{"id":7860,"date":"2018-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/act-leader-in-measurement-shifts-focus-to-student-success\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:47:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:47:32","slug":"act-leader-in-measurement-shifts-focus-to-student-success","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/act-leader-in-measurement-shifts-focus-to-student-success\/","title":{"rendered":"ACT, Leader in Measurement, Shifts Focus to Student Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
This post originally appeared at Getting Smart<\/a> on June 19, 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n For nearly 60 years, the\u00a0ACT test<\/a>\u00a0has played an essential part in higher education admissions and scholarship decisions. For the last three years, the nonprofit developer of the ACT test has been expanding beyond traditional measurement to new and broader ways to promote education and workplace success.<\/p>\n \u201cACT is migrating from a focus on learning measurement to learner success,\u201d said\u00a0Jim Larimore<\/a>\u00a0who leads\u00a0ACT\u2019s Center for Equity in Learning<\/a>\u00a0(@ACTEquity).<\/p>\n Last year,\u00a0ACT<\/a>\u00a0invited educational institutions to explore, evaluate and align to the\u00a0ACT Holistic Framework,<\/a>\u00a0a research-based graduate profile that connects learning and assessment in order to personalize learning.<\/p>\n It organizes knowledge and skills organized into four broad domains in learning progressions from K through career:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Under the leadership of Dutch-born CEO Marten Roorda, nonprofit ACT is making inroads in personalized and adaptive learning.<\/p>\n In 2016, ACT\u00a0acquired OpenEd<\/a>, the San Francisco-based startup with one of the largest collection of standards-aligned open resources and developed an adaptive assessment system. OpenEd\u2019s capabilities enabled ACT to introduce ACT Academy\u2122, a free online learning and\u00a0test prep platform.<\/a><\/p>\n With a 2017 acquisition of ProExam, ACT gained access to a leading social and emotional learning powerhouse. It then introduced\u00a0ACT Tessera<\/a>, a multidimensional grade 6-12 assessment for social and emotional learning, and a digital credentialing capability.<\/p>\n ACT licensed a college readiness platform from\u00a0NROC<\/a>\u00a0and introduced\u00a0ACT CollegeReady<\/a>\u00a0to help students address their individual academic needs in math and English. ACT also pioneered supports to English learners for the ACT test, helping them obtain a college reportable score.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a tipping point for SEL in K-12,\u201d said\u00a0Jonathan Martin<\/a>, ACT director of K12 Consulting Services. Martin believes that SEL in K-12 could be widely adopted very soon.<\/p>\n It took a quarter century, but there is growing evidence that Martin is right. The acronym was coined by Tim Shriver and Dan Goleman. Shriver was interested in social learning (as discussed in\u00a0this podcast<\/a>). Dan Goleman, the author of\u00a0Emotional Intelligence<\/a>, argued for emotional learning. They settled on social and emotional learning (SEL). In 1994, Shriver and Goleman were among a notable group of\u00a0scholars and practitioners<\/a>\u00a0that founded The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL<\/a>).<\/p>\n SEL \u201cis the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions,\u201d according to CASEL.<\/p>\n The ACT Holistic Framework (above) incorporates SEL into many of its 50 subcomponents and skills, explained research psychologist\u00a0Alex Casillas<\/a>. This enables measurement, early warning and interventions.<\/p>\n Martin hopes to see the majority of American elementary schools taking proactive steps to incorporate social and emotional learning across the curriculum and into the culture. He said high schools are coming around. (Many of Getting Smart\u2019s 100+ middle and high\u00a0schools worth visiting<\/a>\u00a0have fully incorporated SEL into culture and curriculum.)<\/p>\n Jim Larimore leads ACT\u2019s Center for Equity in Learning, which hosted a recent convening on social and emotional learning, bringing together more than 250 students, teachers, scholars, practitioners and foundation executives to discuss equity through SEL and support student\u2019s success in the transition to postsecondary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re committed to helping people achieve education and workplace success,\u201d explained ACT CEO Marten Roorda. And while many of us are considering lexicon and measurement, \u201cwe know the importance of getting SEL right.\u201d<\/p>\n While Larimore shares Jonathan Martin\u2019s optimism about the rapid adoption of broader aims, he acknowledged \u201cWe are closer to the beginning of this journey than the middle or the end.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cContext shapes behavior,\u201d said Dena Simmons (@<\/a>DenaSimmons<\/a>)\u00a0Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence<\/a>. And there\u2019s a lot that gets in the way for many youth: poverty, low school funding, implicit bias, exclusionary discipline policies, low engagement and a lack of trauma-informed practices.<\/p>\n Emotional intelligence, explained Simmons, is \u201dThe ability to monitor one\u2019s own and others\u2019 feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one\u2019s thinking and action.\u201d (Salovey and Mayer, 1990).<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be emotionally intelligent without being culturally responsive,\u201d said Simmons. Responsive practices create opportunities to get to know students, invite their lives into teaching, and respect life experience as official knowledge.<\/p>\n Getting to equity will involve trade-offs, Simmons said. She asked, \u201cWhat are you willing to give up?\u201d<\/p>\n Brooke Stafford-Brizard<\/a>\u00a0directs the Whole Child Initiative at\u00a0CZI<\/a>. They take a comprehensive view of youth development including academic, social and emotional, cognitive, identity, mental and physical health (see more from\u00a0Jim Shelton<\/a>). They are particularly focused on context variables (e.g., trauma, bias, homelessness) and equity.<\/p>\n On measuring the developmental factors that matter most, CZI supports\u00a0Todd Rose\u2019s research<\/a>\u00a0on individual differences and the\u00a0Summit Learning\u00a0<\/a>platform which helps more than 330 schools develop and track habits of success.<\/p>\n Jenny Nagaoka<\/a>\u00a0(@JennyNagaoka, @UChiConsortium) outlined her\u00a0readiness research<\/a>\u00a0which points to agency and integrated sense of identity as well as traditional competencies. She said educational transitions are particularly fraught and going to college is a big milestone. Students need a variety of developmental experiences supported by strong sustained relationships added Dr. Nagaoka.<\/p>\n Karen Pittman leads\u00a0The Forum for Youth Investment<\/a>\u00a0and is one of 25 commissioners of the<\/p>\n Aspen Institute\u00a0National Commission on Social and Emotional and Academic Development<\/a>\u00a0(@AspenSEAD<\/a>). \u201cThe Commission is reimagining education based on\u00a0how learning happens<\/a>,\u201d explained Pittman. Commission research has demonstrated that social and emotional learning matters, that skills are malleable and that schools play a critical role. The culminating report, out this fall will outline research, policy and practice recommendations.<\/p>\n Most importantly, said Pittman, \u201cLearning won\u2019t happen without safe and supportive environments.\u201d<\/p>\n These days it\u2019s not unusual to see social and emotional learning at the heart of an education conference. What is unusual is an attentional focus on SEL as an equity issue and the thoughtful way that the ACT team incorporated it into the summit design and facilitation. The summit and the emerging ACT Agenda make clear that SEL for equity is a priority.<\/p>\n See also:<\/strong><\/p>\n Sydney Schaef, M.BA., M.Ed., is an educator, entrepreneur, and school design consultant. She currently works as a Mastery Learning Designer at reDesign<\/a> and a design consultant for Building 21<\/a>. She served at the School District of Philadelphia from 2013-2015 in the Office of New School Models, and prior to that, served as Founder and Executive Director of a 501c3 nonprofit organization that led innovative education and youth development programs in East Africa. Follow Sydney on Twitter at @sydneyschaef<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[82],"issue":[370,368],"location":[],"class_list":["post-7860","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","legacy_category-uncategorized","issue-lead-change-and-innovation","issue-issues-in-practice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
<\/a>Acquiring Success Tools<\/h3>\n
Promoting Social and Emotional Learning<\/h3>\n
Environmental Considerations<\/h3>\n
SEL as a Priority<\/h3>\n
\n
\n