Home
About
Who We Are
Learn about EMA
Our Team
Meet the EMA team
Board of Trustees
Meet the EMA trustees
Sponsors & Partners
Learn about our partners
Work With Us
Start your EMA career
Technical Advisory Panel
View our Advisory Panel
Have you signed up for a post-conference course yet?
If you missed any of our pre-conference courses, we have great news. You can now register for our Annual Conference Post-Conference Mini Courses!
Membership
Become a Member
Join our association today
Enrollment Toolkit
Discover our enrollment solutions
Professional Development
Empower your growth
Events & Webinars
See our upcoming events
Global
Meet your global partner
Members Access Portal
Login to the MAP
Community
Learn from others in your network
Learning Center
Access tools for your success
Blog
Read thought-leader articles
COVID-19 Resources
Learn how to adapt
AC20 On-Demand
Enjoy access to on-demand content from our annual conference for you and your team for a whole year.
Community
Products
Products Overview
An overview of our products
The SSAT
Secondary School Admission Test
SSAT at Home
At-home administration of The SSAT
Fee Waivers
Open doors to independent schools
The Character Skills Snapshot
Better understand your applicants
Student Prospect Lists
Discover your prospective students
SAO
The Standard Application Online
The Interpretive Guide for The Character Skills Snapshot
New training tool to assist schools with understanding student results
Events
Contact
Alerts
Join
Member Login
Home
Contact
Login
Menu
About
Who We AreBoard of TrusteesOur TeamAlerts
Technical Advisory PanelWork With usSponsors & Partners
Membership
Become a MemberEnrollment ToolkitBlogPodcast
Member Access PortalEventsLearning CenterCommunityCOVID-19 Resources
Products
Products OverviewThe SSATSSAT at HomeThe Character Skills Snapshot
Student Prospects ListThe Standard Application Online
Membership
Join
Login
Development
No items found.
The Character Skills Snapshot
Development
Development
The Skills
The Skills
G32+ Schools
G32+ Schools
Testimonials
Testimonials
Science & The Snapshot
Science & The Snapshot
Getting Started With The Snapshot
Getting Started With The Snapshot
For SSAT Users
For SSAT Users
For Non-SSAT Users
For Non-SSAT Users
FAQs for Schools
FAQs for Schools
Sample Questions
Sample Questions
Receiving Snapshot Reports
Receiving Snapshot Reports
Snapshot Results Report
Snapshot Results Report
Telling Families
Telling Families
Contact
Contact
Brochures
Brochures
Videos
Videos
Badges
Badges
Language for Your Website
Language for Your Website
FAQ for Families
FAQ for Families

Development

History and Development

G32 July Group Photo

This release builds upon extensive research by our Think Tank on the Future of Assessment, collaboration with numerous independent school enrollment leaders, and statistical analysis performed by both The Enrollment Management Association (EMA) and the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Field trials of the assessment were conducted over the past two years, with more than 12,000 students completing the assessment. Additionally, user testing was conducted with parents to gain feedback on the design and content elements of the score report, as well as the assessment itself.

While character education is a hallmark of an independent school education and is a salient piece of every school’s mission, gaining insight into an applying student’s current character skill development has been largely a matter of intuition and an investigative screening of the application. While many schools assess character in some way (e.g., via student interviews, teacher recommendations), reliance on unstandardized or inconsistent forms of character skills measurement highlights the need for a standardized and empirically supported approach.

The Enrollment Management Association’s (EMA) newest member offering, The Character Skills Snapshot, is nothing short of revolutionary in its ability to provide a picture of a child’s character skill development at a single point in time, providing admission offices with a clear view of how a child sees him- or herself, as well as those areas in which a school’s pedagogy can both assist in the evolution of a child’s emerging skills and take advantage of current strengths.

Based on recommendations from the Think Tank, we felt very strongly that member schools should be closely involved in the development of a new character assessment for admission.  A character assessment working group (“G32Plus”), composed of member schools from a variety of school types and locations, was formed to advise and develop the new assessment. The group’s first task was to help EMA and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) settle on which character skills to measure.

Pretesting

A first group summit provided participating members the opportunity to identify, vote on, and ultimately select the initial set of character skills that were going to be assessed in the Character Skills Assessment (the tool’s initial moniker) item pretest. An item pretest was then conducted with over 1,400 students, collecting responses to Likert-type items that were written to measure the skills. A Likert-type item presents a statement (e.g., “I work hard”) and allows respondents to select an option on a scale (e.g., strongly disagree to strongly agree).  The results of this pretest suggested we were measuring seven distinct character skills instead of twelve. A forced-choice assessment was then developed with the items retained from the pretest to measure the new set of character skills, namely: intellectual engagement, teamwork, initiative, self-control, resilience, and open-mindedness.

The Final Skill

A final skill was deemed to be important for inclusion in The Snapshot. With guidance from The EMA and ETS, 35 teachers from member schools constructed situational judgment questions that are now included in The Snapshot. Situational judgment items present a scenario that usually describes a potential point of conflict between two or more people (e.g., a group of students, a student and a teacher, or a student and a parent). Each of these scenarios is associated with four possible ways of reacting to the situation, and the respondent is expected to evaluate the appropriateness of each of this reactions. These items were designed to measure one additional skill: social awareness.

Pilot Testing and Validity

There were two large pilots of the forced-choice and situational judgment items. The first was called the Beta Test and was administered to over 6,000 students.  It provided an opportunity to evaluate the construct validity of all potential forced-choice and situational judgment items. Results from this pilot allowed The EMA to identify sets of situational judgment items for use in assessment forms and provided important information about the validity of the forced-choice assessment.  Based on preliminary validity evidence from this pilot, the forced-choice assessment does measure the intended constructs, and this measurement is consistent for various subgroups by gender, ethnicity, English language status, and grade level.  

The second pilot was the Field Trial, which was administered to  more than 4,000 students.  This was the formal test of the assessment form(s) that would be included in this first operational year of The Snapshot. Based on evidence from this pilot, the situational judgment forms that were created using data from previous pilot demonstrated stable measurement – that is, the forms are measuring the same things and are functionally the same even though the items are different --  as intended.  Results also revealed impressive consistency in scores (i.e., score reliability) on the forced-choice assessment over one year (from beta test to field trial) for students that took the assessment both times.

Want to learn more?  Read about character assessment and admission and the development of The Snapshot on this NAIS page, authored by Dr. David Holmes, cofounder and codirector of the Institute on Character and Admission, including a podcast with the EMA's Meghan Brenneman, Ed.D.

‍

Become a Member

Membership

About EMAEnrollment ToolkitMember CommunityGlobalContactMember LoginAlerts

PD

Events & WebinarsAnnual ConferenceHeads InstituteALCOnline Courses

Products

Secondary School Admission TestThe Character Skills SnapshotStudent Prospect ListsThe Standard Application Online

Products

Secondary School Admission TestSSAT at HomeThe Character Skills SnapshotStudent Prospect ListsThe Standard Application OnlineFee Waiver Program

Learn

BlogPodcastSpecial ReportsCOVID-19 Resources
© 2021 The Enrollment Management Association
Privacy PolicyTerms of Use

Products

Secondary School Admission TestThe Character Skills SnapshotStudent Prospect ListsThe Standard Application Online