The Instruments

The Science Discourse Instrument (SDI) is an observation tool and rubric used to evaluate the quality of discussions in science classrooms. There are six categories for observation in the SDI, which are considered essential to strong discourse in science classrooms, three of the categories focus on teachers and three focus on students. The categories for teachers are: asking open ended questions; pressing for explanation; and linking discussions. The categories for students are: explanation of ideas; co-constructing ideas with peers; and critiquing the reasoning of others.

The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) can be used to measure science teachers’ self-efficacy and outcome expectancy across all levels of teaching. The STEBI-A is the version recommended for use with in-service teachers; the STEBI-B is the version recommended for use with pre-service teachers.

The SDI is a set of measures to assess a student's self determination. It includes questions about choice making, goal setting, and decision making. The Inventory includes a self-report measure for people aged 13-22 with or without disabilities, as well as a parent or teacher report for an outside perspective. These two assessments can be combined for a full view of a student's self-determination. The assessment uses a continuous scale between "Agree" and "Disagree" on their online platform.

This Self-Perceived Influence measure is designed to assess an individual's perception of their involvement and influence as a member of a team in juxtaposition to how team members interact with said individual. The assessment contains five items each of which is on a six-point scale that ranges from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6).

SELweb is an online, performance-based social-emotional learning (SEL) assessment system designed to measure social thinking skills and peer relationships.

The Sense of Social Fit Scale is a 17-item measure that assesses how much a person feels they belong in a group, such as a school, club, or academic department.

The Shyness Mindset Scale (Valentiner et al., 2011) is an open-source 4-item measure of perceptions about social interaction and competence as well as specific beliefs regarding shyness in social settings. This measure was developed in the context of a study that applied mindset theory to the domain of inhibited social behavior using a sample of 93 incoming college freshmen. It was adapted from Dweck's work on mindset for intelligence (Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999).

The Situational Test of Emotion Management is an open-source, performance-based multiple choice test that measures how well one is able to manage their emotions. It was developed in combination with the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding. Both long and short forms are available, as well as an 11-item form appropriate for youth ages 11-15 and their parents called the STEM-Y. 

The SEI-YV assesses emotional intelligence and capabilities of youth. The results are intended to help teachers or youth understand their strengths and competencies, both individually and in a group setting. The SEI-YV provides snapshots of five areas: good health, relationship quality, life satisfaction, personal achievement, and self-efficacy.

The Social Competence and Behavioral Evaluation - 30 (SCBE-30) is a short version of an 80 item Likert measure for parents and teachers to assess  social-emotional competence, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors in preschool children. It was formerly sold by WPS Publishing but no longer is. It has been translated into many languages and is used in cross-national comparisons.

The Social Emotional Survey-Secondary (SEHS-S) is a 36-item self-report measure of students’ social and emotional strengths. The 12 subscales (each consisting of three items) are associated with four domains of positive social-emotional health: belief in self, belief in others, emotional competence, and engaged living. These four correlated domains assess the higher-order construct of covitality. The SEHS-2020 is the most recent validated version.

The Social Identities and Attitudes Scale (SIAS) measures susceptibility to stereotype threat in mathematics for both gender and ethnicity. 

The Social Networks and Friendship Survey asks participants to indicate their friends in the classroom. From this list, children are asked to identify the top 3 friends by marking them with a star. The survey also asks children to indicate “rejects” or children with whom they don’t like to hang out.

Social Perspective Taking (SPT) is measured through three sub-scales which are the SPT Propensity scale, the SPT Confidence scale, and the SPT Importance scale (24 items total). In the initial study, a performance task to assess social perspective taking ability and an interview to uncover motivations behind SPT were also administered. 

The Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) is published and sold by MHS Assesments (it is also distributed by Pearson). It contains 5 scales to measure different dimensions of social problem solving: Positive Problem Orientation, Negative Problem Orientation, Rational Problem Solving, Impulsivity/Carelessness Style, and Avoidance Style. It is an individual assessment with Likert-style responses appropriate for ages 13-18.

The Social Skills Improvement System-Social Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL) is sold through Pearson and measures a variety of social and emotional competencies using both norm and criterion referencing. There are both digital and paper versions which can be completed by students, parents, or teachers. There is also a brief version of the form. 

The SAT10 reading subtests are specifically aligned with IRA/NCTE standards, state standards, and the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The standardized assessment can help monitor students' progress and also identify strengths and areas in need of support for placement and instructional planning. The test is sold only to accredited schools and districts. Aprenda-3 is the Spanish version that allows educators to test Spanish-speaking students in their native language.

SAT10 was developed to align with state standards and the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The standardized assessment can help monitor students' progress and also identify strengths and areas in need of support for placement and instructional planning. Aprenda-3 is the Spanish assessment modeled off of the Stanford 10 that allows educators to test Spanish-speaking students in their native language.

The Student Athlete Pre-Screening Questionnaire (SA-PSQ) is a tool for evaluating the college readiness of student athletes. It is derived from the CollegeCareerReady™ School Diagnostic, which assesses four key areas of college readiness, including cognitive strategies, content knowledge, learning skills and techniques, and transition knowledge and skills.

The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) is a 35-item (secondary) or 31-items (elementary) instrument that measures various components of student engagement, including teacher-student relationships which may provide insights into students' sense of belonging at school.

The Student Measure of Culturally Responsive Teaching (SMCRT) explores students’ perspectives about culturally responsive teaching practices in their school.

The Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ) is a 16-item self-report behavior rating scale for measuring youths' school-specific wellbeing. The SSWQ is comprised of four subscales: (1) Joy of Learning, (2) School Connectedness, (3) Educational Purpose, and (4) Academic Efficacy. Subscale scores can be used as standalone wellbeing indicators or summed to create a Overall Student Wellbeing composite scale. The SSWQ was developed with a sample of 6-8th graders, and a college version is also available.

The SSN student survey measures 7 SEL competencies that are connected to persistance and success in students. The categories include academic self-efficacy, belonging, growth mindset, interpersonal skills, problem-solving, self-advocacy, and self-regulation. The survey is intended for students in grades 6-12.

STeP is a tool that allows instructors to be evaluated by their students across a set of categories identified as critical for effective classroom instruction. Two optional open-ended questions are also included at the end allowing students to provide additional input that may not be fully captured in the body of the survey.

The 20-Item Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey (TMAS) is a unidimensional self-report inventory of teachers' multicultural awareness and sensitivity. The survey analyzes teachers' multicultural awareness, appreciation, and tolerance. 

Teachers were asked to complete one for each student in their class as a way to identify high-risk children. Teachers were asked to describe, among other things, whether the child completed assignments, was friendly, broke rules, was disobedient, fought, or yelled at others. Teachers used a Likert scale of 0 to 5, with responses including almost never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (3), very often (4), and almost always (5). The original measure was 16 items, later revised by discarding two and adding 21 more.

The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) measures teachers' evaluations of how likely they are to be successful in teaching. TSES conceptualizes teaching as a complex activity and teacher efficacy as a multi-faceted construct representing at least three distinct factors: Efficacy for Classroom Management, Efficacy to promote Student Engagement, and Efficacy in using Instructional Strategies. It is designed for and has been used by researchers and school leaders to measure teacher self-efficacy at a particular point in time, as well as before and after participating in professional development programs. There is a short- and long-form version of the scale.

The Teacher Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire is an 8-item self-report rating scale measuring teachers' job-specific wellbeing. It comprises two subscales: (1) School Connectedness and (2) Teaching Efficacy. Subscale scores can be used as standalone wellbeing indicators or summed to create an Overall Teacher Subjective Wellbeing composite score.

TeamUP is a package of teaching and learning activities based on a theoretically grounded assessment rubric (Hastie et al., 2014). This rubric was designed to guide student learning and to assess the teamwork skills that they practice while undertaking team-based academic assignments in higher education. The focus of the TeamUP Rubric is on the fundamental teamwork behaviours that can be taught, practised and assessed so that individual students are enabled to develop their skills over time.

The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) instrument is a self-efficacy survey that seeks to monitor and assess teachers' development of TPACK and seven interrelated knowledge domains. The measure is primarily aimed towards pre-service secondary mathematics teachers and can be used to longitudinally study program effectiveness at TPACK development, and to conduct large-scale multi-institutional research studies (Zelkowski, et al., 2013).