The Winston Essential Skills Survey: A Comprehensive Social-Emotional Assessment for Students With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The Winston Essential Skills Survey (WESS) 3.0, the first social-emotional learning (SEL) assessment designed for students with learning disabilities (SwLD), has evidence for reliability and validity in a specific population of teachers. To build on this evidence, 180 educators responded to the WESS 3.0, along with new items and the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA), to assess a sample of 397 SwLD. Minor modifications to the WESS 3.0 resulted in the WESS 4.0, which demonstrated internal consistency, an eight-factor structure, and convergent validity with the DESSA. The WESS 4.0 addresses a critical gap in SEL assessments for SwLD, providing researchers and educators with a valid and reliable method to assess SwLD's social-emotional skills. This survey may inform school interventions, policy decisions on SEL programming, and advance understanding of SEL in SwLD, potentially improving educational outcomes and well-being for this population.