Every DESSA district works through onboarding, training, rostering, system setup, screening, assessment, data analysis, and tiered instructional and intervention planning with a dedicated Success Manager. DESSA Success Managers provide research-backed strategic guidance to help keep your goals at the forefront of implementation.
Launching and maintaining a technology- and data-driven initiative in schools is a collaborative endeavor that requires clear communication, tried and true implementation best practices, and expert guidance derived from years of experience working with districts of all sizes. DESSA Success Managers bring your plans into focus with a simple, step-by-step journey through each school year to ensure you’re making a measurable impact on student wellbeing, academic success, and preparing students to overcome challenges with resilience skills.
At the start of your DESSA implementation, your Success Manager and the DESSA Data Team will coordinate with your district to import roster data, assign DESSA raters to the appropriate students, and schedule your screening and assessment windows.
While we prepare your DESSA System account, you’ll meet with your Success Manager to hone your implementation goals, communication strategy, build out your leadership team, and identify any potential challenges to consider. Plans change and unpredictable obstacles may arise, but together we can develop a solid approach that helps you overcome challenges with ease, maintaining focus on developing foundational student skills with clear and accurate data to drive instruction. As you develop your goals, you and your team will identify the highest priority needs across your schools, whether you’re setting out to improve attendance, increase learning readiness, reduce behavioral concerns, improve mental wellbeing, or all of the above, so you can prepare to leverage DESSA data as quickly as possible to start seeing results.
All successful DESSA programs rely on practical, efficient, and role-specific training to ensure social, emotional, and behavioral data is collected accurately and all educators understand how to integrate the data into instructional plans. With self-paced digital courses, live virtual trainings, on-demand videos, and access to the DESSA Support Portal, your team will have access to a variety of professional development resources that make the path to supporting students as clear as possible. Your Success Manager will provide options that work best for your educators’ schedules and learning needs so they feel confident approaching their first DESSA ratings and understand how to quickly select the appropriate strategies and interventions to build student strengths in the classroom.
Once you’ve started screening and assessing students with the DESSA, you’ll have access to actionable reports to inform district-wide planning. Acting on DESSA data is the cornerstone of your program's success and your DESSA Success Manager will be at your side to help your team understand exactly what to prioritize and how to improve student scores over time. During data review meetings, we’ll also track progress towards your specific goals, making any adjustments needed based on your school and student needs. In addition to identifying barriers to success, we’llhelp you develop clear presentations for district stakeholders to highlight the progress you’re making and the impact you’re making on key district goals and initiatives.
Throughout the school year, the DESSA Success Team coordinates opportunities for district leaders to gather virtually and share strategies. With regional communities of practice, live office hours, and expert-led webinars, you’ll have the chance to voice questions, share your success stories, and learn from a variety of experienced leaders that share your vision of building resilient students. Joining live collaborative sessions is a perfect opportunity to stay up-to-date on best practices in data-driven K-12 social, emotional, and behavioral instruction.
At the end of each school year, your DESSA Success Manager will help you reflect on lessons learned from your current approach to supporting staff, students, parents, and other school community stakeholders to ensure your plans, goals, and strategy are adjusted properly moving forward. With a data-driven approach, reviewing metrics on training and rating completion, we’ll prepare to address any potential gaps with additional training, support resources, and communication templates to keep your DESSA program on track. With the DESSA System, you’ll have crucial data at your fingertips to support strategic decision-making, and your Success Manager will be at your side to make sure you’re making the most of it.
