Second Step® Assessment
How to choose the right assessment tools, based on your goals and priorities

Understanding the Options
We’re often asked by schools and districts for advice on how to assess their students’ social-emotional competencies. Assessment of social-emotional learning (SEL) can be as formal and rigorous as a multi-site, randomized control trial (RCT) or as casual as asking teachers and students for feedback. Most commonly, schools and districts choose to do something that falls between these two.
A good general approach is choosing an assessment tool that can help you gather data points that relate meaningfully to your strategic goals, which may include increasing students’ sense of belonging or improving academic engagement.
Where to Start
As with measuring academic competencies, there are many possible metrics and tools to measure social-emotional competencies and the overall impact of your SEL implementation.1 Finding the right strategy depends on your goals. To plan thoughtfully, start by asking a few guiding questions.
Is assessment a requirement?
Sometimes a grant or official mandate requires assessment of students’ social-emotional competencies. If so, be sure to read the requirements for choosing an assessment tool carefully to make sure you gather and report the requisite information. The assessment tools and guidelines included with Second Step® programs (e.g., the program evaluation guide) work well for schools that want to make sure teachers and students are benefiting from the program and determine if additional support or training is needed.
What specific information are you hoping to learn?
If you primarily want to identify general areas for continuous improvement or gauge where students might need more instructional support, then the Second Step® tools will likely suffice. If instead you want to gather specific data to help evaluate the effectiveness of your implementation or map out individual plans for social-emotional and academic growth, then it may be worth your while to invest in an assessment tool designed to capture very specific metrics.
How much time and money do you plan to allocate to the process?
Investing in assessment might improve accountability and continuous improvement, but keep in mind that the cost of the tool does not necessarily reflect its usefulness. A good general approach to selecting the right tool is to make sure you can gather data points that relate meaningfully to your strategic goals, such as decreasing bullying behaviors or more positive student-teacher relationships.
Assessment Options by Goal
Once you’ve clearly identified your purpose for assessment, the data you need, and how much you can spend, you’re ready to choose a tool. We evaluated a few reliable options from trustworthy providers to help you select the best fit for your needs. As you review these options, keep in mind that students’ social-emotional skills and knowledge continuously evolve as they grow and develop. SEL competency assessments are a snapshot of one period of time in a lifelong journey.
Please note that the DESSA-SSE listed below is only intended for use with Second Step® Elementary kits and not Second Step® Elementary digital program.
Grayed-out boxes do not meet the requirements for the specified assessment goal.
Assessment Goal
Tool
Needs Assessment
What are your school’s SEL needs? Understand your students’ SEL strengths and areas for growth.
Included in Second Step® programs
DESSA–SSE
Panorama
SDQ
DECA
SELweb
PreK–Grade 8
K–5
PreK–Grade 8
PreK–Grade 8
PreK
K–6
Implementation Fidelity
How effectively is the program being used? Where can improvements be made?
Included in Second Step programs
DESSA–SSE
Panorama
SDQ
DECA
SELweb
PreK–Grade 8
K–5
PreK–Grade 8
PreK–Grade 8
PreK
K–6
Formative Assessment
How are students progressing toward SEL goals? What areas or topics need further instruction?
Included in Second Step programs*
DESSA–SSE
Panorama
SDQ
DECA
SELweb
K–8 Performance Tasks
*Second Step Elementary digital program and Second Step® Middle School only.K–5
PreK–Grade 8
PreK–Grade 8
PreK
K–6
Summative Assessment
Best for Program Evaluation
What knowledge have students acquired about social-emotional skills and concepts taught in the program?
Is the program having the intended impact on our school and students?
Included in Second Step programs
DESSA–SSE
Panorama
SDQ
DECA
SELweb
PreK–Grade 8
K–5
PreK–Grade 8
PreK–Grade 8
PreK
K–6
Assessment Options by Provider
The Second Step® Elementary digital program and Second Step® Middle School include formative assessments in the form of performance tasks at the end of each unit. Performance tasks are fun, engaging activities that allow students to demonstrate skills and knowledge acquired in the program and provide educators an opportunity to monitor progress toward SEL goals. They are not designed to evaluate students’ social-emotional competencies. If your aim is to delve deeper and thoroughly evaluate students’ individual social-emotional competencies, then investing in an assessment-specific tool, such as those mentioned below, is suggested.
- Provider
- Target
- Format
- Reports Available
- On-Demand Reports
- Time Per Student
- Aperture
- K–5
- Online
- Teacher
- Yes
- 3–5 minutes
- Panorama Education
- PreK–8 (teachers); Grades 3–5 (students)
- Online
- Student; Teacher
- Yes
- Varies; Typically 15–30 minutes
- Youth in Mind
- Ages 2–17
- Paper/Pencil
- Student; Teacher
- No
- 3–10 minutes
- Devereux
- PreK
- Online; Paper/Pencil
- Teacher
- Yes
- 5–10 minutes
- xSEL Labs
- K–6
- Online
- Student
- Yes
- 20–30 minutes total (can be done in multiple sessions)
- Illuminate Education
- Grades K–12 SAEBRS; Grades 2–12 mySAEBRS
- Online
- Teacher; School District
- Yes
- SAEBRS: 5 minutes; mySAEBRS: 10 minutes

Addressing Common Challenges with SEL Assessment
Findings from a 2011 broadly publicized study of universal SEL programs found that SEL works best when it’s part of a larger, coordinated effort to create a positive learning environment.2 Regardless of how rigorous your chosen assessment strategy is, it can be tricky to isolate and assess the factors contributing to or detracting from student success. We know from years of working with top-performing schools and from numerous studies that there are some key features to successful SEL implementation, including: whole-school adoption, well-trained staff, sequenced lessons that explicitly teach skills in age-appropriate ways, varied instructional strategies to engage diverse learning styles, and a focus on culturally relevant SEL, with tiered levels of intervention and support.
Learn more on our blog about common assessment challenges and practical tips for creating a positive impact.
Explore More Resources
Second Step® Assessment Guides
The guides below provide more detailed information about the different ways evaluations can be designed, how to match evaluation strategies to program goals, how to implement Second Step® programs with fidelity, and how to use findings to improve outcomes.
SEL Assessments Aligned to Second Step Programs
To learn how the skills taught in Second Step programs link to assessments and strategies in other programs, use the alignment charts below.
1 Schools and districts are investing significantly in SEL programs because research shows that social-emotional competencies, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, contribute to academic and career success. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) led a multidisciplinary work group to better understand best practices for choosing and implementing SEL assessments. To learn more, visit: https://measuringsel.casel.org/
2 Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. (2011). “The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.” Child Development, 82, 405–432.