Dear K-8 Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
Over two decades of research has shown the important roles social and emotional skills play in each child's success in school and the community. Skills such as demonstrating self-control, persisting at challenging tasks, and making good decisions are all necessary to being successful students and adults. The process by which students learn these and other similar skills is called social and emotional learning (SEL). Like last year, your child's teacher will be completing a short 8 question tool called the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment, or DESSA-mini. This tool asks how often a child has demonstrated specific social and emotional skills in the past month.
Some sample DESSA questions include:
How often did the child keep trying when unsuccessful?
How often did the child offer to help somebody?
How often did the child work well in groups?
The purpose of the DESSA is to identify which SEL skills your child has already learned and what skills he or she might still need to develop. Clearly, the DESSA is general and offers impressions of what our students might need. Once our teachers identify the skills their students still need to learn, they will teach those SEL skills. Our goal is to ensure that your child is continuously developing the SEL skills that they need for lifelong success. We believe that the information gathered from the DESSA will be beneficial to the overall success of students and school communities. The DESSA is published by Aperture Education. Hundreds of school districts and afterschool programs nationwide utilize the DESSA and trust Aperture Education with protecting their students' data. Aperture Education will never share your child's data with a third party.
We are excited to administer the DESSA again this school year. If you would prefer that your child not be included in this assessment, or if you have any questions, please let me know by September 30 at the email below:
frostr@madison.k12.ct.us
Sincerely,
-Becky Frost