District-Determined MeasureExample

Social-Emotional Skill Development in the Therapeutic Setting

Content Area and Grade Range: School Psychologists, grades 6-12
DDM Summary: This DDM measures growth in grade 6-12 students’ ability to identify their current emotions and corresponding physical symptoms, and to identify and apply a healthy coping strategy to improve their immediate emotional state in the therapeutic setting.
Developed by: Sarah Auger, School Psychologist (Stoneham Public Schools, MA) and Carly Greenstein, School Psychologist (North Reading Public Schools, MA)
Reviewed by: Names and roles of the individuals who reviewed the measure
Pilot Districts: North Reading Public Schools, Stoneham Public Schools
Date last updated: June 2015

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Instrument4

Administration Protocol4

Scoring Guide11

Measuring Growth and Setting Parameters13

Piloting13

Assessment Blueprint16

Introduction

Description of the Measure
This DDM is a measure of the school psychologist’s direct impact on students’ growth in their ability to identify their current emotions and corresponding physical symptoms and to identify and apply a healthy coping strategy to improve their immediate emotional state in the therapeutic setting. It is a core function of the school psychologist to support the development of students’ social/emotional skills in these areas, particularly because students who struggle with these skills often experience challenges in school and are subsequently referred to the school psychologist for intervention support.This DDM may also be used by other personnel who instruct and support these students, such as school guidance or adjustment counselors.

This measure is designed for school psychologists who work regularly and intensively with a small caseload of students who receive frequent, ongoing social/emotional intervention and support. When assessing the progress of a small sample of students, it is important to collect sufficient evidence to make valid inferences about these students’ social/emotional growth over time. As a result, this DDM includes multiple measures that are administered throughout the school year. The first is administered to students as a pre- and post-assessment at the start and end of the school year, while the other two solicit students’ journal reflections and the psychologist’s student observations and are administered on a monthly basis. These measures assess only a portion of the content taught by the school psychologist; however, they were chosen as the focus for this DDM because they require students to identify, describe, and analyze emotions, experiences, and coping strategies to improve their immediate emotional state within the therapeutic setting – key skills at the center of the school psychologist’s instruction and support.

Potential Modifications
School psychologists with larger caseloads may opt to use this DDM with a randomly selected small sample of three to five students. Alternatively, if they measure growth with their full caseload of students, they may be able to draw valid inferences with fewer data points so may decide to use only two of the three measuresdescribed here or, alternatively, to collect data quarterly or every two months instead of monthly.If School Psychologists are unable to administer all three measures, he/she may choose to use the journal prompts as a singular measure to assess students’ growth. This would impact scoring and overall growth parameters.

DDM Objective
This measure is aligned to the following Core Course Objective (CCO): Students will identify their current emotions and corresponding physical symptoms, then identify and apply a healthy coping strategy to improve their immediate emotional state in the therapeutic setting.

Content (Standard) / Weight
CCO: Students will identify current emotions.
Mental Health Standard 5.1- By the end of grade 5, students identify thevarious feelings that most people experience and describe the physical and emotional reactions of the body to intense positive and negative feelings
Mental Health Standard 5.7- By the end of grade 8, students will identify and describe the experience of different feelings (such as elation, joy, grief, and rage) and how feelings affect daily functioning (MA Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework) / 25% of the measure
CCO: Student will link current feeling to corresponding physical symptoms.
Mental Health Standard 5.1- By the end of grade 5, students identify the various feelings that most people experience and describe the physical and emotional reactions of the body to intense positive and negative feelings
Mental Health Standard 5.7- By the end of grade 8, students will identify and describe the experience of different feelings (such as elation, joy, grief, and rage) and how feelings affect daily functioning (MA Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework) / 25% of the measure
CCO: Student will identify healthy coping strategies.
Mental Health Standard 5.11- By the end of grade 12, students will analyze healthy ways to express emotions and to cope with feelings, including the common causes of stress, its effects on the body, and managing stress (MA Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework) / 25% of the measure
CCO: Student will implement healthy coping strategies to improve their immediate emotional state.
Mental Health Standard 5.2: By the end of grade 5, students apply methods to accommodate a variety of feelings in a constructive manner in order to promote well being. / 25% of the measure
100%

[1]

Instrument

This DDM consists of three measures that provide information about students’ understanding and application of the specified social/emotional skills. The first is a Student Survey, consisting of seven open-response questions to which the student responds in writing at the start and end of the school year. This serves as a pre- and post-measure and is intended to highlight growth over time. The second measure is a set of four Journal Prompts, provided to the student in writing, as well as read aloud, and to which the student then responds in writing on a monthly basis. The ongoing journal prompts are based in a belief that writing is a form of reflection and provides time for students to make sense and draw connections that oral assessments may not. The third measure is a Student Interview Checklist, which is completed by the school psychologist monthly based on the student’s oral response to a set of interview prompts. This combination of assessments allows a robust view of growth over time by bringing together several measures that include the observations of both student and school psychologist.

Note that all three measures in this DDM contain items that address each content area described in the Content Chart above. For example, items on the Student Survey address each of the four content areas listed above; items in the student Journal Prompts address each content area above; and items on the school psychologist Interview checklist address each content area above. Point values for the various items have been weighted, from five to nine points each, to reflect the proportions designated in the chart.

Administration Protocol

The Administration Protocol addresses how the measure is intended to be implemented tobest support a common conversation about student growth across classrooms.

Which students should be included?
This measure is designed for school psychologists who work intensively with a small caseload of three to five students who receive frequent, ongoing social/emotional crisis intervention and support. If the psychologist has four or five students, all should be included in this DDM. If the psychologist has more students on his or her caseload who receive such ongoing, intensive social/emotional support, students should be randomly selected by taking every other name from an alphabetical listing of last names of students being serviced, up to a maximum of five students. For example, if eight students are being serviced regularly by the school psychologist for social/emotional skill intervention and support (listed here alphabetically by last name) – John Abel, Julie Chase, David Clay, Fred Jones, Tai Moore, Carolina Naroni, Sonia Ramirez, and Tony Romano - the psychologist would include every other student in this DDM – John Abel, David Clay, and Tai Moore, and Sonia Ramirez - or four in total.This process ensures fair and unbiased selection of a limited number of students whose growth can be tracked using multiple measures during the school year.

When is the measure administered?
Students complete the first measure, theStudent Survey,during the first week of service with the school psychologist (e.g., September) and once during the last week in May or first week in June. The second measure, Journal Prompts,is administered to the student at monthly intervals throughout the school year, beginning during the second session with the school psychologist. The school psychologist administers the third and final measure, theStudent Interview,each month throughout the school year, beginning during the third session with the psychologist. Each of the measures should be administered during different counseling sessions so that the student’s engagement in one activity does not overly influence the ways he or she engages in the others.

How is the measure administered?

Student Survey
This is a paper-pencil task for students. The student reads and answers each question on the survey. The school psychologist may answer the student’s questions to clarify the understanding of the assessment task; however, may not give examples of appropriate answers. The school psychologist provides up to 20 minutes of quiet time for the student to complete the task. If the student does not initiate the task, the school psychologist may ask if the student needs clarification on the task or assesses whether special accommodations are needed (see below).

In order to increase consistency in the administration of this assessment across school sites, school psychologists should orally explain the following points to students:

  1. This assessment will be given two times per year - at the beginning of the year, before we have worked together in counseling sessions, and again toward the end of the year after we have worked together.
  2. The pre-survey portion of the assessment is designed to gather information on what you already know. If you do not know the answers to some of the questions-don’t worry. We will be learning about these topics throughout our work together.
  3. Your responses will help guide us on what we should work on throughout our time together.
  4. I will give you the survey. Your task is to read the survey and answer the questions. If you have any question, you may ask me. I can clarify the task; however, I am not able to provide you with specific examples on how to answer questions.
  5. You will have 20 minutes to work on the survey. If you do not finish in 20 minutes, don’t worry, I can provide more time if needed, but we need to finish today and cannot continue the work into another session.
  6. After you hand in the survey, if I have questions about anything that you wrote, I will ask you to clarify during the next time we meet.
  7. This is not a test like you typically take in school. You will not be receiving a grade on this task. Just try your best. I will keep your survey results and compare them to your performance on the same assessment at the end of the year. This will help me see how much you have grown throughout our sessions. It will also help me to work better with students in the future.
  8. I appreciate your honest answers.

Directions to Students, Post-Survey (last week of May/1st week of June):

  1. I will use this post assessment to help me see what you have learned throughout our work together. The post-assessment is exactly the same as the pre-assessment at the start of the year.
  2. The skills, topics, conversations, and practice that we have completed throughout our counseling sessions should help you feel prepared to answer these questions.
  3. Your responses will help me to provide effective counseling to students in the future.
  4. If you have any questions about the survey, you may ask me. I can clarify the task; however, I am not able to provide you with specific examples on how to answer questions.
  5. You will have 20 minutes to work on the survey. If you do not finish in 20 minutes, don’t worry, I can provide more time if needed, but we need to finish today and cannot continue the work into another session.
  6. After you hand in the survey, if I have any questions about what you wrote, I will ask you to clarify the next time we meet.
  7. Remember, this is not a test like you typically take in school. You will not be receiving a grade on this task. Just try your best. I will keep the results and compare them to your performance on the same assessment that you took in September. This will help me see how much you have grown throughout our sessions. This will also help me to work better with students in the future.

Journal Prompts
The school psychologist reads the four journal prompts aloud to the student and answers student-generated questions to clarify understanding of the assessment task; however, may not give examples of appropriate answers. The prompt is also provided to the student in a written format to refer to while writing. The school psychologist provides 10-12 minutes to answer the journal prompts, so this is intended as a quick write. If the student does not initiate the task, the school psychologist may ask if the student needs clarification on the task or assesses whether special accommodations are needed (see below).

In order to increase consistency in the administration of this assessment across school sites, school psychologists should orally explain the following points to students:

  1. This assessment will be given every month during our counseling sessions.
  2. Your responses will help me know what we should work on throughout our time together.
  3. Your responses will also help me monitor your growth throughout counseling.
  4. I will read aloud the four journal prompts. I will then give you the prompts in writing so you can review them on your own. Your task is to respond to each prompt in writing because writing is a form of reflection and allows you some time to think and connect ideas. If you have a question about the journal prompts, you may ask me. I will be able to clarify the task, however, I will not be able to provide you with specific examples on how to answer the prompt.
  5. You will have 10-12 minutes to complete your writing. I can provide more time if needed, but you will need to finish the writing today and cannot continue the work into another session.
  6. If I have questions about what you wrote, I will ask you to clarify the next time we meet.
  7. You will not be receiving a grade on this writing. Just try your best. I will compare your writing to the journal writing you do each month. This will help me see how you are growing throughout our sessions.

Student Interview Checklist
The school psychologist completes the interview checklist monthly during the student counseling session. For this activity, the psychologist must have available an age-appropriate set of emotion cards to provide visual scaffolding for this language-based activity, such as the following (a variety of emotion card resources are available online):

and an “Intensity of Emotion” scale on a strip of cardstock that includes visual cues, such as the following:

1 2 3 45

CALM MILDLY INTENSE VERY OVERWHELMED

INTENSE INTENSE

It is strongly recommended that the visual cues on this Intensity Scale are described to students in terms of intensity of emotion and are clearly distinguished from the emotions themselves, such as anger, jealousy, sadness. To do this, school psychologists may want to discuss and use both the visual emotion cards and the “Intensity of Emotion” scale as a regular part of counseling sessions to engage students in recognizing and naming their emotions, then describing the intensity of their emotional and physical responses.

It is assumed that the psychologistusing this DDM will often be intervening with students based on a social/emotional need, so the Interview Checklist is designed as a guided, reflective series of prompts to work through that crisis. The psychologist asks the following series of six questions, providing up to 10 seconds of wait time for each response.

  1. What is your current emotion or feeling?
  2. [Using the “Intensity of Emotion” scale] On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being completely calm and 5 being very intense and overwhelmed, what is the intensity of the emotion you are feeling right now?
  3. How is your emotion or feeling affecting your body?
  4. Name a healthy strategy for coping with this emotion.
  5. Review the steps and try to use this coping strategy right now.
  6. Using our scale from 1 to 5, what is the intensity of the emotion or feeling now? (If needed, what could help to further reduce the intensity of the emotion?)

The psychologist only provides additional prompts and support if the student explicitly seeks clarification or support, or if the student is initially unable to respond after the provided wait time. Adhering to the progression of possible student performances, listed below and on the Interview Checklist, the psychologist provides one brief prompt or clarification, if needed and as provided on the Checklist, then provides an additional 10 seconds of wait time for the student’s response. For example, if the student is unable to name his or her current emotion, the psychologist may prompt, “Take another look through the emotion cards. Is there one that shows how you are feeling today?” If after this prompt and an additional 10 seconds of wait time the student is still unable to respond, the psychologist may provide up to two additional prompts, but no more. The psychologist is not allowed to provide suggested responses, such as, “You look very angry today. Are you feeling angry?” Responses must always come from the student; the psychologist’s task is to observe and learn from the student’s ability to respond.