Rush University Medical Center

The ability to understand and effectively interact with others is a critical determinant of academic, social, and life success. In recognition of this fact, education policy and practice increasingly focus on teaching students the social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies they need to succeed in school and life. For example, a growing number of states have adopted social-emotional learning (SEL) standards. Despite the importance of SEL skills, few assessments are available for educators t...

Building on prior IES-funded work, the purpose of this measurement project was to develop SELweb LE (Late Elementary), a suite of scientifically sound, usable, and feasible tools for assessing critical dimensions of social-emotional skill in all children in grades 4 to 6. Given that children's social-emotional skill affects their participation and success in school and life, a growing number of states are adopting learning standards that indicate what social-emotional skills children should ...

The purpose of this measurement project was to further develop and validate the Virtual Environment for Social Information Processing (VESIP), a computer-based assessment of social information processing skills in third through seventh grade students. VESIP uses an interactive, simulated environment with customizable avatars to assess students' understanding of different types of social encounters (e.g., bullying/teasing, joining a group of peers already playing together) typical in school s...

In this project, researchers developed a suite of scientifically sound, usable tools for screening social rejection and assessing social and emotional learning (SEL) in children in grades K-3 called SELweb. Elementary school-aged children who are rejected by their peers are at elevated risk for academic, behavioral, and emotional problems, yet few tools are available for school professionals to identify socially rejected children and to pinpoint SEL deficits that contribute to their re...

The overarching purpose of this project is to determine whether a Spanish-language version of Virtual Environment for Social Information Processing (VESIP-Sp) is valid for use by Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in third to seventh grade. There is increasing recognition that social-emotional competencies such as social information processing, or social reasoning, skills influence a wide range of students' functional outcomes. In parallel with this recognition of the importan...