Students Take Part in Survey About Their Well-being, Social-Emotional Skills

Disponible en:

Research links social-emotional learning (SEL) to long-term success.

One of Aldine ISD’s strategic plan goals is to increase and expand students’ social-emotional learning skills. The district has been working closely with schools and staff to support students and staff members’ SEL development.

Compared to test scores, social-emotional learning is far more predictive of positive outcomes. SEL impacts behaviors that support student success, such as having fewer absences and being on track to graduate from high school. SEL is more predictive of positive long-term outcomes, such as enrolling in a four-year college to having less interaction with the criminal justice system.

“Everyone in education needs to expand the definition of a ‘good’ school,” Superintendent Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney said. “Aldine continues to be committed to ensuring all students have access to high-quality schools and learning experiences that provide them with options and opportunities for their future. We are simply expanding the definition of what ‘a high-performing school’ means. The survey helps identify high-performing schools using more diverse indicators of success. School quality is multidimensional. We know that social-emotional growth predicts and impacts long-term outcomes that are not captured by measures test scores.”

AISD students in grades 3-12 are taking part in a survey about their experiences. Students on campus are taking the survey at school, and students learning at home may access the survey at any time from home until April 30. Students learning virtually will need their student ID if they want to access the survey from home. Their student ID serves as their access code. Each school is selecting how the survey is shared with students. For example, it may be shared in Schoology via a course for students learning at home.

Student Survey Link: surveys.panoramaed.com/aldine

The survey includes questions designed to measure students’ social-emotional development, including their interpersonal skills, level of school connectedness, academic engagement, grit, and study habits.

Students’ own assessments of their social-emotional well-being and work habits will provide valuable information about their development. AISD will also show that the feedback can be used alongside traditional indicators like test scores to give a complete picture of how schools prepare students for school, college, and life. This analysis increases Aldine ISD’s understanding of how schools influence the social-emotional development of adolescents, how that can be measured, and how this can be useful for policy.

Dr. Lorenzo Moore emphasized that AISD is working to ensure schools are better at helping students develop healthy SEL skills. Examples include guiding students to develop social awareness, community connections, and the skills and habits that promote hard work, resilience, and grit. Moore is the executive director of the Social-Emotional Learning and Culture Department.

“This survey is an important opportunity to help students establish strong ties to their schools,” stated Moore. “It will give us insight into what we need to focus on. The results will also have important implications of how the district measures school quality and determine which school practices improve social-emotional development.”

Students aren’t the only ones taking an SEL survey. This is the third SEL survey that campus professional staff members have taken part in, in the 2020-2021 school year. They took one at the start of the school year, another after the winter storm in February, and now the end-of-year survey. The surveys gauge staff members’ feelings, well-being, and readiness to provide social-emotional support to students. Staff received a link from Panorama Education, the company conducting the student and staff survey for AISD. As of April 20, more than 2,000 staff and 13,000 students have completed the surveys.

Goffney and Moore added that much work remains to be done but that the survey represents an important step toward a fuller picture of how Aldine ISD schools influence student success.