The Other Side of the Report Card

Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. is Professor, Psychology Department, Rutgers University, Director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab, and Academic Director of The Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service at Rutgers. He is Past President of the Society for Community Research and Action/Division of Community Psychology (27) of APA and has received the SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Practice and Ethnic Minority Mentoring Awards, as well the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the John P. McGovern Medal from the American School Health Association, and the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education. Prof. Elias lectures nationally and internationally to educators and parents about students' emotional intelligence, school success, and social-emotional and character development. Among Dr. Elias' numerous books are ASCD's Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, the Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving curricula for grades k-8, the new e-book, Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, and a book for young children: Talking Treasure: Stories to Help Build Emotional Intelligence and Resilience in Young Children (www.researchpress.com, 2012). He also writes a blog for on SEL-related topics for the George Lucas Educational Foundation at www.edutopia.org. With colleagues at the College of St. Elizabeth, he has developed an online credentialing program for Direct Instruction of Social-Emotional and Character Development (SECD) programs in classroom, small group, and after school settings (sel.rutgers.edu), and for School-Focused Leadership and Coordination of SECD and School Culture and Climate (SELinSchools.org). Professor Elias interviewed with Rae Pica on Bam! Radio's Studentcentricity. You can find the interview, Classroom Management: Redirecting Misbehavior, Joseph J. Ferrito recently earned his doctoral degree from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. He is a native of Monroe Township, New Jersey and a graduate of Marist College where he majored in psychology. Clinically, J.J. trained and worked across levels of care ranging from public schools and in-home services, to residential and inpatient treatment facilities. His clinical work has focused on children, adolescents and families, particularly those who have been exposed to various traumatic experiences. He completed an APA-accredited internship at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, California and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Audrey Hepburn Children's House at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Throughout his graduate training, J.J. taught several undergraduate courses and conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Maurice J. Elias through the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Lab at Rutgers University. Developing feasible methods for assessing SEL and related skills in schools has been a focus of this research and this work has generated several publications in various forms. J.J. hopes to continue this work and combine it with his interest in trauma and resiliency to enhance evidence-based methods of prevention and promotion on a national and international level. Take a look at a review on The Other Side of the Report Card, published by the New Jersey Association of School Psychologists here. Dominic C. Moceri graduated with his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. While at Rutgers, Dominic's research focused on quantifying the dissemination, implementation, sustainability, and scalability of evidence-based practices in schools and other settings. Dominic was co-principal investigator of the initial SEL Report Card Indicator studies, the foundation for this book. Additionally, he was the lead creator of the Schools Implementing Towards Sustainability (SITS) scale, a user-friendly and scalable measure of the system of sustainable implementation framework (Moceri et al., 2012). He received his M.S. in clinical psychology from Rutgers and his B.A. with honors in psychology from the University of Michigan. Dr. Moceri currently practices cognitive-behavioral therapy and conducts psychological assessments with children, adolescents, and adults in his home state of Michigan. He assesses and treats a wide variety of presenting problems, including anxiety, depression, inattention, hyperactivity, oppositionality, and rage attacks. He specializes in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, and tic disorders using exposure and response prevention and habit reversal training. Take a look at a review on The Other Side of the Report Card, published by the New Jersey Association of School Psychologists here.

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 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 "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 "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