Better Assessing the Whole Child to Achieve Higher Academic Outcomes
By Claudia Morrell and Michele Wolff
Schools use multiple assessments to measure student progress in social, emotional, and academic development over the course of the academic year. We are all familiar with assessments of academic achievement, such as reading and math ability. For many students, achievement levels on high-stakes tests, such as Advanced Placement course completion exams or college qualifiers (including SAT or ACT) are critical to achieving college entrance and scholarships. For some students, success is measured by the achievement of a business credential or internship evaluation score. Today most states have added their own high school assessment to determine competency levels at graduation that can affect the type of job a graduate can get. Even students going into college from high school will find assessments of their math and reading levels essential to entering college courses. Low-level reading or math scores can result in years of paid college preparation courses. The impact on the students is well known, but the traumatic social or emotional impact is seldom if ever, measured. The student is often blamed for their academic failure. Secondary schools are a secondary target and their teachers are labeled as failing the students. The long-held convention of focusing on academic assessments without understanding or assessing students’ social and emotional development is a missed opportunity and has left us unable to see, understand, and appreciate the whole child.
Most of us are less familiar with social and emotional assessments that are equally important when considering students’ success in their personal lives, the workforce, and their community. Developing community engagement, communication, social networking, leadership, problem-solving skills, and empathy are all examples of competencies that need to be developed during our youth. While most educators and employers agree that these types of developmental outcomes are important, how we systematically assess them is less well known. We want our students to become adults with the ability to function effectively in the world. Sadly, it is often the case that we hire students for their academic success and fire them for their lack of social and emotional development. The challenges of COVID-19 brought this situation into stark awareness.
Assessments measure two components of social and emotional development: interpersonal (between individuals) and intrapersonal (within the individual). If we are to understand the nature of our students’ development for personal and professional success, educators need a comprehensive perspective of all indicators of students’ social, emotional and academic development, improvement, and success. Given that assessments are essential to demonstrate educational impact, the funding for initiatives that focus on inter and/or intrapersonal outcomes cannot be overlooked. We need effective assessment tools to measure all three types of outcomes (interpersonal, intrapersonal, and academic) and then use all available assessment results to determine the success of initiatives, models, and strategies, and their subsequent implementation and funding.
In the early 2000’s, a university-based organization in Maryland developed and delivered a dropout prevention program engaging middle school students. The program assessed student inter- and intrapersonal outcomes and it implemented multiple strategies to achieve these outcomes. For instance, it worked to improve communication between school staff and families, stabilize students’ negative behavior patterns, and improve student attendance. The model was not designed to connect the strategies to academic outcomes. When the decision was made at the federal level to no longer support dropout prevention efforts, funding was drastically cut for this nationally recognized program. Because the indicators of success changed (from inter/intrapersonal outcomes to academic-only outcomes), programs showing success, including the Maryland program, had to downsize and eventually folded. If the programs’ assessments measuring and valuing the development and growth of the whole child had been embraced by funding agencies, perhaps the programs’ funding would have been maintained.
Today, we want students to grow into adults who can manage their own social and emotional well-being when interacting with others. The call for more counselors, medication management, and resource staff in education has not addressed this challenge. As a result, schools and their students and staff have become increasingly overwhelmed with classroom and school-based management issues. Without the tools and programs needed to address students’ disruptive and unsafe behaviors, they are likely to continue or even grow worse. A continued focus on students’ academic performance outcomes without providing teachers with the training and tools needed to create an equitable learning environment to better understand and fully address the needs of diverse children, teachers will continue to leave the profession at significantly high levels.
Perhaps reflecting on what has been lost in our education system requires we revisit assessment, not as a way to cut back on academic assessments, but rather to assess everything that matters, including the experiences of each child that will allow them to become personally, professionally, and socially successful in life.