What is the Social and Emotional Competency Survey in Classworks?

The SE Skills Survey in Classworks is a student-facing check-in survey for students in grades 4-12 (teachers submit a survey for students in grades PreK-3). It was developed by Washoe County School District through a partnership with The Collaborative for Social-Emotional and Academic Learning (CASEL) and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

More information about the Washoe County School District Social and Emotional Competency Assessments (WCSD-SECAs) and the questions included can be found here.

Student surveys are an excellent tool for supporting development of the whole student. Educators want to be aware of the discrete skills that contribute to students’ overall social-emotional development and well-being. Stating that a student has “behavioral issues” or “poor social skills” is the same as saying a student is “bad at Reading”. It doesn’t help inform the problem-solving process required to develop a targeted intervention plan.

This Social-Emotional Skills Survey, available in both English and Spanish, helps you measure and support students' development of these discrete skills. This includes:

Self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses
Self-awareness of emotions
Self-management of emotions
Self-management of goals
Self-management of school work
Relationship skills
Social awareness
Responsible decision-making

The survey has 40 questions (17 questions for students grades PreK-3), each of which is answered on a 40-point scale. It typically takes students 20-30 minutes to complete the assessment and students can complete five administrations per testing window.

The survey provides a quantitative score or result, which is used to compare individual students or groups of students to each other. The results of these surveys are used to help students develop SMART goals that support their personal and academic development.

The Classworks SE Skills Survey are items from or adapted from the WCSD Social and Emotional Competency Assessment (Davidson et al., 2017).