Assessment Options

Social-emotional learning skills fall into the category of “soft skills,” as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration.

Soft skills are problem-solving, self-management and communication skills. They are best defined as the opposite of “hard skills,” the technical skills required to complete a job.

Because the nature of “soft skills” is very personal and somewhat invisible, assessment can be challenging. However, our Multimedia Teacher’s Guide provides a variety of assessment options to ensure optimal progress-monitoring:

• Social-Emotional Learning Scorecard
• Interactive Activities
• Multiple-Choice Quizzes
• Constructed Response
• Grade-Tracking

Social-Emotional Learning Scorecard

The first lesson of the program includes a Social-Emotional Learning Scorecard that allows students to rate their current level of emotional intelligence in the context of 45+ common problems related to self-awareness, self-management, responsibility, etc. Each problem is followed by a 5-point Likert scale for students to evaluate themselves. The Scorecard is a pre-test and will allow you to compare student progress before and after the program. 

The items from this Scorecard are then integrated into the SOAR® program. Each lesson begins by introducing specific items from the Scorecard that the lesson will address. At the end of each lesson, students will be prompted to review the problems from the scorecard and describe the solutions they have just learned to address those problems.

At the conclusion of the program, you will be prompted to administer the Scorecard a second time to compare students’ responses and develop a quantitative measurement of progress. This process also gives students an opportunity to compare their “before” and “after” responses and reflect upon how much they have learned throughout the course.

This assessment measures the change in students’ attitudes, perceptions, and skills from the beginning of the SOAR® program to the conclusion of the course.

App Only: Interactive Activities

The SOAR App contains numerous opportunities for students to interact with the content in a responsive way. There are activities and games that create learning opportunities along with reinforcement of important concepts. There are also formal quizzes for every lesson to provide teachers and parents feedback on the level of mastery.

This assessment measures students’ comprehension of the content of the program.

Multiple Choice Quizzes

A multiple choice assessment is provided for each lesson. These assessments are automiatcally graded in the App and provide quick feedback if the student is understanding the content. These multiple choice quiz scores are easily tracked through the Teacher Gradebook.

This assessment measures students’ comprehension of the content of the program.

Constructed Response

A constructed response assessment is provided for each lesson. These assessments encourage students to reflect on each lesson and describe, in their own words, the specific skills and strategies they learned from each lesson.

This assessment measures students’ comprehension of the content of the program.

Grade-Tracking

For long-term progress-monitoring, we suggest you compile and track students’ grades for: two or more card-markings prior to introducing the SOAR® program, the card-marking(s) in which students are participating in the program, and for two or more card-markings following the program.

This assessment measures the long-term impact of the SOAR program.