The SSIS SEL Brief Scales-Student Form: Initial development and validation

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Social and emotional learning (SEL) is crucial for student development.
• Efficient and reliable assessments are needed to measure SEL competencies.
• Existing measures may not always capture student perspectives effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the SSIS SEL Brief Scales-Student Form (SSIS SELb-S) as an efficient measure of student SEL.
• To select a concise set of items from the full SSIS SEL Rating Form - Student.
• To provide a student-reported assessment for use in low-stakes decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Item response theory (IRT) was used to select 20 items from the full SSIS SEL Rating Form - Student.
• Ratings were collected from 800 students in Grades 3-12.
• Reliability and validity analyses were conducted on the selected items.

Main Results:

• The SSIS SELb-S consists of 20 items selected for maximal score information and rating efficiency.
• Initial reliability and validity analyses support the use of the SSIS SELb-S.
• The scale effectively incorporates student perspectives for SEL assessment.

Conclusions:

• The SSIS SELb-S is a promising, efficient tool for assessing students' social and emotional learning.
• It provides valuable student self-report data for low-stakes educational decisions.
• The scale supports the inclusion of student voice in evaluating SEL competencies for ages 8-18.