DESSA (Devereaux Student Strengths Assesment)
Developer: LeBuffe, Shapiro, & Naglieri | Year: 2014.0
Overview
DESSA 2 assesses eight social and emotional competencies and is intended to help educators plan instruction, document students’ strengths and areas of need, inform progress monitoring, and evaluate program outcomes.
Key Details
Grade Level
Assessment Type
Domains Assessed
Respondent
Method
Cost
Fee for Service
Time per Student
10 min
Items
40 for K-8, 50 for 9-12
Item Format
Likert
Approach
Dual Factor
Populations
A nationally representative sample of 2,500 children from across the United States (LeBuffe et al., 2009). Ratings were provided by teachers, out-of-school time staff and parents/guardians, 227 raters from across the United States (Nickerson & Fishman, 2009).
Scoring
Overall Scores
Overall Competence
Subscale Scores
Self-Awareness
Social Awareness
Self-Management
Relationship Skills
Responsible Decision-Making
Optimstic Thinking
Scoring Procedures
Manual;
Online Scoring
Interpretive Information
T-Scores; Percentile Ranks; Pre- Post- Test Comparisons and Rater Comparisons
Psychometric Properties
Reliability
Internal consistency coefficients were estimated for the Social-Emotional composite as well as the eight subscales; they were estimated separately for parent and teacher raters. Coefficient alpha ranged from 0.82 to 0.99. Test-retest reliabilities ranged from 0.79 to 0.90 (parents), and 0.86 to 0.94 (teachers/staff). Intra-rater reliabilities had correlation coefficients of 0.73 for parents, and 0.74 for teachers/staff (LeBuffe et al., 2009).
Validity
Content-related validity evidence was gathered through literature reviews (LeBuffe et al., 2009).
Items were organized into logically derived and statistically validated scales based on the CASEL framework of social and emotional competencies (LeBuffe et al., 2009).
An analysis showed divergence in DESSA scores between students identified as having social, emotional or behavioral disorders and their peers (LeBuffe, P.A., Shapiro, V.B., & Naglieri, J.A. (2009). DESSA scores showed significant correlations in the anticipated directions with other measures of similar constructs, including the BASC-2 (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004) and the BERS-2 (Epstein, 2004).
References
Primary Citation
LeBuffe, P. A., Shapiro, V. B., & Robitaille, J. L. (2018). The DESSA comprehensive system. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 55, 62–70