SEAD space, each designed to achieve various outcomes. Here are a couple of things to consider:
- Assessments that lack clear guidance about the context in which they should be used. While some districts with SEAD experts may feel comfortable incorporating these, districts that lack such resources may not.
- Assessments that do not have an appropriate research-based purpose. For instance, the purpose of a SEAD assessment should not be the diagnosis of students.
The third section centers around validation and technical quality. This will help leaders understand the key considerations for identifying assessments that will produce reliable results.
District leaders should ask questions like:
- Are the items written with language appropriate for the intended audience?
- Was the assessment piloted with diverse participants?
- Is the assessment reliable across diverse groups of respondents?
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And finally, the last section focuses on connecting policy and practice changes. Leaders can use this to identify assessments and how to use assessment data to inform decision-making.
One of the most important steps in this area includes engaging with your teachers when implementing SEAD assessments. Currently, many developers recommend that teachers take time to reflect on current practices, change classroom procedures and build relationships with students and families in response to assessment results.
However, this can be an overwhelming ask. Instead, leaders should find ways to ensure teachers are supported in SEAD efforts rather than adding additional burdens.
You can read EdTrust’s recommendations for each of the sections mentioned in its comprehensive report .
