DESSA Assessment : FAQ
What is an SEL screener?
A social-emotional screener is a brief questionnaire that asks about various aspects of a student’s social-emotional wellbeing. It is designed to assess their functioning at a point in time to inform how classroom teachers and other school staff support them.
What screening tool is being used?
The DESSA is a brief questionnaire that asks about eight domains of student social-emotional wellness: personal responsibility, optimistic thinking, goal-directed behavior, social awareness, decision-making, relationship skills, self-awareness and self-management.
Students in grades K-8 will be assessed by their teachers using the DESSA-mini, which consists of 8 questions and takes around 1 minute to complete per student. Students in grades 9-12 will take the DESSA-HSE-SSR, which is 55 questions and takes around 5-7 minutes to complete.
What social-emotional skills are being screened?
The DESSA is a brief questionnaire that asks about eight domains of student social-emotional wellness:
● personal responsibility
● optimistic thinking
● goal-directed behavior
● social awareness
● decision-making
● relationship skills
● self-awareness
● self-management
What are some examples of the questions being asked?
Sample DESSA-mini questions include:
● How often did the child keep trying when unsuccessful?
● How often did the child offer to help somebody?
● How often did the child do routine tasks or chores without being reminded?
● How often did the child work hard on projects?
Sample DESSA-HSE-SSR questions include:
● How often did you serve an important role at home or school?
● How often did you take an active role in your learning?
● How often did you trust that your hard work will pay off?
● How often did you share credit when appropriate?
When are students being screened?
Students will be screened in the fall of 2023, throughout October and early November, depending upon their school site and grade level. They will also be screened again in the spring, through March and early April, again depending upon their school site and grade level.
Who completes the screener?
In grades K-5, it will be the student’s main classroom teacher. For students in grades 6-8, it will be the advisory period teacher.
Students in grades 9-12 will take the assessment themselves.
Can parents opt out of the screener?
Yes, there is a consent process that allows any parent or caregiver to opt out of the screener for their child(ren). Families will receive this opt-out form through Qualtrics.
Will this be used to label students or diagnose mental health problems?
The screener is a broad, social-emotional instrument. It is not a diagnostic mental health assessment and it will not be used to make special education referrals or mental health diagnoses. There are absolutely no labels applied for students who participate in screening.
Learn more about opt-out options
Since students have been exposed to significant trauma from the coronavirus and systemic racism, what is the purpose of the screening? What questions are you trying to answer?
Due to the widespread exposure to stress and trauma we have proactively supported our schools with curricular resources, staff training, and expansion of direct services, such as additional clinicians provided through a partnership with Alexandria City’s Department of Community and Human Services.
Although all students have been exposed to stress and trauma, that exposure will impact students in different ways and present itself differently as well. The screener is intended to personalize our understanding of what students have experienced so that we can provide targeted supports and so we can strengthen the foundational programming that we know all students will require. The questions we are trying to answer are: What areas of students’ social-emotional development require additional support and attention? Where are students struggling? What are student strengths and how can we further develop them?
What happens after the screener is completed?
The information collected through the screeners is used to inform the implementation of a multi-tiered system of social-emotional support in the schools. It will be used to inform how universal, preventive social and emotional supports are offered and identify individual students who may require additional support.
At the classroom level, teachers can analyze screening data for their class as a whole and identify areas of their social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that can be strengthened to support student growth and development.
Students who may need additional support will be referred to the school’s multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) team for additional follow up to determine if supportive services are warranted and if so, what the most appropriate intervention is.
What resources do schools have to respond to needs that are identified?
All ACPS schools have a student support team (SST) made up of school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, and school social workers that can provide additional interventions to students who may need more targeted supports.
ACPS schools have been provided with a number of evidence-and-research based intervention programs that can assist students in building additional skills and strengths.
Where is the screener information stored? Who can access the information?
Screening data will be stored in a secure, online platform that meets ACPS’ security and privacy guidelines. Users can only view the information that they themselves input and information related to students in their class. They cannot see information for any other students. The only exception to this is individuals who are given a school-wide access designation such as an administrator, school counselor, school nurse, school psychologist, or school social worker. With that access, they can support teams to interpret summary data at the class, grade or school-wide level.
Is the DESSA culturally responsive?
In addition to a language translation process that accounts for language nuances and culture-specific terminology, the DESSA is a strengths based assessment that has gone through extensive research and development to ensure cultural sensitivity. When designing the instrument, researchers engaged experts across many cultures to review and eliminate any items that have different norms across cultures (i.e. eye contact, communication, help-seeking behavior) to mitigate any potential bias.
The DESSA-HSE-SSR for students in grades 9-12 is currently available in Arabic, English, and Spanish. ACPS is working with Aperture, the company that owns the DESSA, to translate the DESSA into Amharic in the fall of 2022.
Will screenings play a role in IEP referrals? Or for students already with IEPs could screenings impact services on an IEP? If so, how?
No. The DESSA is not a diagnostic tool and will not be used to identify students for special education.
I have additional questions. Where should I go?
Please inquire with your school’s administration or student support team (SST) first, If you still have questions after reaching out to your school, you may contact Dr. John Baker at john.baker@acps.k12.va.us or the Department of Student Services and Equity at student_services@acps.k12.va.us or 703-619-8034.
What is an SEL screener?
A social-emotional screener is a brief questionnaire that asks about various aspects of a student’s social-emotional wellbeing. It is designed to assess their functioning at a point in time to inform how classroom teachers and other school staff support them.
What screening tool is being used?
The DESSA is a brief questionnaire that asks about eight domains of student social-emotional wellness: personal responsibility, optimistic thinking, goal-directed behavior, social awareness, decision-making, relationship skills, self-awareness and self-management.
Students in grades K-8 will be assessed by their teachers using the DESSA-mini. Students in grades 9-12 will take the DESSA-HSE-SSR, which is 55 questions and takes around 5-7 minutes to complete.
Is training offered?
Yes. All school staff received training in August of 2023. Each school has at least one designated DESSA site leader who can support questions on the use of the tool within their buildings.
Additional training will be provided throughout the 2023-24 school year to help schools review the data to inform decisions about school-wide social-emotional learning programming as well as support students build additional strengths and resiliency.
How is the screener completed? How long does it take?
The DESSA-mini is completed online with pre-populated items and response choices by the student’s classroom teacher (grades K-5) or advisory teacher (grades 6-8). The DESSA-mini is 8 questions total and takes less than a minute to complete per student.
The DESSA-HSE-SSR is completed online with pre-populated items and response choices by the student in grades 9-12. The DESSA-HSE-SSR is 55 questions that take 5-7 minutes for the student to complete.
Who completes the screener?
Students in grades K-8 will be assessed by their teachers using the DESSA-mini. Students in grades 9-12 will take the DESSA-HSE-SSR.