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Task Force on

Social & Emotional Learning:

Report & Recommendations

Prepared January 6, 2015

for

Generation Next Data Committee Review

Background within Generation Next Effort

Early recognition of the importance of “Non-Cognitive” Factors when considering creation of Gen Next

Explored ways other cities dealt with these factors

September 2012 -- Goals and Measures Committee recommends 5 academic goals and creation of a “Non-Cognitive Task Force”

August 2013 Strive Together releases national report Beyond Content on measuring social & emotional competencies

September 2013 -- Non-Cognitive Task Force recommends explicit 6th goal on social and emotional learning factors and indicates work needed on measurement

January, 2014 -- new Social and Emotional Learning Task Force created and charged

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The Task Force Charge

1. To recommend language for a goal

2. To explore possible data sources & measures in this area

3. To recommend baseline and ongoing monitoring data options

4. To inform the shape and direction of any action work created around this goal

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Task Force Members & Participants

Chair

• Dale Blyth – University of Minnesota

Members

• Jane Eastwood – City of St. Paul

• Paul Mattessich– Wilder Research

• Jonathan May – Generation Next

• Joe Munnich – St. Paul Public Schools

• Eric Moore – Minneapolis Public Schools

• Kent Pekel – Search Institute

• Michael Rodriguez – University of Minnesota

• Katy Friesz – Carlson Family Foundation

With additional participation and input from Victor Cedeño, Jeremiah Ellis, Frank Forsberg, Janna Hottinger,

and R.T. Rybak from Generation Next

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Why a goal around “non-cognitive” factors?

Research shows . . .

“Non-cognitive” 21st Century skills predict

– Success in school

– Success in college and careers

– Success in life

Predictions are as strong or stronger than cognitive factors

These skills are themselves valuable outcomes

Business, government, and other organizations increasingly require workers who possess strong “non-cognitive” skills

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In the words of James Heckman

Character skills such as perseverance,

conscientiousness, sociability and

curiosity, “…rival IQ in predicting

educational attainment, labor

market success, health and

criminality Heckman and Kautz

(2013).

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Why Focus Specifically on Social & Emotional Skills?

National Academy of Science’s 2012 Report on 21st Century Skills notes three types

• Cognitive (e.g., critical thinking and problem solving)

• Interpersonal (social)

• Intrapersonal (emotional)

The later two comprise what is often referred to as “non-cognitive” skills

These areas are more appropriately called social and emotional skills than “non-cognitive” because they do clearly involve cognition and are teachable

There is now considerable research, energy and momentum around social and emotional learning (e.g., see CASEL)

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Benefits of Improving Social and Emotional Learning

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Good science links

Social & Emotional Learning to the following:

POSITIVE

GAINS

Social-

emotional skills

Improved

attitudes about

self, others, and

school

Positive

classroom

behavior

11 percentile-

point gain on

achievement

tests

REDUCED

RISKS

Conduct

problems

Aggressive

behavior

Emotional

distress

Durlak, et al (2011)

What we know about social and emotional skills

These skills are teachable and can be learned – they are not stable personality types

These skills are both “TAUGHT” directly as well as “CAUGHT” in the environments children experience every day – whether or not we do anything to help

While the foundation for these skills is laid in early childhood and elementary school years,

– They too often decrease during the middle school and high school years for many youth

– They are more malleable longer than many typical cognitive skills

These factors are a key part of a strong combination of skills (including academic / cognitive skills) that are needed for success

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If Our Focus Is On Academic Learning, Why Focus On Social & Emotional Skills?

Because these attitudes and skills affect …

Whether youth see a point to learning (e.g., HOPE)

What youth bring to learning (e.g., MINDSET)

How youth act while learning (e.g., SELF-CONTROL)

How youth work with others while learning (e.g., TEAM WORK)

Whether youth persist in learning and on path toward their goals (e.g., GRIT, PERSERVERANCE)

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If Our Focus Is On Academic Learning, Why Focus On Social & Emotional Skills?

Because these skills are grounded in both the young

person’s family and culture as well as the variety of

learning contexts they experience (or lack)

Since family, culture and learning opportunities

are both a real part of the inequities that exist

and also part of the solutions needed to close

gaps, building social and emotional skills is at

the heart of a cross-sector, community-oriented

approach.

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To Be a Goal or Not To Be a Goal Is That the Question?

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Skills versus Supports

While we recognize the importance of supports for learning and development (e.g., a caring adult), we are talking here about skills not supports

Supports can help build skills but skills are something that individual youth learn and use to navigate their lives

External supports like a caring adult, an engaged family, or a positive school climate are critical for many forms of learning and development, but they are not the same as equipping youth social and emotional skills

Social and emotional skills are teachable and measurable outcomes

It is these outcome skills that we want to make sure youth are equipped with in life

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Therefore A Goal Parallel to Other 5 Goal Areas

Just as School Readiness Skills are critical for later learning and development

Just as Reading Proficiency Skills affects the ability to gathering information, make meaning, and continue learning

Just as Mathematics Proficiency Skills is needed in many educational areas and for many career paths

Just as High School Graduation is increasingly required for success in today’s economy

Just as College and Career Readiness Skills is required for success in college and careers today

Social & emotional skills are a critical form of learning required for success - not just a set of supports like a caring adult

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RECOMMENDATION I: Explicitly Name Social & Emotional Skills as Goal

6th GOAL:

Every child is socially & emotionally

equipped to learn by 8th grade

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6

Place goal in the early adolescent years

Social & emotional learning occurs over the entire life span

Social and emotional competence is already part of early

childhood goal

While heavily influenced by early childhood and elementary years,

it is still malleable in adolescence and too often declines in early

adolescence

Early and late adolescence is when identity is solidifying and when

how well one is equipped in these areas is critical for success

Therefore we recommend using 8th grade data as the baseline

measure of how well every student is socially and

emotionally equipped to learn

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What does Socially & Emotionally Equipped Mean?

Ideally Youth are Equipped …

In 3 Areas FEELING – Ability to deal effectively with emotions

RELATING – Ability to deal with others constructively

DOING – Ability to set goals and get things done

AND

At 3 Levels IDENTITY – Build a positive core sense of who one is

AWARENESS – Ability to understand own & others emotions, perspectives, & tasks

NAVIGATION – Ability to use opportunities and manage challenges well and persistently over time

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Ways I’m

AWARE

Ways I

NAVIGATE

Relationships

Emotions

Getting Things Done My

Feelings

Others

My Goals

Social & Emotional Learning Skills are about

OUR WAYS OF BEING

Ways

I AM

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How is Whether Youth are Socially and Emotionally

Equipped to Learn Measured?

Issues Around The Measurement Of Social And Emotional Learning

The Current State of Research & Assessment in Field

There are a variety of both survey and observational

measures available

Most were designed more for research than evaluation or

practice improvement purposes

The state of measurement in this field is evolving quickly

but no single preferred measure has yet to emerge

The measures that exist have widely different utility as

baselines for community efforts and as tools for improving

practices

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Issues Around The Measurement Of Social And Emotional Learning

Status of Current Measurement in Twin Cities

Limited explicit measurement of social and emotional skills in either district and none consistently across districts

Data that now exists in both districts, such as the 5 Es' work, is focused on classroom and school factors not individual youth’s skills, & is not available for separate analysis

The TriPod survey is used only in MPS. While useful, it is very limited as a measure of social & emotional skills

MPS is proactively developing supplemental measures of some SEL skills, especially mindset and perseverance

In out of school time SEL-related outcome measures are starting to be collected more systematically (e.g., SAYO) but are still limited and more widely used in Saint Paul

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Conclusions and Implications for Generation Next

SEL skills are measurable so a goal in this area can have both baseline data and use data driven efforts to guide action

Great utility in establishing at least some sense of a baseline in this area as a starting point even if not perfect

Multiple pilot assessment and evaluation efforts are already underway in the districts, individual schools, and out of school time system building and program efforts

Measurement should be used to support an intentional improvement approach to enhancing these skills

Further focus on measurement and its use in practice will be needed as work on this goal moves forward.

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Important Caveat

The Task Force wishes to emphasize that the use of youth measures of social and emotional skills should not be used to blame young people for their lack of these skills.

Rather, since these skills are both taught and caught from multiple learning environments and contexts (including the family, culture, and communities in which youth live), it is important that any effort to improve youth’s skills engage these environments and their stakeholders / practitioners to provide the types of supports and opportunities youth need to learn these skills.

While youth do need to own their own learning and development (a social and emotional skill in itself), they are not and should not be expected to be solely responsible for the development of these skills or blamed for not having them already.

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RECOMMENDATION IIA: Establish a Baseline Measure

Generation Next should use the following three new skills scales from the Minnesota Student Survey as a baseline measure of the extent to which youth are socially & emotionally equipped

Commitment to Learning

Positive Identity

Social Competence

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Definitions

Commitment to Learning • Provides information about student engagement in class,

preparation for learning, homework, and being achievement oriented; recognizes that being a student is an important role at this time and that caring about school matters.

Positive Identity • This includes having a sense of control of one’s life, feeling

good about self and future, dealing well with disappointment and life’s challenges, and thinking about one’s purpose in life.

Social Competence

• Includes the ability to say no to dangerous/unhealthy things, build friendships, express feelings appropriately, resist bad influences, resolve conflicts without violence, accept differences in others, and recognize the needs and feelings of others.

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Ways of

RELATING

Ways of

FEELING

Ways of

DOING

Ways I’m

AWARE

Ways I

NAVIGATE

These Three Skills Map well onto

OUR WAYS OF BEING

Ways

I AM

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COMMITMENT

TO

LEARNING

POSITIVE

IDENTITY

SOCIAL

COMPETENCE

The Three Skills are Correlated But Not the Same

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Commitment to Learning

Positive Identity

Positive Identity

.47

Social Competence

.54 .75

Note: Statewide Correlations for 8th Grade

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These Skills Correlate with Key Outcomes

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Grades Bullied (victim)

Bullying (perp)

Mental Distress

Family Violence

Commitment to Learning

.45 -.24 -.34 -.29 -.27

Positive Identity

.29 -.34 -.27 -.48 -.33

Social Competence

.34 -.27 -.36 -.34 -.30

Note: Statewide Correlations for 8th Grade. Also note that each skill significantly adds to the prediction of grades.

The Skill Levels Also Differ By Whether Youth Participate In Out Of School Opportunities

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In SPPS, students who participate in at least one after-school activity (N=4261) report higher levels of these developmental skills than those who participate in no activities (N=1659).

d

Social Competence is higher 0.30

Positive Identity is higher 0.34

Commitment to Learning is higher 0.30

Defining Whether Youth are Equipped

Empirically equipped means that

the student recognizes characteristics as being very much

or more like them,

the student agrees or strongly agrees with values,

behaviors, and characteristics defining each skill

The student engages in relevant strength-based behaviors

most or all of the time

NOTE: See technical appendix for how this was operationalized to create

equipped cut score for each skill.

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% Equipped in Grade 8 2013 Baseline for SPPS

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66%

46% 53%

69%

54%

62%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Commitment toLearning

Positive Identity SocialCompetence

Pe

rce

nt

Eq

uip

pe

d

SPPS

MN

% of SPPS Students Equipped with Each Skill By Grade Level

Grade Commitment to Learning

Positive Identity

Social Competence

5 % Equipped 73% 63% 65%

# Equipped 1156 857 954

Total N 1576 1356 1478

8 % Equipped 66% 46% 53%

# Equipped 748 427 500

Total N 1133 919 944

9 % Equipped 71% 46% 55%

# Equipped 1254 673 830

Total N 1774 1479 1520

11 % Equipped 74% 46% 56%

# Equipped 1256 692 859

Total N 1707 1497 1534

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Sample of Subgroup Differences COMMITMENT TO LEARNING

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61%

80%

68% 70%

61% 60%

74% 81%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

AmericanIndian

Asian Black White Multiple Latino Somali Hmong

% Equipped

With Commitment to Learning Skills

2013 Baseline for SPPS

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Sample of the Size of Disparities Between Subgroups COMMITMENT TO LEARNING

In SPPS, in terms of SD differences:

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-0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Hmong

Somali

Latino

Multiple

Black

Asian

Am Indian

Effect Size: Difference from White Students (0 point)

Disparities: Commitment to Learning

How Equipped Are Youth Overall?

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None

20% (176)

1

24% (216) 2

25% (225)

All 3

31% (276)

1 of every 5 are not equipped

with any of these skills

and

Less than 1 in every 3 8th graders is fully equipped

# of Skills with which SPPS 8th Graders Are Equipped

Commitment

to Learning

Social

Competence

13%

4%

3% 17%

6% 6%

20% are Not Equipped with Any of 3 SE Skills

Positive Identity

31% Fully

Equipped

% of SPPS 8th Graders Equipped with Different Social & Emotional Skills

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# of SE Skills with which SPPS Students are Equipped by Grade Level

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Grade

Number of Skills

0 1 2 3

% n % n % n % n

5 12% 142 19% 231 23% 269 46% 551

8 20% 176 24% 216 25% 225 31% 276

9 17% 242 25% 368 26% 371 32% 463

11 14% 212 26% 386 27% 392 33% 487

Relationship Between # Skills & Grades

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2.5

2.9 3.2

3.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

0 1 2 3

Se

lf-R

ep

ort

ed

Gra

de

s

# of Skills at Equipped Level

SPPS 8th Grade Students

Advantages of this approach

Advantages

Based on long history of work in this area by Search Institute

Allows SPPS to establish a baseline that comes from 2013 MN Student Survey

Allows both districts to have new data using Spring 2016 MN Student Survey administration

Begins to make goal concrete and allow action planning to start

Allows for statewide comparisons and trends from 2013 to 2016

Allows not only a measure of extent to which 8th graders are equipped but also assesses 5th, 9th, and 11th graders which can inform action planning

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Disadvantages of this approach

Disadvantages

Does not measure all aspects of being socially and emotionally equipped that are ultimately important for learning, particularly perseverance

Provides no baseline for MPS until late 2016

Depends on MPS administering the 2016 MN Student Survey which we strongly encourage

Does not allow for data to be used for improvement with individual youth or groups of youth since MN Student Survey is anonymous

Does not provide annual data in this area since MN Student Survey is only administered every three years

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RECOMMENDATION IIB: Move to annual assessment

Generation Next should work to enable both districts and other organizations to adopt common annual measures of the extent to which youth are socially and emotionally equipped to learn

In the short term this could be done by annually administering the roughly 20 items in the three developmental skills scales proposed

MPS could do this ideally in the Spring of 2015 to establish a baseline

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RECOMMENDATION IIC: Deliberately Explore Additional Measures

Deliberately explore and invest

in alternate measures of social

and emotional skills that are in

use around area or under

development to select the

tool(s) that can best support

intentional efforts to improve

these skills

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Rationale

In order to best support strategic action on this new goal in schools and expanded community learning opportunities, we recommend Generation Next help facilitate, coordinate, and maximize learning from a series of deliberate pilots designed to – Explore the use of new and different measures that emerge and have

utility for assessing progress and driving improvement in the development of social and emotional skills

– Explore the ways existing data on social and emotional skills is currently used and how that use might be improved through training, analysis and new ways of reporting the information

Such pilots should be undertaken in cooperation with both School Districts, Expanded Learning Opportunity systems and providers, and the families and youth in the Metro area

The Data Committee should be open to re-examining the use of the Minnesota Student survey

measures as new efforts emerge

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Deliberate Pilot Studies Underway & Worth Supporting

MSP efforts to create mindset and perseverance measures that are part of student record and actively used to guide instruction and support services

The 10 site piloting of the Holistic Student Assessment with Gil Noam at Harvard led by Sprockets

The work done using MHA Labs 6 Building Blocks approach to 21st Century skills that include social and emotional measures

Efforts to use the SAYO in Expanded Learning Opportunities’ systems such as Sprockets and the Beacons program in Minneapolis.

The DESSA tools used in Cincinnati’s Strive effort

Possible work using the new University of Chicago SEL measures that may become part of the 5 E process

Search Institute has completed the pilot testing of its new Perseverance Survey and in early 2015 several MN districts will begin using it along with an aligned intervention called the Perseverance Process.

Individual programs and initiatives are also exploring measures in these areas

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RECOMMENDATION IID: Maximize Use of What We Have for Improvement

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Given the variety of ongoing efforts that

can provide insights into how youth are

doing and how they perceive whether

their environments as supporting their

learning, we recommend intentional

efforts be made to more fully prepare

professionals for the use of data in

this area and shape best practices for

sharing data to improve impact.

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RECOMMENDATION IIE: Review and Recommend Long Term Measures

We recommend that by the end of

2016 (and sooner if possible) the

Data Committee review existing and

emerging assessments of social

and emotional skills and

recommend the best measures to

use longer term (starting in the

2017-2018 academic year)

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Rationale

Given the current exploration of multiple measures in and around the Twin Cities and the rapidly changing nature of national assessments of these skills, the Task Force feels it is appropriate for the Data Committee to systematically review options for assessments by the end of 2016 in hopes of providing sufficient lead time for districts and others to implement any new measures during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Such a review should examine the benefits and burdens (including misuse) of collecting and reporting this data in ways that identify individual youth and can be better used to design efforts and improve practices in targeted ways.

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RECOMMENDATION III: Move to Action

Given the importance of & interest in

social & emotional learning, we

recommend Generation Next identify

and convene a strategic action group

in the next three months to begin

working with a larger network to define

best practices, possible strategies for

significantly improving these skills, and

developing a priority set of actions. 48

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In Summary, The Task Force Encourages The Leadership Council To

Formally adopt a 6th goal stating that every child is social and emotionally equipped to learn

Accept the three skills indicated and use the 8th grade data as the baseline measure in this goal area

Urge districts and other organizations to begin annual assessments in this area as soon as possible

Invest in innovative pilots that link assessment and action to intentionally improve social and emotional skills

Call for a review of measures in 2016 to inform longer term use of assessments in this area

Establish an strategic action group around goal 6 that will explore and implement focused, strategic actions that can significantly impact youth’s social and emotional skills

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