By Reema Amin, Chalkbeat New York, November 11, 2021
Brooklyn elementary school teacher Andrea Castellano was initially happy about New York City’s plan to screen students for their social-emotional health. She thought it was important to understand how children were faring, as they returned to classrooms full-time after two school years in a pandemic marked with illness, death and isolation.
But Castellano quickly changed her mind when she saw examples of the 43 questions that teachers would be expected to answer about their students just two months into the school year: During the past four weeks, how often did a student think before they acted? Stay calm when faced with a challenge? Learn from experience?
The answers, ranging from “never” to “very frequently,” are supposed to help determine what sort of extra support students might need to improve certain social skills, such as decision making, self awareness, and personal responsibility.
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