Assessing Through the Lens of Social and Emotional Learning: Tools and Strategies

Help usher in a new era of student assessment

This empowering guide revolutionizes the assessment process by putting students at the center. Dive into practical strategies and best practices for fostering social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies through student-centered assessments and discover how you can transform classrooms into inclusive spaces where learning thrives. Inside you'll find

• Humanistic assessing practices to integrate into everyday teaching and learning

• Best practices for designing and implementing savvy SEL assessments

• Ways to develop a classroom that is student empowered and culturally relevant

• Rubrics, portfolios, and digital tools that demonstrate students’ competencies and knowledge through an SEL lens

Explore dozens of practical examples, case studies, and field-tested activities that support research-based teaching and learning across the curriculum. Assessing Through the Lens of Social and Emotional Learning inspires educators to move beyond traditional testing to focus on nurturing and fostering skills that students will need for both academic and lifelong success.

Cynthia Sistek, EdD, (Dr. C) is a professor in the Sanford College of Education at National University in La Jolla, California. Currently, she serves as the academic program director for the Master of Arts in Social and Emotional Learning degree program. In 2020, Cynthia co-developed MA SEL. In addition, she designed and edited the ten playbooks in social and emotional learning (https://selplaybook.org). For the 2022–2023 year, she served as the chair of the SEL Special Interest Group for the American Education Research Association.

Cynthia is a recognized leader in educational technology, who in 2020 was awarded EdTech Digest’s Higher Education Technology Leader of the Year. In 2019, she earned both the prestigious ISTE and CUE Award for *Making IT Happen* and a Gold and Platinum Disk from CUE for her lifetime achievements and service to the educational technology community.

Cynthia is a pioneer in online learning, having designed and taught online courses since 1999. Her ongoing research focuses on the efficacy of online learning in higher education, the intersections of SEL in online environments, and how synchronous methods of online communication enhance teaching and learning. Her book, Exploring Online Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous Methods, was published by IGI Global in April 2020 and showcased many studies and practices that support online learning.

Dee L. Fabry, PhD, is professor emeritus in the Sanford College of Education at National University in La Jolla, California. She serves as adjunct faculty for the Master of Arts in Social and Emotional Learning degree program, teaching graduate level research courses and assessing for learning to impact both teaching and learning.

Dee served National University as the associate provost, Academic Assessment Committee chair, Sanford College of Education coordinator of assessment services, department chair, and teacher education and program lead for the Master of Science in Advanced Teaching Practices degree program.

Dee previously served as vice president at Plato Learning, where she led the test development department, and she was also the project manager for Kaplan Learning in creating criterion-referenced tests. Dee was appointed to the National Assessment in Education Task Force where she contributed regularly to the blogs on effective formative assessment.

Her most recent publication is Clarifying Learning Targets in Assessment Education: Bridging Research, Theory, and Practice to Promote Equity and Student Learning (with M. L. Peterson, Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).