By Diana Whittle
An emerging trend in education is mandatory testing for traits commonly known as social-emotional learning. Its focus is to teach life skills such as self-control, discipline and conscientiousness.
According to The New York Times on Feb. 29: “This kind of learning hopes to cultivate all the skills you should have learned in kindergarten, but are still reading self-help books to master in middle-age.”
The article goes on to say that starting this year, eight school districts in California will test students on specific life skills, including growth mind-set, social awareness, academic self-confidence and self-management.
It’s not easy to test on non-academic measures to judge student performance, and many educators feel no need to mandate this kind of assessment, including Dr. Shari Dukes, director of student learning and support services in the Kyrene School District.
“We do not test for emotional or social behavior in Kyrene; but, we have many programs that do develop and reward the social and emotional behavior of our students,” said Dukes.
“All Kyrene schools value and teach citizenship,” said Dukes, “and support a program called Rachel’s Challenge that encourages compassion between students.
“We also are moving into the second year of a middle-school program called Where Everyone Belongs. It’s training for eighth graders who become mentors to sixth graders from their very first day of middle school,” explained Dukes.
A long-standing teaching philosophy in the Kyrene district is to develop the whole child, explained Nancy Dudenhoefer, assistant director of community relations.
“Every day, children engage in simple skills like taking their turn, working in a collaborative group and learning appropriate coping strategies to use throughout their day.”
Kyrene schools also adhere to a program called the Principles of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, or PBIS. PBIS is based on the idea that, when students are taught clearly defined behavioral expectations and provided with predictable responses to their behavior, both positive and corrective, all students are more likely to meet those expectations.
Dudenhoefer says that, district-wide, the PBIS framework has proven to improve school climate, reduce problem behavior and increase academic instructional time. In fact, two primary areas of emphasis in PBIS are prevention and instruction of social behavior, she said.
At the C.J. Waggoner Elementary School, teachers have introduced the PBIS method to parents with what’s being called The Waggoner Way.
“The school’s staff has worked together to develop The Waggoner Way, which matches the principles of PBIS in a way that fits the goals, mission and culture of this elementary school,” said Dudenhoefer.
Waggoner has school rules, including be safe, be respectful, be responsible and PAW-sitives, another word for recognition of good behavior.
“On a daily basis, a student can earn a PAW-sitives recognition slip when they are observed being safe, respectful or responsible by a staff member,” said Dudenhoefer.
“Students who earn a PAW-sitive goal slip place the slip in the basket to be in a Monday morning drawing, and five students who are selected receive a small reward of their choice, such as a bookmark, library book coupon or other positive item.”
The Waggoner Way even encourages parents to become partners with the school’s teachers and re-enforce the positive behavior program at home.
The other large school district in the area, Tempe Elementary, also does not test for social-emotional functioning as part of its assessments.
“However,” noted Dr. John Wilson, the district’s director of research, evaluation and assessment, “the National Center for Education Statistics states on its website that included in the Middle School Longitudinal Study for 2016-17 will be a focus on socio-emotional functioning.” But, he added, “it’s not a focus of our tests at this time.”
So, in Tempe, the trend remains that classroom learning is the best place to introduce academic- related social and emotional competencies.
The current goal is teaching life skills to help students do well in their education and successfully navigate into adulthood, concludes Kyrene’s learning-services director Dukes.
