Summary Comparison of Ratings by Educators and Students Report

Overview

The Summary Comparison of Ratings by Educators and Students report shows a side-by-side summary comparison of ratings completed by educators and students during the same rating window. This report only shows data for students with both educator and student ratings. This report is available for Site Leaders, Program Administrators, and Org Administrators.

To generate the Summary Comparison of Ratings by Educators and Students report:

1. Select Data and Insights from the top menu of your DESSA System dashboard
2. Select Summary Comparison of Ratings by Educators and Students from the left side menu
3. Filter your data as necessary using the following options:
   1. Sites
   2. Grades
   3. Custom Group
   4. Rating Window
      
4. Click Run Report

How is data from this report used?

The purpose of this report is to provide a side-by-side comparison of ratings completed by educators and students during the same rating window to ensure both sets of results are taken into account for instructional planning. It provides a summary of students’ overall social and emotional competence from both rater perspectives (educators and students), breaking the data down to enable administrators to compare trends across sites, grade levels, and student demographics. This data can be used to get a more complete picture of students’ social and emotional competence and to compare and reconcile educator ratings with students’ self-reported ratings. This information can then be used to inform targeted, data-driven instructional decisions that take both sets of ratings into account.

What does this report include?

Comparison of Students' Overall Social and Emotional Competence:

This view provides side-by-side charts of Educator-completed and student-completed DESSA results organized by overall DESSA categorical scores. With this view, you can easily see how many students fall into each category (Need, Typical, Strength) based on educator- and student-completed forms.

Grade Level Breakout:

This view includes educator- and student-completed DESSA categorical scores displayed by each grade level, or for the specific grade level(s) included in your report filters. 

Race/Ethnicity Breakout:

This view provides side-by-side views of educator- and student-completed DESSA categorical scores organized by race/ethnicity. 

Student Subgroup Breakout:

The Student Subgroup Breakout shows the comparison by additional demographic categories across all ratings completed by educators and students. Depending on your roster data, subgroups can include things such as reduced price meals, students with IEPs, English learners, etc. 

Site Breakout:

The Site Breakout shows a comparison of Educator and Student completed ratings across different sites that a user may have access to view completed ratings data. To view distribution across educators, filter to a single site.  

Details about this report:

• Available for Site Leaders, Program Administrators & Org Administrators
• This report will only show data of students who had BOTH an educator completed rating and student completed rating in the same rating window.
• Select the … in the upper right-hand corner to print the report
• The Student Grade Level graph shows the student’s current grade 
• Additional demographic data must be included in your rosters in order to filter the report according to these categories (i.e. Race/Ethnicity)

Report FAQs:

Why might educator and student ratings be different? 

• Many schools use both the student and teacher completed versions of the DESSA. The value of multiple raters is a more complete understanding of students’ social and emotional skills across different contexts. 
• It is important to keep in mind that each DESSA rating is one source of information, based on the experiences and observations of the rater. A student’s rating is based on their self-reported perception of their social and emotional skills likely reflecting all aspects of their lives (home, school, extracurricular or community activities, etc.). A teacher’s rating is typically based on their interactions and observations of a student in a particular context, often the classroom. As a result, a student and their teacher may provide somewhat different ratings.
• To dive deeper, check out this Responding to Student Data resource

What action steps are recommended if the data is generally similar between educator and student ratings?

• This suggests shared understanding of the social emotional competencies included on the DESSA. Keep up the good work and continue with your school’s SEL implementation efforts.

What action steps are recommended if the data differs between ratings completed by teachers and students? (For more detailed information, check out the full implementation guides for High School and Middle School). 

If the results between teacher and student groups differ significantly, consider the following questions as a team. To address these questions, educators and administrators should also consider coordinating discussion groups with students to gain insight into the situation.

• Have students and staff received adequate training to effectively implement the use of the DESSA-mini and SSR? 
• Do students understand the importance of completing the self-report measure accurately?
• On what basis are students completing their ratings? Students may draw on out-of-school contexts to respond to the SSR. 
• Are there specific competencies in which students are reporting more need for instruction? Prioritize one or two competencies for schoolwide focus and use the Strategies and Intervention resources in the DESSA System to address these. 
• Do teachers and students have shared understanding of the competencies and skills included on the DESSA? Class discussions that focus on the definitions of the competencies and why they are important can be helpful. 
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How can educators talk to their students about their SSR data? 

• DESSA data helps to provide a foundation for facilitating conversations with students. The goal of collecting DESSA data is to support students’ overall growth and engaging students in this process is a valuable component.  For suggestions to help prepare for conversations with students about their SSR results, please refer this guide.