Strength-based assessment has achieved acceptance from educational, mental health, and social service professionals as a means to measuring emotional and behavioral strengths of children. Several standardized, norm-referenced tests have been developed to assess these strengths; however, the primary mode of assessment is via informal interviews of…

Identifying student strengths is central to transition planning. However, school personnel use few assessments that operationalize behavioral and emotional strengths, and the psychometric functioning of those measures have not been established with transition-age students. In this two-part study, we used a national sample of transition-age…

The present study investigated evidence of the construct validity of scores from the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS-3), which is a multi-informant assessment designed to measure the behavioral and emotional strengths of school-aged youth. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the degree to which BERS-3 scores differed between…

This study examined the internal structure of the Scales for Assessing Emotional Disturbance-3 Rating Scale (RS), a teacher-completed RS developed to measure emotional disturbance (ED). As defined in U.S. law and regulations, ED involves five characteristics or patterns of behavioral and emotional maladaptation. RS data obtained on a sample of…

The present study investigated evidence of the construct validity of scores from the Scales for Assessing Emotional Disturbance Rating Scale (SAED-3 RS), which is designed to help identify emotional disturbance (ED) as defined by U.S. law and regulations. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the degree to which SAED-3 RS scores differed…

The purpose of this article is to provide a qualitative review of the published research on the Scales for Assessing Emotional Disturbance-3: Screener noting the psychometric properties and overall findings. Results from 10 studies were reviewed and summarized. Across the studies, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and inter-rater…

Child assessment practices have undergone, and are continuing to undergo, significant changes. Among the most prominent changes is the movement toward measuring child well-being, in general, and emotional and behavioral strengths, in particular. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) is a strength-based instrument which is widely used in…

In schools, screening is an effective method to identify students at-risk for emotional and behavioural disorders. Several intervention programmes such as Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports, Response to Intervention, and Multi-tiered Systems of Supports call for the use of psychometrically sound screening instruments. This study…

This article describes the Emotional and Behavioral Screener, a brief universal screening procedure designed to help identify students whose emotional and behavioral functioning puts them at risk for future serious problems, including identification in the emotional disturbance category. Development of the screener drew on items and normative…

Students who exhibit substantial behavior and emotional problems in school often have shown less severe problems earlier. Screening for such problems can suggest which students need extra support and help educators to direct support to students who are more likely to benefit. The present study explored predictive validity of a very brief behavior…

In previous research the Finnish version of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2 (Epstein, 2004) has demonstrated adequate internal consistency and reliability. The purpose of the present study was to examine the convergent validity of the Finnish BERS-2 by comparing it with the Finnish version of the Strengths and Difficulties…

Strength-based assessment of behaviors in preschool children provides evidence of emotional and behavioral skills in children, rather than focusing primarily on weaknesses identified by deficit-based assessments. The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scales (PreBERS) is a normative assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in…

The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (PreBERS) is an assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in preschoolers with well-established reliability and validity for educational and clinical application in children with and without disabilities. The present study provides further evidence of psychometric rigor for items and…

The Emotional and Behavioral Screener (EBS) is a universal screening instrument designed to identify students whose excessive problem behaviors put them at risk of the education disability category of emotional disturbance (ED). This article reports findings from three studies that address the reliability and validity of the EBS. Studies 1 and 2…

Multiple informants such as teachers, students, and parents are commonly used as sources of information when assessing students' behaviors and emotions. However, there are few studies about cross informant agreement of strength-based assessment. The purpose of this study was to extend the international research on the Behavioral and Emotional…