The document discusses the Dessa Comprehensive System, created by Aperture Education, which focuses on promoting social and emotional competence in children and youth through a data-driven assessment approach. Key components include universal screening, detailed assessments, and strategies for individualized instruction, aiming to improve academic achievement by integrating social-emotional competencies. The Dessa system is designed to guide instructional practices, assess social-emotional strengths and needs, and support targeted interventions for at-risk students.

1. The DESSA Comprehensive
System – A Data-Driven Approach
to SEL
Paul LeBuffe
VP of Research and Development
Aperture Education

2. Aperture Education
• New social venture formed in 2017 by The
Devereux Foundation and Apperson, Inc.
• Sole mission is the promotion of social and
emotional competence in children, youth and
adults
• Currently offers The DESSA Comprehensive
System delivered via the Evo
Social/Emotional Assessment and
Intervention System (Evo SEL)

3. Principles Underlying the DESSA
Comprehensive System
• SEL should be strength-based
• SEL should be data-driven
• Responsive to the actual needs of your students
• Support CQI and Accountability
• SEL should encourage local decision making
(variation within form)
• Teachers and staff know their students best

4. How Can S/E Assessment Improve
Practice?
• High-quality assessment can:
• Enhance awareness of each student’s unique S/E
strengths and needs
• Guide instruction to address the needs that actually
exist
• Enable teachers and pupil personnel staff to honor,
maintain, and leverage student strengths
• Assist in developing rapport with parents and students
• Identify meaningful strengths for IEPs
• Makes possible true prevention

5. 3 Rs of Quality
Assessment
Rigor
Reasonableness
Relevance

6. What are the Needs &
Components?
• Universal Screening
• Detailed Assessment
• SEL Instruction
• Progress Monitoring
• Outcome Evaluation &
Quality Improvement
• DESSA-mini
• DESSA
• DESSA Strategies
• Ongoing Progress
Monitoring Form
(OPM)
• Advanced
Interpretation
Techniques

7. The DESSA-mini
• Completed by Teachers, OST Staff, Parents
• Four equivalent 8-item forms
• Completed in 1-2 minutes per student; one planning period
per class
• Yields one score – Social-Emotional Total Score (SET)
• Online via Evo SEL & paper and pencil
• English, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian

9. How Aperture Describes Social
and Emotional Skills
NB: not a deficit.
“Burden” placed on
adults to provide
instruction.

10. DESSA-mini Results
• One Score – Social Emotional Total (SET)
• T-Scores
• Mean of 50, SD of 10
• Percentiles
• Descriptive Terms for T-Score Ranges
• > 60 = Strength (≈ 16%)
• 41-59 = Typical (≈ 68%)
• < 40 = Need for Instruction (≈16%)

11. DESSA-mini
• DESSA mini normative group
• Standardization data for Teacher Raters (N =
1,249)
• Region: NE = 24.6%; South = 39.1%; Midwest =
22.3%; West = 14.0%
• 50.8% Males
• Grades: Kindergarten through 8
• Representative with respect to Race, Hispanic
ethnicity, and SES

12. DESSA-mini Psychometrics
• Reliability and SEM

13. DESSA-mini Psychometrics

15. Key Findings from Allentown
Study
• Sensitivity
• Criterion > .50 (Glascoe)
• Obtained .63
• Specificity
• Criterion > .75
• Obtained .98
• Consistent Classification 87% of the time

16. Relationship Between Academic Achievement
and Social-Emotional Competence
38.3
6.4
28.6
12.5
24.7
38.2
8.4
42.9
.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
Need Strength
%ofStudents
DESSA-mini Category
% of Elementary Students by PSSA Math
and DESSA-mini Categories
Advanced
Proficient
Basic
Below Basic 59.0
15.2
18.2
15.9
21.1
48.9
1.7
20.1
.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
Need Strength
%ofStudents
DESSA-mini Category
% of Elementary Students by PSSA
Reading and DESSA-mini Categories
Advanced
Proficient
Basic
Below Basic

17. Relationship Between Academic Achievement
and Social-Emotional Competence
38.6
10.6
24.7
19.0
27.1
28.2
9.6
42.3
.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
Need Strength
%ofStudents
DESSA-mini Category
% of Middle School Students by PSSA
Math and DESSA-mini Categories
Advanced
Proficient
Basic
Below Basic
50.3
14.1
23.3
16.2
20.9
35.2
5.5
34.5
.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
Need Strength
%ofStudents
DESSA-mini Category
% of Middle School Students by
Reading and DESSA-mini Categories
Advanced
Proficient
Basic
Below Basic

18. 3rd Graders SEC (N=148)
Variance Explained
SBA
Reading
Low
Income
SEC
53%
22% 9%
16%
• When social-emotional
competence (SEC) is added, an
additional 22% of SBA variance
is uniquely predicted.
• Variance attributable to
poverty alone reduced to 9%
• Together income and social
emotional competence account
for 47% of variance in reading.
• Which variable can we better
impact in our schools?

19. Explaining the Variance in Academic
Achievement Scores - Reading
8.3%
16.5%
75.2%
Reading PSSA
Scores
Income
Social Emotional
Competence
24.8%
Social emotional
competence explains
an additional 16.5% of
the variance in
reading scores

20. Social-Emotional Competency of Students at the Beginning
of School Year and Disciplinary Infractions
23.1%
59.1%
17.8%
Social-Emotional Categories
(DESSA-mini SET) Fall Baseline
Grades K-8
Strength
Typical
Need
These students are 450% (4.5X)
more likely to be suspended or
expelled by the end of the year
Can this change our paradigm from
reactive to proactive? Intervention
to prevention?

22. DESSA-mini Summary
• Appropriate Uses:
• Universal screening
• RTI approach - repeated “probes” of social and
emotional growth
• Needs assessment for SEL at the school or
district level
• Limitations
• No information about specific S/E competencies or
needs
• Doesn’t inform selection of strategies

23. The Devereux Student
Strengths Assessment
• One, 72-item form
• Completed thoughtfully by parents, teachers and
OST staff in about 5-8 minutes
• Yields 9 scores – 8 specific scales and the Social
and Emotional Composite (SEC)
• The DESSA allows for
• Comprehensive assessment of key S/E skills
• Guiding instruction
• Outcome evaluation & CQI

24. DESSA Scale Structure
• Social Emotional Composite
• Eight Scales
• Self Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social-Awareness
• Relationship Skills
• Goal-Directed Behavior
• Personal Responsibility
• Decision Making
• Optimistic Thinking

25. DESSA Scales and CASEL Alignment

26. Purposes of the DESSA
• Identify social-emotional strengths and needs of
elementary and middle school children. (high
school coming 2018-19 School Year)
• Tier I – (if used at universal level) Produce
classroom profiles that guide classroom-wide
prevention/promotion strategies.
• Tier II - Assess at-risk children so that targeted
small group or individual interventions can occur.
• Tier III - For special education students, identify
important strengths that can be incorporated into
IEPs and leveraged in practice.

27. Additional Purposes of the
DESSA
• Foster collaboration between parents and
teachers
• Document outcomes for individual students,
classrooms, and communities

28. DESSA Raters
• Raters provide the ratings
• Teachers, After School Staff
• Parents
• Read at about the 6th grade level
• Sufficient opportunity to observe the child
• The DESSA-HSE will have a youth self-report form
as well

29. Minimizing the Minimal Teacher
Rater Bias
• Teachers are very good observers of student
behavior
• Problem behavior oriented scales have used
for years
• Shapiro et al – teacher rater bias accounts for
16% of variance in scores
• Can be reduced to 10% through preservice
training

30. DESSA Results
• T-Scores
• Mean of 50, SD of 10
• Percentiles
• Descriptive Terms for T-Score Ranges
• > 60 = Strength
• 41-59 = Typical
• < 40 = Need for Instruction
• Individual Student Profile
• Classroom Profile

31. Individual Student Profile
Strength
Typical
Need for Instruction

32. How many ways can this
be used?

33. Individual Item Analysis
Significant Item Score - Strength
#18 – ask to take on additional
work or responsibilities?
Never Rarely Occasionally Frequently
Very
Frequently
#37 – follow the example of a
positive role model?
Nonsignificant Item Score - Typical
Significant Item Score - Need
#69 – use available resources
(people or objects) to solve a
problem?
Never Rarely Occasionally Frequently
Very
Frequently
Never Rarely Occasionally Frequently
Very
Frequently

34. DESSA Strategies
• Provided as part of Aperture Ed’s Evo SEL web-based
platform
• 5 different levels of strategies for each of the eight
DESSA scales
– Teacher Reflection & Action
– Universal
– Group
– Individual Student
– Home
• 3 different age groupings: primary, intermediate
elementary, and middle school

36. DESSA Strategies
• Strand 1 Evidence-based and field-tested strategies
• Strand 2 – Select strategies from SEL curricula
– Second Step, 4 Rs, Caring Classroom Community, Open Circle
• Strand 3 – Foundational SEL practices
– Learning agreements - Gratitude
– Greeting rituals - Movement
– Trauma-informed Practices - Student Voice
– Peer Coaching

37. Response to Intervention
• Core components of RTI
• Universal screening
• Classroom-based interventions
• Frequent monitoring of progress
• Has been very successful in preventing
academic failures
• Why wouldn’t we take the same approach
with social and emotional competency?

38. 38

39. Pretest-Posttest Comparisons
Pretest-Posttest
Comparison
Time 1 T-Score Posttest
Confidence
Range
Time 2 T-
Score
Outcome – Check One
Significant
Decline
No Change Significant
Increase
Personal Responsibility 58 50-65 62 X
Optimistic Thinking 39 31-49 46 X
Goal-Directed Behavior 51 44-58 50 X
Social Awareness 36 28-49 52 X
Decision Making 48 40-56 38 X
Relationship Skills 58 51-64 62 X
Self-Awareness 40 32-50 57 X
Self-Management 53 45-60 59 X
Social-Emotional
Composite
47 44-50 54 X
Rater 1 Name: ________________
Rater 2 Name: ________________
Date of Rating: ________________
Date of Rating: ________________
Mary Smith
Mary Smith
10/10/14
2/28/15

40. Footer
School-Wide Outcome Evaluation
School Name: __________________________
James Madison Elementary Date Range: _____________9/1/12 – 6/15/13
Outcome
Scale # in Need
at Pretest
% in Need
at Pretest
# (%) Significant
Decline at
Posttest
# (%)
No Change at
Posttest
# (%) Significant
Improvement at
Posttest
Comments
Self-Awareness 72 20% 7 (10%) 29 (40%) 36 (50%) Moderate issue, moderate
effectiveness. Target for QI
Self-Management 36 10% 6 (17%) 24 (67%) 6 (17%) Smaller issue, limited
effectiveness. Target for QI.
Relationship Skills 72 20% 0 (0%) 15 (21%) 57 (79%) High effectiveness
Optimistic Thinking 120 33% 6 (5%) 30 (25%) 84 (70%) Major issue for school; High
effectiveness
Social-Emotional
Composite
94 26% 10 (11%) 25 (26%) 59 (63%) Nearly 2/3 of students showed
overall improvement during year
Total Number of Students: ___360

41. Utilization of the DESSA Comprehensive
System with a Tiered Approach
• Tier I – Universal - Primary Prevention
• Universal Screening with DESSA-mini
• Consider Universal Assessment with the DESSA
• Classroom Profile
• Identifies common areas of strength and concern
• Leads to classroom-wide strategies
• Tier II – Targeted - Secondary Prevention
• Identification of children at-risk due to S/E Needs
• Individual Child Profile
• Targeted Strategies

42. Utilization of the DESSA (cont.)
• Tier III – Indicated - Tertiary Prevention
• Identification of strengths and needs in identified
children
• Incorporated into IEPs
• Strong basis for collaboration with parents
• Program Evaluation
• Evaluate progress at the scale, child, and
classroom level
• Basis for quality improvement and continuing
education efforts

43. Applications of DESSA
Teachers & School Psychologists
• Teachers
• Screen & Assess
• Guide Selection of Strategies
• Enhance SEL Curricula
• School Psychologists
• Complement deficit oriented assessments
• Set Goals and Objectives for pull-out groups
• Item Level Analysis to identify targets & strengths
• Classroom Consultation Tool

44. Ways the DESSA adds Value
• Meet requirements in states with social-
emotional learning standards
• Assess competencies related to academic
achievement
• Support implementation of SEL and similar
programs
• Provides a wealth of competence building
strategies
• Meet requirements to do meaningful strength-
based assessment, especially with IEPs
• Contribute to our understanding of disorders

45. Thank You!
Contact Information:
Paul LeBuffe, VP of Research & Development
Aperture Education
plebuffe@ApertureEd.com
(704) 644-8676
www.ApertureEd.com