Structured Teacher Ratings to Identify Students in Need of Academic Assistance: Validation of the Brief Academic Competence Evaluation Screening System

The Brief Academic Competence Evaluation Screening System (BACESS) is a multiphase universal screening measure designed to assist educators in the identification of students who are likely to experience learning difficulties in elementary school. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the measure for this purpose. The BACESS was used in 25 elementary classrooms in Wisconsin, and the entire sample included 285 students. The phases of the BACESS were each found to be highly reliable for their respective numbers of items. Internal structure evidence indicated that the phases functioned well together. The BACESS was found to share good concurrent validity with achievement test proficiency, approaching .70 on Bayesian conditional probability analysis. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis supported the use of the BACESS, incorporating different cutoff rules in different academic environments. Feedback via an evaluation survey indicated teacher opinion that the information gained from using the BACESS was valuable.