Social-Emotional Learning Competency (SELC) Scale: Development of an Instrument to Measure School Counselors' Perceptions of Implementation, Impact, Involvement, and Importance of School-Wide Social & Emotional Learning Practices

Concerns have arisen in the field of education regarding the social-emotional needs of students accompanied by an outcry for more effective discipline procedures in an effort to support not only the academic learning but also the social and emotional learning (SEL) of students. Initially, this study intended to examine the psychometric properties of a new instrument measuring school counselors' involvement with social-emotional learning (SEL) practices. After a rigorous evaluation of the parametric assumptions undergirding the proposed inferential and psychometric analyses, the survey item distributions were largely non-normal, with significant skewness. Due to these findings, a non-experimental descriptive research design composed of comparative elements was used for this study. Non-parametric analyses were based upon 524 school counselors in Washington and North Carolina State. Various significant findings were discovered regarding school counselor involvement in SEL practices. However, the accompanying effect sizes were small, allowing for minimal practical implications.