We know from research that social and emotional skills are important to thriving in school, work, and life. Our previous research showed that these types of skills – which help people function effectively in social situations and in academic and professional environments – are highly correlated to ACT test scores among all students. However, many studies on this topic do not differentiate between groups of students, including those who may have different needs.
Given the lack of information on how these skills relate to academic achievement among students with disabilities in particular, we wanted to explore this relationship.
Which specific skills were most strongly associated with higher ACT scores among students with disabilities?
In this study, all students had at least one type of neurodevelopmental disability, such as a learning disability, ADHD, or autism. Similar to the case for students without disabilities, ACT scores among students with disabilities were highly correlated with all five core skills we measured – getting along with others, maintaining composure, social connection, sustaining effort, and keeping an open mind. However, there were a few differences in the strength of the relationships.
Getting along with others and keeping an open mind had the strongest relationships with ACT test scores for students with disabilities. Additionally, maintaining composure and social connection, along with getting along with others, had stronger relationships with ACT test scores among students with disabilities than among students without disabilities. The correlation between keeping an open mind and ACT test scores was identical among groups, while sustaining effort had a lower correlation to ACT test scores among students with disabilities versus those without.
The field still needs more research about how these skills may uniquely affect students with disabilities, especially considering that students’ needs may be different depending on their disabilities. We know that interventions designed to improve these skills can, in general, help students academically, but better understanding the extent to which they help students with special needs has important implications for ensuring that interventions benefit all students.
Additionally, some research has found that students with disabilities may be disproportionally affected by issues such as bullying, suggesting it’s important to understand how the development of these skills can help support these students in areas other than academics, as well.
How can schools and educators support the success of students with disabilities and their academic outcomes through these skills?
There are many ways to do so. First, it is important that educators are building their own skills and using them to develop student-teacher relationships, model appropriate behavior, and listen to students’ needs. Additionally, learning how to approach social and emotional instruction using a neurodiversity-affirming approach can help students build on their strengths.
Embedding this instruction throughout the school day can help all students build these skills, which can be taught through a formal curriculum or woven into existing content. For example, as part of a literacy lesson, educators could read a story and ask students to think about how the characters felt and handled situations, and to think about ways they could respond to similar situations in their own lives.
Finally, educators can help by providing students with safe opportunities to practice these skills with peers. Providing structured class time for students to get to know one another and build relationships can be particularly important for students who feel more socially isolated.
Standardized testing practices have evolved to better accommodate students with disabilities, and ACT has been an industry leader at every step in that evolution.
ACT has provided test accommodations for decades, since before the Americans with Disabilities Act mandated that standardized testing companies do so in the 1990s. As the 2010s saw refinement to technological integration that benefited people with disabilities, ACT’s test development practices were refined to include guidelines for accommodations such as extended time, alternative formats, and assistive technology.
In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act focused schools on accountability and including students with disabilities in standardized testing, which resulted in driving test providers to enhance accommodations offerings such as screen reader compatibility, text to speech, embedded video American Sign Language, and customizable test settings. In 2021, ACT aligned its accommodations eligibility policy with federal special education laws to remove process barriers, resulting in easier access to accommodations for students and school staff. Since then, we have incorporated Universal Design for Learning and Universal Design for Assessment principles in our development practices to ensure we’re designing assessments accessible to all students from the outset and minimizing the need for separate accommodations.
The introduction of online testing has also had a positive effect by allowing supports that previously required accommodation requests to be embedded in the test delivery system and available to all students, minimizing the delineation between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers.
Continuous updates to laws and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines drive ACT’s policies and help ensure compliance with the latest educational and technological standards to support all students’ participation in standardized assessments. Our evolution of standardized test development and delivery practices reflects a growing recognition of the diverse learners we serve and a commitment to providing equitable educational opportunities through actionable research, innovation, and implementation of best practices.