What are some ways I can look at outcomes using the DESSA-mini?

Overview

This article will answer the frequently asked question: What are some ways I can look at outcomes using the DESSA-mini?

There are at least three ways to look at outcomes on the DESSA-minis:

Option 1. Examine percentages: With this approach, you can examine the percentage of students falling within the strength, typical, or need for instruction ranges on their SET at pre and post test. In a way, this approach is the simplest and most informative. Ultimately our goal is for children to have social and emotional strengths.  If we can shift the program/school as a whole towards fewer needs and more strengths, we are doing well. The limitation of this approach is that it can take advantage of small changes.  That is, if a student begins with a score of 59 and ends with a score of 60, they will appear to have moved from the typical to strength range, but a 1T-score point change could be accounted for by measurement error.

Option 2. Use the progress monitoring approach (Cohen’s d-ratio) described in the DESSA-mini manual. This approach allows you to characterize the amount of change between successive DESSA-mini administrations as no, small, medium or large changes using widely accepted guidelines.

Option 3. Use inferential statistics: Standard pretest-posttest comparisons can be done using statistical software that allows you to conduct T-tests or ANOVAs.  These tests are useful in determining whether a statistically significant change has occurred for groups of children, such as in a class, program, school, etc.