Social-Emotional and Health/Motor Scale Focus Group Notes –
March 11, 2015
Participant Information:
 Five teachers attended the social-emotional and motor scale development focus group in
Houston, TX. The participants were kindergarten teachers from a public elementary
school.
General Comment Regarding TX-KEA
 Several teachers expressed concerns about the stated purposes and goals of the TX-KEA
Project, and how this assessment will (or will not) affect Kindergarten classrooms and
teachers.
 Teachers were also concerned about the electronic format (particularly in relation to
domains such as phonological awareness)
 Most teachers (4 of 5) expressed concerns about the projected length of the TX-KEA
assessment (e.g., 45 minutes). These teachers indicated that they feel like their time
should be spent teaching students versus assessing students.
 Approximately half of the teachers (3 of 5) seemed surprised by the number of domains
included within the assessment. When asked, all teachers felt that the district would only
require them to complete literacy, language, and math subdomains.
 Universally, teachers commented that non-academic domains (e.g., social skills, motor
skills, etc.) should be kept brief and considered to be optional.
Discussion of Specific Aspects of Social-Emotional Scale
 Teachers were concerned how social-emotional information would be used at school
level.
 Teachers felt that social-emotional scales could help them explain (in annual reviews) if
a class was behind on academics because children needed more social emotional
supports from the teacher. These surveys could also help teachers refer children to a
social worker.
 Make sure questions are divided.
 Teachers would like to see more questions regarding self-regulation/ work ethic (follow
directions; stay on task; pay attention; staying in seat): Are children ready to learn?
 Teacher asked whether scales could assess children who are “not in same realm as
everyone else;” “daydreamers.”
 Overall, the teachers liked rating scales (1-3) better than a “yes or no” scale and thought
it was nice to have a ‘sometimes,’ but they were concerned that teachers rating at the
beginning of the year would always pick “sometimes.”
 The teachers were wary of parent ratings. They were interested to see parent’s
viewpoints but felt that parent views may be less accurate than teacher views and that
parent views would not change their own views of children.
Social-Emotional and Health/Motor Scale Focus Group Notes –
March 11, 2015

Teachers felt that quiet and ‘difficult’ children were hard to rate; successful children
were easier to rate.
Discussion of Specific Aspects of Health and Motor Scales
 Teachers felt they did not have enough opportunities to watch their children utilize gross
motor skills in order to give accurate ratings.
 They felt that the evaluation of motor skills was not as highly valued at the district level
compared to academic skills.
 Even if a child has a motor delay, it would take the district several months to arrange for
a student to be evaluated.
 Teacher felt they may not have supports needed to refer a child for intervention, and that
most children struggled some with motor skills and that these would be outgrown.
 Teachers felt that they would not be able to evaluate some questions typically included
in surveys about health and safety. For example, many surveys ask teachers to rate
whether or not a child has the ability to navigate safely in his community (e.g., safely
crossing the street). Teachers said that if this was important “ask the parents”.