Can Social-Emotional Learning Truly Work for Every Student?

Consider a caring assessment to measure the whole student.

Blair Lehman and Jesse R. Sparks 

In Social-Emotional Learning Strategies Don’t Work for Every Student. Here’s What Does, Clementina Jose reminds us that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for meeting each student’s unique needs.

As scientists specializing in learning, we cannot agree more. Many well-intentioned strategies and interventions across all educational activities do not work when teachers, parents, counselors, or others try to use them “out of the box.” Programs that have generated great results in one context—in our schools or in our communities—often do not perform as well on a larger scale for everyone. This usually happens when the process in the original program is replicated exactly instead of adapting the underlying principles to fit the needs of each unique context. 

So how can we provide each student with equitable opportunities across various educational activities? 

One solution for the field of assessment is the Culturally Enhanced Caring Assessments (CECA) framework, which was developed by ETS scientists and built upon decades of research by diverse scholars studying teaching, learning, and assessment. Caring assessments consider the student as a whole, providing a personalized experience by acknowledging their identity and how they engage with educational activities. The CECA framework doesn’t specify which characteristics are most important for personalization or what support methods will be most effective. Instead, it offers a guide for developing personalized adaptations that can be applied to a variety of educational activities, such as assessment, instruction, or SEL training. This includes consideration of: 

• Malleable characteristics like confidence and interests 
• Stable characteristics like cultural identity and home language 
• Experiences during educational activities like engagement or effort 
• Contexts within which students live and learn

Effective personalization in education is only possible when researchers, teachers, and students work together. That's why we recommend involving all parties in developing and adopting personalized educational activities of any kind. We also recommend that teachers continue this collaborative approach by collecting student feedback to allow for more personalization by deepening their understanding of students’ experiences with personalized educational activities.

While we do not have all the answers, embracing the CECA framework brings us one step closer to creating personalized, integrated educational experiences that equip every student with the skills they need to thrive in today’s diverse, fast-paced society.

Blair is a research scientist at ETS Research Institute, specializing in student emotions and motivation during assessment and learning activities. Jesse is a managing senior research scientist at ETS Research Institute, specializing in the design of digital assessments for literacy, science, and social science.