Holistic Student Assessment (HSA)

The Holistic Student Assessment (HSA) uses student-self reports to measure and promote social and emotional development in young people. It can be used in both in-school and afterschool settings to provide educators, administrators, and other education professionals with information about students' strengths and challenges.

Cognitive competencies; Intrapersonal competencies; Interpersonal competencies

Grades 4 and above

2017

2007

Student

Digital

61

Four-point Likert-type items

10-20 minutes

Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese, English, German, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Karen, Nepali, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese

Developer requires that anyone who wishes to administer the HSA be trained on proper survey administration techniques.

Normative scores by gender and/or age, percentage of strengths, percentage of challenges, average strengths and challenges per student, level of support need (three tiers), demographic information (age, gender, race/ethnicity, grade), change scores.

Seven to 14 scale scores are reported in three domains (resiliencies, relationships, learning and school engagement), depending on the length of the survey schools/programs selected.

Scores are calculated by the assessment developer using nationally representative norms based on a random stratified sample.

Scores are norm-referenced and reported as either averages, strengths, or challenges for each student. Aggregated (school or program) data are also reported, and aggregated strengths and challenges are indicated in score reports.

Recent validation used a sample of 5946 students in grades 5-12 from New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine (Malti et al., 2017).

The Holistic Student Assessment (HSA) standardization or normative sample is based on a stratified random sample of 9,000 male and female participants ages 9-19 years of age from a population of N=27,808 respondents in geographic locations where the HSA is in active use (Allen, Thomas, Triggs & Noam, 2017).

Congeneric reliability estimates based on latent variable models ranged from 0.68 to 0.89 (Allen et al., 2017).

Omega coefficients were estimated for seven scales (Reflection, Trust, Optimism, Empathy, Assertiveness, Action Orientation and Emotion Control). Estimates ranged from 0.76 to 0.91 (Malti, Zuffiano & Noam, 2017).

Evidence based on content

Items adapted from the Resiliency Inventory, a previously established instrument (Noam & Goldstein, 1998).

Evidence based on response processes

No information is available in the references reviewed.

Evidence based on internal structure

Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analyses were used to find evidence supporting subscales. No evidence was found for measurement invariance by gender, grade or race/ethnicity (Allen et al., 017; Malti, Zuffianò, & Noam, 2017).

Evidence based on relations with other variables

HSA scales correlate with measures of similar constructs on the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) in the anticipated directions.

This measure is also reviewed in the AWG Guide.