Project Summary

The purpose of this project is to develop and validate a multi-informant decisional assessment system (MIDAS) to integrate and use multiple sources of data for accurate and efficient identification of social-emotional and behavioral (SEB) concerns in middle school students.

Universal screening for SEB concerns is promising to facilitate early identification and implementation of evidence-based interventions, but schools are not able to integrate such information from different informants who contribute unique information. In addition, researchers have yet to determine how to best integrate screening data with other academic and behavioral data sources such as suspensions, office discipline referrals, and academic achievement scores to facilitate effective decision-making to support students.

Funding Period: 8/1/2021 – 7/31/2025

Amount: $2,000,000

Funder: National Center for Education Research

Awardee:  University of South Florida, subcontract with University of Wisconsin–Madison

Principal Investigator: Nate von der Embse

Co-Principal Investigators: Katie Eklund, Steve Kilgus, Shannon Suldo, Wes Bonifay

Research Project Coordinator: Nicole Brys

Students: Ishan Vengurlekar, Carly Oddleifson