Panorama Offers New Platform to Help Teachers Track Student’s SEL Growth

TOUCHY FEELY: Panorama Education, a company that offers survey tools and resources to help schools collect and analyze feedback, is launching a new tool that provides data on students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) and growth. The product is the latest iteration of Panorama for Social-Emotional Learning, an online platform that provides SEL assessments and data analytics to schools.

Whereas the previous version offered only school-wide data, the new platform provides reports on individual students’ SEL abilities across a range of categories—grit, growth mindset, self-management, emotion recognition. Data is self-reported by teachers and students through the use of Panorama’s online (or paper) surveys.

For Aaron Feuer, Panorama CEO and founder, the product represents the next step in addressing SEL needs. He explains that while school-wide data can be useful, his research has found it's ultimately inadequate for addressing students’ needs. “We realized that each student has a unique profile of needs and school level data isn't nearly enough,” Feuer says of the product’s conception. “We’re hoping this product will allow teachers to sit down with students and talk about SEL growth in the same ways they’d discuss academics.”

The tool also offers students the ability to track their own SEL progress and get tips designed to help them grow. “It’s a great growth opportunity for students because they have control over their own social emotional learning,” Feuer tells EdSurge.

Panorama for Social-Emotional Learning launched to a small group of schools in the fall of 2016. The platform is open to all districts and school now.