Universal screening in middle and high schools: Who falls through the cracks?

Abstract

Navigating academic demands in middle and high school may be particularly challenging for youth experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties, and screening practices are a necessary first step in identifying youth in need of services. The goal of this study was to inform efficient universal screening practices in secondary schools by comparing 3 common methods of screening, including self-and teacher report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and grade point average (GPA) to indicate moderate and high levels of risk. Participants were 2,350 secondary students (47% female; 94% non-Hispanic White) and their teachers in 1 socioeconomically diverse school district. Using the moderate-risk criteria, there was low agreement among methods, and almost half the sample (46%) was identified as at risk by at least 1 of the 3 methods, indicating that responding to the needs of students who cross this liberal cutoff may not be feasible given school resources. Using the high-risk criteria reduced the agreement among screening measures. Self-report identified the most students as high risk and was more sensitive to teacher-rated concerns than the converse. If students were uniquely identified by teacher report, teachers rated them at high levels of risk, and predominant concerns were related to conduct problems. GPA captured few students with self-or teacher-rated internalizing or externalizing difficulties. Implications for universal screening within secondary schools are discussed. Impact and ImplicationsWe found grade point average had little utility for capturing secondary students at risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties, and student-report appeared to capture students with both teacher-and student-reported emotional and behavioral difficulties. Our results demonstrate reliance on teacher report and extant academic data in universal screening practices in secondary schools might allow adolescents experiencing internalizing and externalizing difficulties to fall through the cracks. Integrating self-report within universal screening practices in secondary schools is therefore an important and efficient practice in identifying at-risk youth.

Confirmatory Factor Structure and Predictive Validity of the Early Identification System—Student Report in a Community Sample of High School Students

“…The needs of students with ever-increasing social, emotional, and behavioral health concerns continue to be unmet by many schools. This may be especially problematic in high school, as students with social, emotional, and behavioral concerns have difficulties balancing academic demands, peer relationships, and increased independence, while also facing greater opportunities to engage in risky behaviors (Margherio, Evans, & Owens, 2019 ). Without appropriate services, adolescents are at increased risk for negative outcomes in high school (e.g., truancy, failing classes, and suspension/expulsion; Mitchell, Kern, & Conroy, 2019 ).…”

“…Lastly, the current study did not focus on creating cutoff scores for risk. Recently, researchers have noted the importance of systematically studying the implications of using cutoff scores within universal screening approaches (Margherio et al, 2019 ). Currently, the EIS-SR allows school personnel to identify individual students at the highest levels of risk based on school-normed data.…”

Educator perspectives on mental health resources and practices in their school

“…Others understood mental health to be related to both externalizing and internalizing behaviors and recognized the need to ensure students with internalizing behaviors do not “fall through the cracks” (Participant T‐SPED3). Indeed, a concern with universal screening has emerged in that universal screening assessment methods may not accurately capture and identify students with internalizing behaviors (Margherio et al, 2019).…”

“…Large class sizes have also been linked to teacher burnout (Caringi et al, 2015), and when coupled with CF as discussed earlier, this should be an area of consideration for addressing student mental health. Putting this concern within the context of an MTSS framework, the application of a universal screening procedure would help to identify students in need of support (McIntosh & Goodman, 2016), with an eye toward ensuring those with internalizing concerns are identified as well (Margherio et al, 2019).…”

Formative Assessment of Social-Emotional Skills Using Rubrics: A Review of Knowns and Unknowns

“…On the other hand, evidence from research on SEMS assessment using Likert-type questionnaires has shown that teachers' reports are a valuable source of information of students' social-emotional characteristics across time (Measelle et al, 2005;Wienke Totura et al, 2009;Edmonds et al, 2013;Margherio et al, 2019). Results from a longitudinal study of Measelle et al (2005), for example, indicated that teachers and parents' scores of children's Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness increasingly but moderately converged from ages 5 to 7.…”