The Other Side of the Report Card: Assessing Students’ Social, Emotional, and Character Development

To better serve the whole child, look at the whole report card. Although parents and teachers spend more time in conferences talking about behavior than they do about rubrics and test scores, too many teachers are still guessing when it comes to using outdated behavior ratings and comments to describe the whole child. With this book, you’ll take report cards to the next level, integrating social-emotional learning and character development into any grading system. Resources include Suggested report card designs Tips on improving teacher-parent communication Case studies Testimonials from teachers and students Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. is Professor, Psychology Department, Rutgers University, Director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab, and Academic Director of The Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service at Rutgers. He is Past President of the Society for Community Research and Action/Division of Community Psychology (27) of APA and has received the SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Practice and Ethnic Minority Mentoring Awards, as well the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the John P. McGovern Medal from the American School Health Association, and the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education. Prof. Elias lectures nationally and internationally to educators and parents about students’ emotional intelligence, school success, and social-emotional and character development. Among Dr. Elias’ numerous books are ASCD’s Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, the Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving curricula for grades k-8, the new e-book, Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, and a book for young children: Talking Treasure: Stories to Help Build Emotional Intelligence and Resilience in Young Children (www.researchpress.com, 2012). He also writes a blog for on SEL-related topics for the George Lucas Educational Foundation at www.edutopia.org. With colleagues at the College of St. Elizabeth, he has developed an online credentialing program for Direct Instruction of Social-Emotional and Character Development (SECD) programs in classroom, small group, and after school settings (sel.rutgers.edu), and for School-Focused Leadership and Coordination of SECD and School Culture and Climate (SELinSchools.org). Professor Elias interviewed with Rae Pica on Bam! Radio’s Studentcentricity. You can find the interview, Classroom Management: Redirecting Misbehavior, . Introduction Annotated Table of Contents Process Overview and How this Guide can be Utilized Chapter 1- Is it Realistic to Include SEL Skills and Character on Report Cards? Chapter 2 – Methods Currently in Practice: Yours and Others’ Chapter 3 – Adapting Your Report Card Comments for SEL and/or Character Chapter 4 – Implementation and Case Study Examples Chapter 5 – Implementation with Case Study Examples for Schools with Current SEL or Character Programming Chapter 6 – Most Frequent Challenges Addressed and Overcome: Reassuring and Involving Parents, Aligning to Early Childhood Education and Career and Technical Education Goals Chapter 7 – Checklist of Important Considerations Chapter 8 – Literature Review on Previous Studies Related to “The Other Side” of the Report Card Chapter 9 – Guidelines and Resources for Social-Emotional and Character Development Programming in Schools Essential Reference Tables Table 1: The CASEL 5: Definitions and Skills Examples Table 2 Character Strengths and Behavioral Indicators Table 3 – Steps to Evaluating Current Report Card Comments in Your School Table 4 – Common Characteristics of Student Behavior by Grade and the Overlap with SEL Table 5 – Common Characteristics of Student Behavior by Grade and the Overlap with Character Table 6 – Example: SEL Likert Rating System Table 7 – Example: Character Likert Rating System Table 8 – Example: SEL Rubric Rating System Table 9 – Example: Character Rubric Rating System Online Supplement – Developmentally Adapted SEL Likert Rating System With References Online Supplement- SEL Skill Trajectory Grades 1-12 Resources