Cultural beliefs, values, and norms influence the frequency and display of behavior. Accordingly, broadening the operational definitions of social and emotional competencies and establishing the equivalence of measures are two necessary steps to ensure that current assessment tools are sensitive to cultural and contextual variations. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to examine the risks associated with narrow definitions or assumptions of invariance, particularly as each pertains to the assessment of social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies among Black students in urban schools; and second, to consider the utility of prototype analysis in advancing transformative SEL research and practice.
