SRLS Online

The Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS) is an instrument based on the Social Change Model (SCM) of leadership development. The SCM describes leadership as a purposeful, collaborative, values-driven process, instead of a title or position. In this context, a "leader" is anyone who wants to work with others to make a difference. The model's central principles-social responsibility and change for the common good-are assessed through eight core values that describe a student's level of self-awareness and ability to work with others. The SRLS is used for research, assessment, and education to measure and identify student capacity for socially-reponsible leadership using the SCM as a framework.

The SRLS Online was developed as a simple web-based survey that takes only about 15 minutes to complete. Students are instantly scored on the individual, group, and community values of the SCM. Research and assessment in leadership development helps us all to improve our practice for students as we continue to learn which experiences have the most impact on our learning outcomes.

Benefits of the SRLS Online

SRLS is psychometrically sound: It is grounded in research - valid and reliable. Experts in the study of higher education have developed and refined the instrument.
SRLS is theoretically sound: It is the only instrument of its kind built upon the Social Change Model (SCM) of Leadership Development. Every item included in the survey fits into the theoretical model.
SRLS focuses on behavior, not personality: A student's personality is static, but behavior can change, offering room for growth. Students get practical advice for improving their leadership skills.
SRLS is easy to use: It was designed to be self-administered; the survey's online dashboard is simple and intuitive for both the purchaser and student taking the assessment.
SRLS is easy to administer: The Web-based instrument spares you the burden of managing paper surveys and reports. Support by email is available.
SRLS is versatile: It can be used for education, assessment, or research. Its licensing options serve the needs of individuals, groups, and institutions.
SRLS is flexible: With a web-based survey and research license options, SRLS can be used for a variety of projects and purposes.

Using the SRLS Online

The SRLS Online is a web-based, self-service survey tool that takes about 15-minutes to complete. Administering the survey to students works much like other online assessment tools with which you may be familiar. Administrators and participants create online accounts and get access to a user dashboard.

Anyone with an account can purchase vouchers (codes) at $8.00 ea. to redeem to take the survey. The system will automatically email the voucher and a link to take the survey. If you would like administrator access to the students' results, then you would purchase the vouchers all under one account, have students create their own accounts, assign the vouchers to students, and create voucher groups for comparison if desired. Students can see their results on the online dashboard. Administrators are able to view results associated with all purchased vouchers and can download an excel spreadsheet of results for any voucher group they have created. Included in your purchase you also receive technical support from our partners in IT at the University of Maryland. All data from the SRLS Online are stored by the University of Maryland on secure servers.

Please click on the buttons below to create your account, login to the dashboard, review the user guide, and get started!

Create Your Account Dashboard Login

Applying your Results

We offer a general info guide and student results interpretation guide via the buttons below. For additional assistance planning learning and development activities related to the SCM and SRLS, please see the various materials/publications available on the SCM, including Leadership for a Better World and the accompanying facilitator guide Social Change Model: Facilitating Leadership Development. The SRLS Online was designed to work in conjunction with these publications. For history on the Social Change Model and its development, please see the original Guidebook developed by the Higher Education Research Institute (1996).

General Info Guide Results Interpretation Guide

SRLS Research Licenses

The SRLS coordination team is happy to discuss usage of the SRLS for graduate student dissertations and theses. To learn more about SRLS research licenses, please contact the SRLS Team at srls@umd.edu. If your research and assessment goals would be best served by institution-wide data, then the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) may be a more appropriate avenue. The MSL includes the SRLS among a variety of other scales and measures including and beyond leadership development. You can read more about the MSL and their research team at leadershipstudy.net.

Contact the SRLS Team

The SRLS research coordination team is a part of the National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs (NCLP). Questions regarding SRLS usage or purpose can be directed to our NCLP colleagues at srls@umd.edu. Any technical questions or issues such as account access, taking the survey, email notifications, and passwords should be directed to our IT team at dsa-ithelp@umd.edu.