Using Systematic Screening Data to Assess Risk and Identify Students for Targeted Supports: Illustrations Across the K-12 Continuum

In this article the authors provide practitioners and researchers with three illustrations of how to use systematic screening tools within the context of three-tiered models of support to (a) measure the overall level of risk present in a school over time and (b) identify students who may require more targeted supports in the form of secondary and tertiary prevention efforts. Specifically, the authors explore data-driven approaches to interpreting systematic screening data collected as part of regular school practices at the high, middle, and elementary school levels. In each illustration they describe the student population, the procedures used by each school to construct the three-tiered model, the primary prevention plan developed, the systematic screening tool incorporated into regular school practices, and the data analysis plan. Furthermore, the authors offer findings of treatment outcome studies that demonstrate how student risk shifts over time following program implementation. They also include hypothetical and actual illustrations of how to use data from a variety of screening tools to identify students for secondary and tertiary prevention efforts.