Measurement Invariance and Cohort Trends for Social and Emotional Learning Measures Across Four Statewide Administrations: Conventional Fit Statistics Versus the RMSEAD

We assessed measurement invariance (MI) and cohort trends for five social and emotional learning (SEL) measures across four administrations (2013, 2016, 2019, 2022) of a statewide student survey including grades 5, 8, 9, and 11 ( n = 626,082). The MI models were compared using conventional fit statistics and the root mean square error of approximation based on the chi-square difference test (RMSEA D ) for nested model comparisons with ordinal items. We found that MI held for all measures across years for each grade using both criteria. We then computed standardized mean differences to identify SEL trends for the 2013 and 2016 cohorts for each measure. Overall, there were declines in SEL skills across administrations for both cohorts. Specifically, commitment to learning, family/community support, and teacher/school support SEL measures had notable declines (i.e., large effect size) from 2019–2022 (i.e., before and after the COVID-19 pandemic) for the 2016 cohort. Education implications and directions for future research for evaluating MI and measuring SEL skills and supports were also discussed.