A renewed focus on strengths‐based assessment in schools

Abstract

School-based practitioners are often called upon to provide assessment and recommendations for struggling students. These assessments often open doors to specialised services or interventions and provide opportunities for students to build competencies in areas of need. However, these assessments often fail to highlight the abilities of these students and instead focus on areas in need of remediation. The use of a more positive, or strengths-based, approach to working with students is needed. Although strengths-based assessment (SBA) is not a new concept, it is not routinely incorporated into school-based assessment services. This article provides an overview of SBA and its benefits, along with empirically-driven models that support the implementation of SBA in schools, and calls for a renewed focus on understanding students from a strengths-based model. Examples of SBA measures and techniques are included, along with implications for practice for both students and psychologists.Psychology is typically viewed as a pathology-focused profession. Individuals seek psychological support when something is wrong or when there is an issue that needs to be 'solved.' Graduate-level psychology programmes emphasise courses in child and adolescent disorders, child psychopathology and clinically-based interventions for psychological disorders. Much research effort and focus is devoted to understanding how and why individuals experience distress and what can be done to ameliorate these concerns.

Concurrent Validity and Reliability for the Communication Complexity Scale

“…The CCS is a strengths-based assessment designed to describe how an individual can communicate rather than focus on deficits. Strength-based assessment is a paradigm that seeks to identify an individual's strengths and skills and, thereby, increase motivation to increase functional skill use across contexts (Climie & Henley, 2016). Identifying the communication skills of someone who does not speak can lead to positive expectations about how the individual may communicate in the future.…”

Preliminary Validation of the Teacher-Rated DESSA in a Low-Income, Kindergarten Sample

“…To address this gap, this article established construct-related validity evidence for the use of the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA; LeBuffe, Shapiro, & Naglieri, 2009) with a sample of low-income kindergarteners. Unlike traditional deficit- or pathology-oriented approaches to assessment, strengths-based measures like the DESSA proactively assess the absence of necessary skills important for children’s development while highlighting their unique abilities and strengths (Climie & Henley, 2016), which is particularly important for promoting social emotional competencies of low-income children. Most measurement work on strengths-based measures has focused on samples that are either nationally representative or clinical in nature (Merrell, Cohn, & Tom, 2011; Naglieri, LeBuffe, & Shapiro, 2011; Nickerson & Fishman, 2009), or older in age (Denham & Brown, 2010; Renshaw, 2016).…”

Standardized Assessment Accommodations for Individuals with Intellectual Disability

“…In the reporting stage of the assessment cycle, the AA presents the data to the family and decision-making team in a useful and family-friendly manner (AERA, 2014; NASP, 2010). A strengths-based approach is recommended, in which the report includes strengths and preferences of the individual (APA, 2014; Climie & Henley, 2016; Mastoras, Climie, McCrimmon, & Schwean, 2011).…”