Improve academic outcomes by supporting SEL

Research-based K–12 social emotional behavior assessment

Research shows that social-emotional behavior (SEB) functioning plays a key role in a student’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. Students with strong social and emotional competence also have fewer behavior issues in the classroom and are better able to manage stress and depression.

Pinpoint which social-emotional skills need support in the classroom

SEB screening and progress monitoring

Similar to academic assessment, a SEB assessment helps measure the effectiveness of school-wide SEL efforts. Renaissance offers the only universal screener for SEB that has been demonstrated to meet the psychometric criteria established by the National Center on Intensive Intervention for convincing evidence of reliability, validity, and diagnostic accuracy.

SEB screening data helps educators select SEL curriculum matched to students’ specific SEB skill needs and identify students who may need additional SEB support to succeed.

Use SEB progress monitoring to measure whether programming, curriculum, and interventions intended to build SEL skills are effective for students.

Screening data

SEB screening data helps educators select SEL curriculum matched to students’ specific SEB skill needs and identify students who may need additional SEB supports to succeed.

Progress monitoring

Use SEB progress monitoring to measure whether programming, curriculum, and interventions intended to build SEL skills are effective for students.

Use social-emotional behavior assessment to support SEL

CASEL-aligned social-emotional behavior assessment

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) has identified five areas of social-emotional competence that support student learning and development. Discover how our Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) helps you measure students’ skill levels with each competency.

Learn more about FastBridge Social-Emotional Behavior assessments

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Explore FastBridge’s social-emotional behavior assessment suite

Valid and reliable SEB assessments

SAEBRS

Universal Screening | Grades K–12 | Computer-Based | Teacher-Administered | Time Required: 1–3 min

The SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) is a norm-referenced tool that identifies students at risk for SEB problems. SAEBRS (and its student-rater companion assessment, mySAEBRS) are the rare screening tools that measure both the absence of problem behaviors and the presence of well-being and competencies.

SAEBRS contains one broad scale and three subscales (social, academic, and emotional behaviors) that are interrelated with CASEL’s five core SEL competencies.

Learn more about FastBridge Assessments.

mySAEBRS

Universal Screening | Grades 2–12 | Computer-Based | Student Self-Reported | Time Required: 1–3 min

mySAEBRS (my Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) is a norm-referenced tool that identifies students who are at risk for SEB problems. It is the student-rater companion assessment to SAEBRS.

mySAEBRS Domains

mySAEBRS contains one broad scale and three subscales (social, academic, and emotional behaviors) that are interrelated with CASEL’s five core SEL competencies.

Learn more about FastBridge Assessments.

Direct Behavior Ratings

Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) is a progress monitoring tool that complements the use of the SAEBRS and mySAEBRS assessments by allowing educators to easily identify and observe specific behaviors to determine if SEB interventions are working.

Learn more about FastBridge Assessments.

*The assessment has been researched and verified in controlled studies and is now available to districts for a limited, trial use to gather feedback.

devMilestones

devMilestones is an observation-based, criterion-referenced rating scale that tracks the time and stage at which students demonstrate key academic and SEB performance relative to established milestones during preschool and kindergarten—from emerging levels through to mastery.

Learn more about FastBridge Assessments.

*The assessment has been researched and verified in controlled studies and is now available to districts for a limited, trial use to gather feedback.

Act on social-emotional behavior assessment data with skill-based interventions

Act on SEB assessment data

FastBridge offers tools, strategies, and modifications to help educators promote social-emotional learning in the social, academic, and emotional domains. And because these research-based approaches are feasible for everyday use, educators can immediately act on students’ SEB data with Tier 1 and Tier 2 intervention strategies embedded within the platform.

Social

Includes tools and strategies to improve classwide and individual student behavior to promote a positive environment for learning and interaction.

Academic

Includes tools and strategies to help students classwide and individually be productive and efficient in learning situations.

Emotional

Includes tools and strategies to help students self-monitor, self-manage, and move toward positive growth in their modulation of feelings and associated thoughts and behaviors.

Social emotional behavior assessment FAQS

Understanding SEB assessments and SEB assessment tools

Why is it important to use a research-based social-emotional behavior assessment?

Most school districts don’t have the expertise to evaluate the evidence for the assessment tool they use to evaluate students. The technical (e.g., psychometric) properties of an assessment are direct predictors of whether it can provide useful information to teachers. For this reason, it is important to use research-based social-emotional behavior assessments that have undergone a third-party review process.

A strong research-based social-emotional behavior assessment should be shown to be effective in two or more research studies with different groups and settings of students. It should also have evidence that the resulting data led to meaningful and effective interventions.

How do Renaissance’s SEB assessment tools compare to other SEB assessment solutions?

Renaissance’s SEB assessment is the only universal screener that has been demonstrated to meet the psychometric criteria established by the National Center on Intensive Intervention for convincing evidence of reliability, validity, and diagnostic accuracy. Additionally, studies have shown that results from SAEBRS lead to more equitable access to critical mental health services and help reduce disproportionality—specifically when compared to office discipline referrals. Notably, SAEBRS and mySAEBRS include items related to academic effort as well as internalizing and externalizing behaviors which are all important components of school success.

How often do social-emotional behavior assessments need to be given?

How frequently social-emotional behavior assessments should be given depends on what the overall purpose is for collecting data.

If the goal is to learn how well schoolwide behavior instruction is working, then social-emotional behavior assessments designed for universal screening should be administered three times a year. If the objective is to understand if an individual student is making progress towards goals (e.g., reducing the number of problem behavior instances), then social-emotional behavior assessments designed for progress monitoring can be used multiple times a week.

How often can SAEBRs be administered?

SAEBRS can be used to identify students who are at risk for social, academic, and emotional behaviors up to five times a year at the classroom, grade, school, or district level. By evaluating in which of the three specific domains a student is at risk, educators may determine what type of supports are most appropriate and which problem behaviors should be prioritized through intervention.

How can educators administer SAEBRs?

SAEBRS is a teacher observation rating scale that may be completed using a computer or tablet. Ratings correspond to the frequency of various behaviors in the previous month (Never, Sometimes, Often, Almost Always). Renaissance recommends that SAEBRS not be administered until students have been in school for at least six weeks. This helps ensure that the teacher chosen to complete the SAEBRS has ample time to interact extensively with each student, and it gives students the opportunity to adjust to a new routine and setting.

Are specific qualifications required to administer social-emotional behavior assessments?

While there are no official qualifications required to administer most social-emotional behavior screening assessments, Renaissance has developed training to inform educators of the purpose of screening assessments, give explicit instructions on how to administer and complete the assessments, and provide guidance for using social-emotional behavior assessment data to inform interventions and program evaluation.

All rating scales—regardless of psychometric evidence—are subject to teachers’ bias, especially without high-quality training. We strongly encourage additional professional learning that will prepare teachers to use such rating scales with integrity and accuracy.