Consider the Context: Recommended Measures for Factoring in the Learning Environment when Measuring SEL/Soft Skills

The document highlights the importance of measuring the SEL/soft skills environment alongside individual-level SEL or soft skills outcomes. Several approaches for integrating measures of the environment alongside measures of individual SEL or soft skills outcomes exist. Data gathered on the environment can serve as an important baseline to inform program staff on areas of practice that need development or to help them identify what steps should be taken to strengthen the SEL/soft skills learning environment. Assessing the learning environment with individual-level SEL/soft skills measures can provide a metric against which to assess the SEL/soft skills of individual children and youth. Evaluators can assess all children or youth in the learning environment using the same tool and then average the scores across children or youth. That average score provides information about the average level of competency across children or youth in the learning environment. Measuring changes to the environment itself or in individuals' SEL/soft skills competencies relative to their peers can provide valuable information about changes in either the environment or in individuals' SEL/soft skills competencies over time. Evaluators should aim to identify individual score changes, changes in the average environment score, and changes in the standard deviation of that score.