Products Frequently Asked Questions
Table of Contents
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Q: Can you define the DESSA response options (e.g., Rarely, Frequently) for raters?
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Q: What is the difference between the DESSA and the DESSA-mini?
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Q: How were the items on the four forms of the DESSA-mini selected?
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Q: Can the DESSA be used in brief out-of-school-time programs, such as summer programs?
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Q: Do the DESSA-mini/DESSA-HSE mini forms need to be completed in order?
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Q: What populations were used as norms for the DESSA? How recently were the norms collected?
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Q: What is the best way to share results with parents and guardians?
Overview
This article contains a list of frequently asked questions about the various products offered by Aperture Education.
Questions
Q: Can you define the DESSA response options (e.g., Rarely, Frequently) for raters?
A: The various options on the Likert scale do not need to be defined for the rater. When individuals complete the assessments, they are reflecting back on a child’s behavior over the past four weeks and selecting the option based on their general impression. Providing a definition of the options would not necessarily make the ratings any more accurate, given that raters will ultimately base their rating on their recollections and general impression.
Q: How should the DESSA be used with students who have special needs or who are receiving special education services?
A: We encourage schools and programs to use the K-8 DESSA and DESSA-mini with all K-8 students in the school (and similarly the 9-12 DESSA and mini with all 9-12 students in the school), not just those already showing behavioral concerns and not excluding those with specific disabilities. While we promote the use of the DESSA/DESSA-mini with all children, we also caution programs that staff need to be sensitive to specific situations and not use information gained from the DESSA in ways that would be harmful or detrimental to a child and his/her family. For instance, if a child with severe disabilities scored entirely in the area of need on the DESSA scales, the individual interpreting and sharing that information with families need to be sensitive to the child’s particular condition.
It should be noted that many developmental disabilities do in fact impact social and emotional development and therefore in many cases, we would expect to see lower DESSA scores. This information is still valuable, as it will likely support goals already identified as well as offer a strength-based method for setting goals. The information gained through the DESSA should be considered one piece of a much larger system of information gathering and assessment. Results should be communicated with families and used to develop comprehensive plans that identify goals and strategies for all the areas of need including those that will promote social-emotional competencies for the child. Additionally, for children who score in the need range across the board on the DESSA scales, we recommend looking at the individual items on the scales to determine the child’s relative strengths and goals. This information, as well as continuous observations, can be very useful in the planning process.
Q: What is the difference between the DESSA and the DESSA-mini?
A: The DESSA and the DESSA-mini are measures of social-emotional competence of children in kindergarten through 8th grade. The primary difference between these two measures is that the DESSA-mini is designed to be a screener of social-emotional competence. A screener allows for a quick and efficient snapshot of one or more children’s overall social-emotional competence. As such, it can serve as a baseline needs assessment tool to determine how many students within a population might need social-emotional instruction. Additionally, the DESSA-mini can be used as a repeated measure for use in ongoing evaluation of improvements in overall social and emotional competence, as well as serve as an overall outcome measure for social and emotional learning program impact. The full DESSA is designed to be a more detailed assessment of social-emotional competencies, providing more specific information about the strengths and needs of children across eight social-emotional competency domains. The full DESSA provides the user with information that can directly lead to individualized instruction for children identified as needing additional social-emotional support across the eight domains. Like the DESSA-mini, the DESSA can also be used to examine changes in social-emotional competence over time and as an overall outcome measure for social and emotional learning programs.
Q: How were the items on the four forms of the DESSA-mini selected?
A: The eight items on each of the four forms of the DESSA-mini were selected from the 72 items on the DESSA using three criteria. First, it was important for the total score on the four sets of items (the Social-Emotional Total T-score) to correlate as highly as possible to the Social-Emotional Composite (SEC) T-score on the full DESSA. This is because the primary purpose of the DESSA-mini as a screener is to predict the score that the student would receive on the full DESSA assessment. To meet this goal, items with the highest correlation with the DESSA SEC T-score were rank ordered, and the first 32 items (eight items for four forms) were chosen. Second, it was important for the four DESSA-mini forms to have as few items as possible while still ensuring high reliability and predictive validity; therefore eight items were selected for each form. It is important to understand that the 8 items on each form have nothing to do with the 8 DESSA scales. Rather, these 32 items correlate the highest with the SEC T-score. Third, it was important for the four DESSA-mini forms to yield the same score for a given child, indicating that they are equivalent and can be directly compared. Combinations of the 32 items were tested until the means, standard deviations, and internal reliability coefficients were sufficiently similar to determine the final composition of the four DESSA-mini forms.
Q: How were the items and scales developed for the DESSA?
To create the items and scales for the DESSA, the authors began with a thorough literature review on resilience, social-emotional learning, and positive youth development, followed by an examination of other strength-based assessments. Next, the readability and usefulness of the items were examined during a national pilot study. Upon obtaining a pool of strength-based, observable items, national standardization occurred. Utilizing the standardization dataset, the DESSA items were organized into logically derived and statistically validated scales based on the CASEL Framework (www.casel.org). The authors chose this framework because it is well-established in the research literature and is being incorporated into many state and local social and emotional learning standards. Some minor adjustments were made, such as the inclusion of optimistic thinking as a construct. Reliability and validity studies were then conducted. The DESSA ended up with 72 items organized into 8 scales. For more information, please refer to pages 13-20 in the DESSA manual.
Q: What programs have the best capacity to incorporate the DESSA when considering staff retention and program dosage?
Many factors play a role in a program’s ability to incorporate the DESSA as a planning tool. First, a program should have manageable staff-child ratios. Second, it will be easier to incorporate the DESSA in programs that provide a variety of opportunities for children to demonstrate social and emotional skills. Third, programs that have experienced and trained staff members that are already mindful of children’s skills and interactions may have a greater capacity to incorporate the DESSA. In terms of retention, programs with lower staff turnover would be better able to provide ongoing support for children who have received planning with the DESSA. Finally, we believe that program dosage would not impact a program’s ability to incorporate the DESSA; however, dosage may impact the outcome of any strategies or interventions planned.
Q: Can the DESSA be used in brief out-of-school-time programs, such as summer programs?
Yes, a number of brief out-of-school time programs are currently using the DESSA. We recommend that programs such as these consider providing additional instruction to staff prior to using the DESSA in order to enhance staff’s comfort and reliability with completing the ratings. In addition to discussing with staff the purpose, use, and general administrative guidelines for completing the DESSA (pg. 39-40 of the DESSA-mini Manual or pg. 49-50 of the DESSA Manual, both attached) it may also be useful to talk to staff about how to prepare for a rating during pre-service training. For example, it may be helpful to spend time reviewing the DESSA items at the very beginning of the program so that staff knows what kinds of behaviors they will be asked to rate. Additionally, we suggest that staff intentionally observe their students during a variety of different tasks and settings (e.g., small and large group activities; challenging and easy tasks; cooperative learning situations; etc.). That is they, to the extent possible, arrange a variety of different opportunities to observe the students’ social and emotional skills prior to completing a rating.
Given the shorter duration of summer programs, it may be necessary to adjust the length of time required prior to completing the initial ratings. We recommend that raters should have contact with the youth for two or more hours for at least three days per week for a four-week period. This translates to approximately 24 hours of exposure to the youth. This guideline was determined through feedback from teachers during the development of the DESSA. However, it is important to keep in mind that although this is a recommendation, it is only an estimate. Especially in after-school or summer program settings, one must be aware of the many factors that play a role in a rater’s exposure to a child, such as staff-child ratios, types of interactions in the program (e.g., help with homework, large or small group activities, free play, etc.), and a variety of other factors. Therefore, a rater who has less exposure than recommended in the manual may still know a child well enough to complete the DESSA and can do so accurately, depending on these factors. For example, we have worked with summer programs that asked their staff to complete their ratings after only three weeks into the summer program. The guidance provided in the paragraph above includes recommendations for helping to prepare raters to complete their DESSA ratings. It should be noted that because the DESSA scores are based on the number of times specific behaviors have been noted, a rater’s insufficient opportunity to observe the youth could lead to an erroneously low rating. This should be taken into consideration when interpreting a youth’s DESSA results.
Q: Do the DESSA-mini/DESSA-HSE mini forms need to be completed in order?
A: No, all four of the DESSA-mini/DESSA-HSE mini forms rotate automatically and correspond with the current rating window. For instance, if your school will have three rating windows this year and it is currently the third rating window, Form 3 will be loaded. If progress monitoring is being completed, the rater can select which form to use.
Q: What populations were used as norms for the DESSA? How recently were the norms collected?
A: The DESSA was nationally standardized in the U.S. in 2005-2006. Ratings were collected from two groups: (1) parents and other relatives living with the child and (2) teachers and after-school program staff. The norming sample closely approximated the Kindergarten through 8th-grade population of the U.S. (in 2006) with respect to age, gender, geographic region, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. This final standardization sample included ratings on 2,494 children (parents provided ratings for 1,244 children; teachers/after-school staff provided ratings for 1,250 children. Full information on the demographic characteristics of the standardization sample is provided in the DESSA manual.
Q: How can I learn more about the DESSA and Rater bias?
A: Information related to teacher bias influencing DESSA scores can be found in the attached article. See especially the last paragraph on page 38. Furthermore, earlier in the article, the researchers present data indicating that bias can be reduced overall with good preservice training, like the DESSA Team 1 and Rater 1 training sessions that Aperture provides.
Q: What is the best way to share results with parents and guardians?
A: When sharing results with parents, it is important to always start the conversation with a description of the purpose of the DESSA and how the information is being used. Then, we would recommend that you focus on the child’s strengths, if any are apparent. Both the DESSA and the DESSA-mini are strength-based assessments, meaning that all the behaviors measured on the assessments are positive behaviors children engage in. By first starting with the child’s identified strengths, parents are often more at ease and comfortable during the meeting. Next, the child’s typical areas should be shared with parents. Finally, any identified areas of need should be shared with the parents. It is important to discuss any needs as areas in which staff/parents will provide additional support and instruction – not as deficits. It is very important to be mindful of the language used in any conversation with parents. Most importantly, it should be stressed that the purpose of the DESSA is not to categorize or label children but to identify their strengths and needs so that parents and teachers can work together to help the child acquire social and emotional skills that are essential to success in school and life.
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