Yes. SEL skills such as self-awareness and decision making are essential to a student's success. Giving students a grade on their SEL abilities shows they are important and encourages students to develop these skills.
40% (51 votes)
No. Students should learn basic social skills, but schools should emphasize academic learning. Students who excel or lag behind in this area can be awarded or penalized in other ways. Their proficiency should not be reflected in their grades.
20% (26 votes)
Maybe. Schools would be wise to incorporate SEL in the classroom and can test students on these skills via study-related projects. However, an individual grade on students' SEL abilities might not be necessary.
39% (50 votes)
Total votes: 127
Comments (25)
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SEL Assessments
The question assumes that America's schools have individuals qualified to assess Social/Emotional skills.
Based on the post 1983 top down, command and control emphasis in assessment practices and the pressure for meek compliance, the presumption of SE assessment skills is questionable.
Social skills grades
Really grades are a bit of a joke, in terms of meaningful units, and adding a social skills grade just compounds the problem. Besides we're not measuring and grading "intelligence" emotional, or otherwise, but some form of learning units, math scores on a quiz, or turned in homework. And we're not measuring learning in any rigorous way because all we're measuring is the success on a specific test item--they may have learned a lot, just not what we're testing in the sample we're using. And lastly, grading someone on an intrinsic skill seems odd. But I guess we do this all the time, don't we.
Graduate social work educator
Many of the critical SEL skills are critical for collaborative work in education as well as in the work place. Often, when these skills are mastered, students perform better in traditional academic areas, engage in fewer disruptive behaviors, and take greater responsibility for themselves and their work.
Teaching Emotion
Try teaching good language skills and math and the rest will naturally come.
Emotional intelligence
If we don´t empower students with a strong moral criterion development is easy to people who see teen agers and youg adults like clients and (e.g) drug consumers to make "bussiness". In Mexico the drug consuming is increasing in the same way that the ethical and civical education is pericliting.