New features include a tool to track use of SEL strategies, an “academy” section to house professional development details, a translation option for students, and more
Aperture Education has made several updates to its award-winning social and emotional learning (SEL) assessment system to make it even more user-friendly for teachers, administrators and students, and to help schools provide more strategic and targeted SEL support. The updates are based on customer feedback and recommendations from Aperture’s product development team.
“Teachers and administrators are busy people and they want their technology to be simple, effective, and efficient,” said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education.
The Aperture System includes the DESSA, a nationally standardized, strength-based behavior rating scale that assesses students’ social and emotional competence in eight areas. The system also includes strategies specific to each competency that educators can use to provide targeted support to students who need it.
The new updates include:
- A “Strategy Tracker” which teachers or administrators access to see which SEL strategies have been implemented with which students, and the impact the strategies have over time. For example, if the DESSA data indicates a student is struggling with the skill of social awareness, the educator can access the strategy tracker to see which strategies have already been tried with that student and if the student’s DESSA rating changed afterward. The tracker also allows them to see what strategies other teachers have used to support a particular skill with their students. This feature helps teachers provide more strategic and targeted support to students.
- An “Academy” section with LMS integration: This section of the platform houses all of the professional learning activities offered by Aperture and allows users to view, access and track activities all in one place. For example, administrators can view and export training reports and send “shout outs” to teachers when they finish their training. Teachers can access all their online trainings without having to go to a separate website. If a school or district has purchased EdSERT, Aperture’s SEL program for educators, it is also accessed in the “Academy” section.
- A translations feature for high school students: High school students completing the DESSA High School Edition Student Self- Report now have the option of selecting from at least 14 different languages to complete the evaluation, including Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian and Korean.
- Progress monitoring reports: These reports provide educators and administrators with a more visual option to view and analyze student data. Columns and graphs make it easier to see at a glance how a student’s current DESSA rating compares to past ratings.
- Other administrative updates. Additional updates include:
- Making it easier for teachers or administrators to make corrections such as fixing typos in students’ profiles.
- Allowing teachers to do “batch-printing” of student reports – for instance printing a one-page report on every student for a parent-teacher conference all in one batch instead of printing them individually.
- Allowing staff members to input a rating on behalf of a parent or guardian.
These updates were implemented over the course of the fall and winter and are now available to all current and new customers.
To learn more, visit www.ApertureEd.com.
