In this study, we conducted empirical and simulation analyses in which we scored surveys using item response theory (IRT) models that do and do not account for response styles, and then used those different scores in growth models and compared results.

In this webinar, learn more about the relationship between self-efficacy and the achievement gap for English Language Learners (ELLs).

Do students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) skills in middle school predict being off-track to graduate high school?

In this interview, James Soland discusses his research exploring the connection between social-emotional learning and growth in achievement for English language learner students.

This study investigates whether rapid guessing is a stable trait-like behavior or if rapid guessing is determined mostly by situational variables, and whether rapid guessing over the course of several tests is associated with certain psychological and background measures. We find that rapid guessing tends to be more state-like compared to academic achievement scores, which are fairly stable and that repeated rapid guessing is strongly associated with students’ academic self-efficacy and self-management scores.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies like self-efficacy and conscientiousness can be predictive of long-term academic achievement. But they can also be difficult to measure. In a new study led by NWEA’s James Soland, researchers investigated whether assessment metadata – the way students approach tests and surveys – can provide useful SEL data to schools and educators. Soland joins CPRE research specialist Tesla DuBois to discuss his findings, their implications, and the promise and limitations of student metadata in general.

In this study we conducted a literature review to investigate whether assessment metadata (typically data relevant to how students behave on a test or survey) can provide information on SEL constructs. Implications of this new source of SEL data for practice, policy, and research are discussed.