SSES is the most comprehensive international large-scale assessment to date that provides education systems with information on their students' social and emotional skills. It was designed to address gaps in data by covering a comprehensive range of skills and gather extensive contextual information about school and home factors that might influence these skills, all using reliable, validated tools for cross-country comparison. The first round of SSES was conducted in 2019 in 10 cities from around the world, with findings published from 2021-2023. It showed the feasibility of measuring social and emotional skills across countries and demonstrated its value in addressing research questions and policy issues related to social and emotional skills. Participating local governments from Bogotá (Colombia) to Suzhou (China) applied findings to policy and practice, often in collaboration with partner foundations or universities.
This report is the first of two international reports on the rich findings of the SSES 2023. It documents robust and reliable information on students’ social and emotional skills, and how these skills relate to individual, family, and school characteristics. It explores broader policy and socio-economic contexts related to these skills. It reinforces the evidence base for countries to focus more on social and emotional skills as a pathway to developing well-rounded citizens in their education policy agendas. Together with other OECD surveys in the Directorate for Education and Skills, SSES points to the holistic, lifelong development of cognitive, and social and emotional skills as the best foundation for fulfilled and productive lives.