Implementing Universal Social And Emotional Learning Programs: The Development, Validation, And Inferential Findings From The Schoolwide SEL Capacity Assessment

In order to effectively transport universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs into natural settings, it is important to understand implementation barriers that may hinder the likelihood of successful outcomes (Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman, & Wallace, 2005). The current study is primarily based on the notion that within the planning phase of implementation, few technically adequate assessment measures targeting both organizational capacity (OC) and provider characteristics (PC) for SEL programming actually exist. The purpose is to extend the SEL implementation assessment literature by developing a new rating scale designed to measure SEL implementation barriers (School SEL Capacity Assessment [SSCA]) and make preliminary inferences regarding the current state of SEL implementation. In order to satisfy our objectives, we evaluated the psychometric quality of the SSCA using the Rasch Rating Scale model. In all, the data are encouraging and provide promising validity evidence of internal structure for the OC and PC scales within the SSCA. Within reason, the SSCA met the qualifications for accurate measurement. Findings from the Rasch analysis helped us analyze survey response differences among subgroups, which included participants’ stage-of-implementation, years of professional experience, grade level, and social economic status. Generally speaking, teachers who are maintaining an SEL program found it easier to endorse items on the SSCA, suggesting that they have more OC and PC attributes. Contrary to what we would expect, years of professional experience is not related to teachers’ level of OC and PC attributes. Because they’re so few teachers in several of the grade levels, any comparison would be tenuous and we have opted to not to include the analysis in our results. As anticipated however, the results show that teachers in high SES schools have significantly more OC attributes, but their level of PC attributes are not affected by their schools SES. Limitations of this study as well as directions for future research are discussed

Educators’ Preferences for Professional Learning Formats by Learning Objective

Innovations in information technology have generated an array of options for the professional learning for educators. Face-to-face, remote, and hybrid formats for professional learning each have their advantages and disadvantages for advancing educators’ knowledge and skills in evidence-based practices to promote student achievement. The purpose of this study was to better understand teacher and educational leaders’ preferences for professional learning formats in relation to the intended learning objective. The results indicate that educators preferences for professional learning format varied by the intended learning objective of the session. Remote professional learning was preferred relative to face-to-face and hybrid formats for a session in which the primary objective was to share information uni-directionally from the presenter to the audience (53% versus 25% and 22% preferred hybrid). The respondents were equally split in their preference for either a face-to-face or remote format when the learning objective was to understand new concepts and learn how to apply the concepts to their setting. The results have important implications for designing professional learning