About the ESSP

The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the development of the Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP) as a tool to lessen the risk of elementary academic and behavior problems. This tool is used by school-based practitioners to develop a comprehensive understanding of the social and emotional environment in elementary schools. Designed for use with students in grades 3 through 5, the ESSP comprises three separate online questionnaires: The ESSP for Children, the ESSP for Families, and the ESSP for Teachers. The ESSP assesses all of the dimensions of the School Success Profile (SSP) that are relevant for younger children plus a number of additional dimensions.

There are a number of aspects of the ESSP which make it unique from other online surveys. The main difference is the format of the survey. Flying Bridge Technologies has developed a colorful, computerized format for the ESSP for Children in both English and Spanish. Graphics, animation, large print, progress markers, and other features make the ESSP for Children appealing to elementary students. Just as important, however, these features help sustain children's interest and attention so they provide accurate answers throughout the ESSP. Children can choose to use the audio function, in either English or Spanish, at any time during the instruction or question screens of the ESSP. This helps to enable children with lower reading skills to complete the ESSP without getting frustrated.

The second unique aspect of the Elementary School Success Profile is that it has been reviewed and tested by children, parents, teachers, and school staff. First and foremost, the ESSP for Children was extensively tested with children. During testing interviews, children used the computer to read and answer ESSP questions. They then told the testing researchers at UNC-CH SSW about how they interpreted items and why they chose the answers they chose. Throughout the extensive research and testing, they showed us that young children often do not interpret our questions the way we meant them to be interpreted. After incorporating what we learned from children into the ESSP, we believe that most 3rd through 5th grade children can understand and accurately answer ESSP questions. Feedback from parents, teachers, and school staff throughout the development of the ESSP helped us develop the ESSP for Families and the ESSP for Teachers. Finally, the Spanish translations of the child and family questionnaires were also tested by a professional translator with Spanish-speaking children and adults from different backgrounds and from different countries of origin to ensure cultural as well as linguistic accuracy.

The ESSP is a survey that can be implemented by school-based practitioners as a proactive tool for identifying contributing factors to the growing achievement gap and declining student performance. Often the school staff has already developed a sense of the data provided by the ESSP, but they value the quantitative information provided by the ESSP. School Success Online also offers a library of detailed information on best practices and intervention strategies to use in response to the data.

The ESSP results include data from children, families, and teachers combined into four easy-to-read reports for school staff. These reports include an individual report for each child and three group level reports. With the use of these survey reports the school administrators can identify potentially negative influences or issues within their students’ social and emotional environments as well as assets that may be leveraged to lessen these risks. The benefit of identifying these factors early in students’ academic careers is that it allows schools to put into place best practices, intervention strategies and educational programs to help prevent their further development into major threats to school success.

To implement the assessment for your organization please visit the Purchase Services page of the website. From here you will be able to set up your free online account and proceed with your purchase of the assessment.