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District's SABERS screening shows most students low risk but racial and gender disparities persist
Summary
District staff reported SABERS social-emotional screener results: roughly 76'—2 percent low-risk depending on teacher or student ratings, with higher rates of 'some' and 'high' risk among Black, Hispanic and male students by teacher ratings.
Oshkosh Area School District staff on March 12 reported results from the SABERS (social, academic and emotional behavior risk screener), saying most students fall in the low-risk category but that persistent racial and gender disparities deserve attention.
Assistant presenter Mister Kimmerer (staff member) told the board the district uses SABERS three times a year; the teacher rating scale covers grades K'through 5 and the student self-report covers grades 2'through 12. For the district's most recent winter benchmark, he reported the student self-report results as: 78 percent low risk, 19 percent some risk and 3 percent high risk. Teacher ratings were 76 percent low risk, 18 percent some risk and 6 percent high risk.
Kimmerer said the teacher ratings consistently identify more students in higher-risk categories than student self-reports do. He also said there are race-based differences in scores: "our students who are Black, 2 or more races are Hispanic tend to have fewer students in the low risk category and more particularly in the some risk category," he told the board. He added that male students receive higher teacher-rated levels of risk than female students, with "almost twice as many in the high risk category" compared with females on teacher ratings.
Board members asked about training to address those discrepancies. Kimmerer said the district continues ICS (implicit cultural schooling) work led by Dr. Coleman and Mr. Miller and emphasized that the most actionable use of SABERS data is at the classroom and building levels: schools can combine SABERS scores with other data to identify students who need small-group or individualized supports, or to spot grade-level spikes that suggest a need for universal interventions.
Kimmerer said the district is using SABERS data alongside discipline data and that administrators have received sessions on disaggregating local data. He also told the board the district received notice it won a BJA Stop School Violence grant of "almost a million dollars" to support school safety and social-emotional learning and that the district hired a grant coordinator, William Green, to help implement grant activities including summer crisis-response simulations.
Board members raised questions about whether bias in adult ratings affects classification and what professional development might reduce misidentification. Kimmerer said district SEL leadership meets quarterly and that monthly touchpoints help share promising practices across schools.
The presentation concluded with a pledge to provide board members with concrete examples of positive outcomes tied to interventions and to continue training and data work to ensure SABERS informs supports rather than labeling students.
