The DESSA System uses trusted, evidence-based assessments and screeners to measure students’ critical resilience skills, identify strengths, and support growth with data-driven instructional resources.
“The DESSA data is helping our schools pinpoint areas of need for students and place them in correct interventions, instead of having a blanket approach.”
— Cynthia Price
MSW, LCSW, BCD, Roswell Independent School District, New Mexico
You’re measuring academics, why not behavior?
Complete your MTSS system by bringing the same level of rigor to understanding student’s social, emotional, and behavioral needs as their academic needs.
A joint study between Johns Hopkins and City Year that followed over 38,000 students across grade levels found that one tier of growth in a student’s DESSA skills is associated with 1 year of academic gains.
Universal Screening with the DESSA-mini has been shown to identify the students without foundational resilience skills who are 4.5x more likely to be suspended or expelled within that school year if they do not receive focused support.
Universal Screening with the DESSA-mini has been shown to identify the students without foundational resilience skills who are 4.5x more likely to be suspended or expelled within that school year if they do not receive focused support.
“Having data at the student and school level helped us when we were talking with parents who may have pushed back saying their child was fine. Many families in our district didn’t want to acknowledge certain problems or admit what they were seeing.”
— Lyndsey Killilea Lowell (MA) Public Schools
Cultivate and Engage Students to Address Chronic Absenteeism
The DESSA System can help you identify students at risk of chronic absenteeism and build from their strengths to re-engage students in learning.
Lowell (MA) Public Schools were able to achieve a 47% reduction in chronic absenteeism in their initial use of the DESSA System.
