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

  • Maurice J. Elias - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA, Academy for SEL in Schools, The Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab, SEL4US.org
  • Joseph J. Ferrito - Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Lab
  • Dominic C. Moceri - University of Florida, Gainesville (Student), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Student)

Foreword by Timothy Shriver and Mark Greenberg



December 2015 | 112 pages | Corwin

To better serve the whole child, look at the whole report card.

Students are more than their academic grades—you know it and their parents know it. The progress they make in social-emotional learning and character development is essential to their success in school and in life. But while educators have made great strides in improving grading for academic achievement, we’ve left too many teachers still guessing when it comes to outdated behavior ratings and comment sections.

That’s where this book comes in. Grounded in research and in the author’s work with teachers and administrators, it offers guidance on retooling report cards to better reflect the whole child, integrating SEL and CD into any school- or district-wide grading system. Resources include

  • Guided exercises for analyzing existing report cards
  • Samples and suggested report card designs
  • Tips on improving communication with parents
  • Case studies highlighting common challenges
  • Testimonials from teachers and students

"When you take report cards to the next level, you make sure that communication reflects all of the important characteristics of success—and ensure that students develop the skills they need for the future. This book brilliantly illuminates the key role played by social-emotional learning in each student’s development and it challenges the tradition of relegating the SEL/EQ observations to the back of the report card. If we want to develop better communities, this book shows the way."
Dr. Neil MacNeill PhD, EdD - Head Master
Ellenbrook Indpendent Primary School


"The ultimate goal of misbehavior is attention. When children don’t get the attention they need through the proper behavior, they will get it any way they can. Children want to be loved and cared about. SEL will help them to learn the proper ways to get attention. It will also help teachers better understand the misbehaviors and redirect students toward positive behavior."
Pamela L. Opel - Teacher, Intervention Specialist
Gulfport School District



 
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

This book brilliantly illuminates the key role played by social-emotional learning in each student’s development and it challenges the tradition of relegating the SEL/EQ observations to the back of the report card. If we want to develop better communities, this book shows the way.

Dr. Neil MacNeill PhD, EdD - Head Master
Ellenbrook Indpendent Primary School

The ultimate goal of misbehavior is attention. When children don’t get the attention they need through the proper behavior, they will get it any way they can. Children want to be loved and cared about. When teachers incorporate SEL and character development it helps students learn the proper ways to get attention. It will also help teachers better understand the misbehaviors and redirect students toward positive behavior.

Pamela L. Opel - Teacher, Intervention Specialist
Gulfport School District

"The Other Side of the Report Card is a complete implementation guide to help school districts develop or improve how they convey to families the social, emotional, and character strengths and needs of their children in a culturally appropriate way. With the use of takeaway points, examples, checklists, research, and resources, district teams have the “soup to nuts” process to document that other side of the report card and share information needed to support the success of every student."

Susan Gorin, CAE
National Association of School Psychologists

"The Other Side of the Report Card by Maurice Elias, Joseph Ferrito, and Dominic Moceri is a rich resource for educators who want to figure out how best to report on students’ social, emotional, and character development. Most teachers are used to simply selecting from a menu of comments to?? describe a student’s behavior on a report card. Dr. Elias et al suggest that it should be much more than that. Rather than simply accepting the premise that “what gets measured is what’s important,” Dr. Elias argues that if it is important, it should be measured. The book is full of examples, research, case studies, and, what I really liked, a nice framework for faculty discussion. Each chapter begins with key takeaways and reflection points that will help focus a faculty committee determined to improve its evaluation system. Chapter 7 is particularly useful as it gives a checklist of important considerations. The authors focus on both SEL and character, acknowledge their differences, but show that each could be part of a school’s evaluation system. As we all strive to educate future citizens and recognize that focusing on academic achievement is not enough, The Other Side of the Report Card looks to be just what educators need to focus and assess on those elements needed for success in school and in life."

Becky Sipos, President & CEO
Character.org
Key features
  • The work is based on the authors' research into how the behavior ratings and comments sections of the report card relate to academic grades and standardized tests as expressed by CASEL and the SELect social-emotional learning programs. 
  • Provides samples and suggested report card designs to help educators model their own report cards after. 
  • Includes testimonials from the students and teachers.

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781506302201

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ISBN: 9781483386676
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