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Key overview details

Classification
  • Universal
Mental Wellbeing Need
  • Supporting Behavioural Challenges
  • Anger/Aggression
  • Prosocial behaviour
  • Anxiety / Worry / Stress
  • Self Esteem / Resilience
Target Age
  • Preschool: 3 to 5 years
  • Primary school: 6 to 12 years
  • Adolescents: 13 to 18 years
Provision
Usability Rating
4
Supports Rating
3
Evidence Rating
4

Evidence

4

Fit

Capacity

Supports

3

Usability

4

Need

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Student Success Skills

Summary

Student Success Skills (SSS) is a universally delivered, school-based programme that aims to help students in P1-P7 and S1-S7 (aged 4-18) develop their cognitive, social and self-management skills within a supportive and positive environment.  This is expected to enhance students’ confidence in their abilities, boost their classroom efforts, translating to more positive school experiences and better academic outcomes.

SSS is typically delivered by school counsellors, teachers and mental health practitioners, using developmentally appropriate programme manuals. It is delivered in classroom format, with small group delivery also available to students needing additional support. The classroom curriculum is delivered in five 30-minute or 45-minute lessons (one lesson per week), with three booster sessions delivered over three months. Taught skills include memorising, goal setting, progress monitoring, listening, teamwork, interpersonal skills, and social problem solving, managing anger, managing anxiety, staying motivated, and paying attention.

SSS has not been delivered in Scotland or other parts of the UK, but support for programme implementation can be provided.

Website: https://studentsuccessskills.com/

Usability - Rating: 4

Core Components

Student Success Skills (SSS) is a universally delivered, school-based programme that aims to help students in P1-P7 and S1-S7 (aged 4-18) develop their cognitive, social and self-management skills within a supportive and positive environment.  This is expected to enhance students’ confidence in their abilities, boost their classroom efforts, translating to more positive school experiences and better academic outcomes.

SSS is delivered to a classroom of students using developmentally appropriate classroom manuals including; the ready to learn manual & story books for K-1 (equivalent to P1-P3 in Scotland); the ready for success manual for grades 2-3 (equivalent to P4-P5 in Scotland); and the student success skills for grade 4, grade 5 and grades 6-12 (equivalent to P6, P7, and S1 – S7 respectively in Scotland). Practitioners use these highly structured and scripted manuals to promote students’ skills that are considered critical to social and academic success in schools. Taught skills include:

  1. Cognitive and metacognitive skills (e.g. memorising, goal setting, progress monitoring)
  2. Social skills (e.g. listening, teamwork, interpersonal skills, and social problem solving)
  3. Self-management and self-regulation skills (e.g. managing anger, managing anxiety, staying motivated, and paying attention).

The classroom curriculum is typically delivered in five 30-minutes lessons in P1-P7, and in five 45-minutes lessons in S1-S7. Lessons are delivered weekly, with three booster lessons delivered over three months (one lesson each month). Programme activities depend on the developmental ages of the students and include story reading, role playing, peer sharing of successful strategies, discussion, and reflection.

After delivery of the classroom curriculum, students needing additional support (e.g. have learning, behavioural or attention concerns) attend SSS in small group format. These students may be chosen by the practitioner delivering the programme, or can be identified using suitable screening tools. In group format, the programme is delivered in eight 45-minute lessons to groups of children (five per group of young children, or eight to ten per group of older children). Lessons are delivered once a week using the SSS grades 4-12 group manual. Delivery of additional group sessions is not required as part of the programme, but is dependent on need and practitioner availability.

As part of the programme, parents are invited to attend four 90-minute parent workshops delivered using the parent success skill manual. Over one school term, parents are presented with an overview of the SSS skills, and are taught techniques to reinforce parenting skills (including communication, problem solving, encourage and conflict management). The four parent sessions are independent, so attendance of all four sessions is not required.

Fidelity

Student Success Skills (SSS) programme fidelity is ensured by adherence to the following measures:

  • Ensuring the session-by-session programme curriculum is delivered in sequence and according to script
  • Use of power-point lessons or Google slides to ensure standardisation across the delivery environment
  • Use of fidelity monitoring instrument to document components of lessons covered, duration of sessions, and student attendance

Modifiable Components

Student Success Skills (SSS) is delivered using a scripted programme curriculum and practitioners are encouraged to deliver the programme according to the manual. SSS programme manuals are available in English, Creole, Spanish and Turkish. SSS is also available as the College/ Career Success Skills (CCSS) for students in college, and as the Exceptional Student Success Skills (ESSS) to meet the learning capacities of exceptional students.

Supports - Rating: 3

Implementation support for Student Support Skills (SSS) is provided by the programme team at Atlantic Education Consultants, Florida, USA.

Support for Organisation / Practice

Implementation Support

The programme team deliver trainings to help practitioners implement the programme with confidence, and provide programme resources to support delivery. The programme team also provide access to instruments for monitoring students’ outcomes, provide support with statistical analysis (if required), and access to fidelity monitoring tools. Lastly, the programme team can provide customised implementation plans to schools looking to deliver the programme. Support is provided according to schools’ needs. 

Licence Requirements

There are no licence requirements for programme delivery.

Start-up Costs

Start-up costs for Student Support Skills (SSS) includes practitioner training charged at $80 per practitioner. This fee can be discounted if training is delivered to practitioner groups, and if training is purchased along with programme resources. The K-1 classroom manual and story books costs $195 (for one manual and five story books), while the classroom manuals for all other grades, the group manual for grades 4-12, and parent success skill manual all cost $85 each.

Building Staff Competency

Qualifications Required

Student Support Skills (SSS) is typically delivered by school counsellors, teachers or mental health workers (including social workers, mental health counsellors and psychologists). Student counsellors can also deliver the programme after receiving training. Practitioners delivering the programme to small groups should have experience with small group facilitation.

Training Requirements

Practitioner training prior to programme delivery is highly recommended. Training is available online in ten 30-minute modules. Training relates to SSS classroom and group delivery, with focus on improving students’ social, academic and self-management skills. During training, practitioners are encouraged to develop materials that they can use when delivering the programme. This includes video recordings showing practitioner delivery of specific programme strategies, which they can subsequently incorporate into their classroom or group delivery. Trainer training can also be requested.

Supervision Requirements

Practitioners provide one video tape of a classroom lesson and one video tape of a small group session for supervision.  If not judged as competent then another video is required.

Evidence - Rating: 4

Theory of Change

Student Success Skills (SSS) is based on humanistic philosophy and it provides students with the tools and strategies to deal with difficulties and achieve their goals. The programme teaches and reinforces strategies that enhance students cognitive, social and self-management skills within a positive and supportive environment. This is expected to improve classroom climate, provide opportunities for increased focus on classroom content, and translate to increased student confidence and classroom efforts, better academic performance, positive school experiences, and improved social and self-management outcomes.

Preschool: 3 to 5 years - Rating: 4

Research Design & Number of Studies

The best evidence for Student Support Skills (SSS) for children aged 3-5 years comes from two internal cluster Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) (Brigman and Webb, 2003; Brigman et al., 1999), and one external pre-post, single group study (Abel et al., 2016). The first RCT included 260 kindergarten students (mean age 5.7 years) from three schools, located in a predominantly Caucasian, middle class, suburban area (Brigman and Webb, 2003). The second RCT included 140 children aged 4-5 years, from three preschool centres in a predominantly African American, urban area (Brigman et al., 1999). The third study included 203 grades K-3 students, equivalent to P1-P5 in Scotland (approximately 4-9 years old). Study participants in the third study were mostly of Caucasian ethnicity (Abel et al., 2016). All three studies were conducted in USA.

Outcomes Achieved

The following outcomes were observed in children who received SSS:

Child outcomes

  • Significantly improved listening comprehension / listening skills at post-test (Brigman and Webb, 2003; Abel et al., 2016) and 7 months post-treatment (Brigman et al., 1999)
  • Significantly improved behaviours at post-test (Brigman and Webb, 2003; Abel et al., 2016); and significantly better behaviour ratings and attending behaviours at 7 months post-treatment (Brigman et al, 1999)
  • Significantly improved self-motivation, self-discipline, and coping skills at post-intervention (Abel et al., 2016)

Key References

Abel, N. R., Oliver, B. M., Keller, T. J., McAulay, A., & Piatek, L. (2016). Using student success skills to address ASCA behavior standards in grades K-3. Professional School Counseling, 19(1), 116-124

Brigman, G. & Webb, L. (2003). Ready to learn: Teaching kindergarten students school success skills. Journal of Educational Research, 96(5), 286-292

Brigman, G., Lane, D., Switzer, D., Lane, D. E., & Lawrence, R. (1999) Teaching children school success skills. The Journal of Educational Research, 92, 323-328

Primary school: 6 to 12 years - Rating: 4

Research Design & Number of Studies

The best evidence for Student Success Skills (SSS) in children aged 6-12 years comes from three internally conducted randomised controlled trials (RCTs), and one pre-post quasi-experimental study. All four studies were conducted in USA.

The first RCT included 4,205 grade 5 students, equivalent to P7 in Scotland (approximately 10-11 years old) (Webb et al., 2019). Participants were recruited from 60 schools in two school districts. More than half of the participants (54.5%) were receiving free or subsidised lunch, and majority of the participants were of Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities. The second RCT included 220 ethnically diverse students (African American, Haitian, Caucasian, and Hispanic American ethnicities) from 12 schools (Brigman et al., 2007). The students were in grades 5, 6, 8 and 9, equivalent to P7, S1, S3 and S4 in Scotland (approximately aged 10-15 years). The third RCT included 135 students from one suburban school (Wirth and Villares, 2015). Students were in seventh grade, equivalent to S2 in Scotland (approximately aged 12-13 years), and were mainly of Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities. The fourth study, a quasi-experimental study, included 336 students recruited from five public schools in one school district in USA (Mariana et al., 2015). Students were in fifth grade (equivalent to P7 in Scotland) and had a mean age of 10 years. Study participants were mostly of African American, Caucasian and Latino ethnicities, and about a third of the participants received free lunch.

Outcomes Achieved

Compared to the comparison group who did not receive SSS, the following outcomes were observed:

Child Outcomes

  • Significantly increased total wellness based on five wellness factors (i.e. creative self, coping self, social self, essential self, and physical self) at post intervention (Wirth and Villares, 2015)
  • Significantly increased academic achievement at post intervention (Brigman et al., 2007)
  • Significantly improved behavioural engagement, assertion levels, and cooperation over 30 weeks after final lesson delivery (Webb et al., 2019)
  • Significantly decreased test anxiety over 30 weeks after final lesson delivery (Webb et al., 2019)
  • Significantly increased prosocial behaviours, significantly higher levels of engagement in school success skills, and significant improvement in one of the four scales used to access classroom climate (i.e. satisfaction) at post-test (Mariana et al., 2015)

Parent Outcomes

None

Key References

Webb, L., Brigman, G., Carey, J., Villares, E., Harrington, K., Wells, C., Sayer, A., & Chance, E. (2019). Results of a randomized controlled trial of Student Success Skills. Journal of Counseling & Development, 97(4), 398-408

Wirth, J., & Villares, E. (2015). Examining adolescent wellness, success skills, and academic performance: A classroom intervention. The Journal of Happiness and Well-Being, 3(2), 204-217.

Mariani, M., Webb, L., Villares, E., & Brigman, G. (2015). Effects of participation in student success skills on pro-social and bullying behavior. The Professional Counselor, 5(3), 341-353.

Brigman G., Webb L.D., Campbell C. (2007). Building Skills for School Success: Improving the Academic and Social Competence of Students. Professional School Counseling 10(3)

Adolescents: 13 to 18 years - Rating: 4

Research Design & Number of Studies

The best evidence for Student Success Skills (SSS) in children aged 13-18 years come from four studies conducted in collaboration with programme developers or with researchers affiliated with the University where the programme was developed. All studies were conducted in USA.

The first study was a pre-post study that included 2,725 grades 6-12 students, equivalent to S1-S7 in Scotland (approximately aged 11-18 years) (Zyromski et al, 2017). The students were recruited from five (urban, sub-urban and rural) schools, and were mainly of Caucasian ethnicity with other students identifying as African American, Hispanic, or multi-racial. The second study was a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) that included 193 grades 7 and 8 students, equivalent to S2 and S3 in Scotland (approximately aged 12-14 years) (Lemberger, 2015). Participating students attended one rural suburban middle school in a majority Hispanic school district. The third study was an RCT that included 135 students from one suburban school (Wirth and Villares, 2015). Students were in seventh grade, equivalent to S2 in Scotland (approximately aged 12-13 years), and were of mainly Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities. The fourth study was an RCT that included 220 ethnically diverse students (African American, Haitian, Caucasian, and Hispanic American ethnicities) from 12 schools (Brigman et al., 2007). The students were in grades 5, 6, 8 and 9, equivalent to P7, S1, S3 and S4 in Scotland (approximately aged 10-15 years).

Outcomes Achieved

Compared to the comparison group who did not receive SSS, the following outcomes were observed:

Child outcomes

  • Significantly increased ability to self-regulate emotional arousal at post-test (Zyromski et al., 2017)
  • Significantly improved academic achievement at post-test (Lemberger 2015; Brigman et al., 2007)
  • Significantly improved executive functioning skills (i.e. shift, emotional control, planning, organization of materials, and task completion), and feelings of connectedness (i.e. classmate support) at post-test (Lemberger, 2015)
  • Significantly increased total wellness based on five wellness factors (i.e. creative self, coping self, social self, essential self, and physical self) at post intervention (Wirth and Villares, 2015)

Key References

Zyromski, B., Mariani, M., Kim, B., Lee, S., & Carey, J. (2017). The impact of student success skills on students’ metacognitive functioning in a naturalistic school setting. The Professional Counselor, 7, 33-44

Lemberger, M. Selig, J. Bowers, H., & Rogers, J. (2015). Effects of the student success skills program on the executive functioning skills, feelings of connectedness, and academic achievement in a predominantly Hispanic, low-income middle school district. Journal of Counseling and Development, 93, 25-36

Wirth, J., & Villares, E. (2015). Examining adolescent wellness, success skills, and academic performance: A classroom intervention. The Journal of Happiness and Well-Being, 3(2), 204-217.

Brigman G., Webb L.D., Campbell C. (2007). Building Skills for School Success: Improving the Academic and Social Competence of Students. Professional School Counseling 10(3)

Fit

Values

Student Success Skills (SSS) is a universally delivered programme that aims to help students in P1-P7 and S1-S7 (aged 4-18) develop their cognitive, social and self-management skills. This school based programme is based on humanistic philosophy and provides students will the tools and strategies to deal with difficulties and achieve their goals.

  • Does this approach align with the key values of your organisation?

Priorities

Student Support Skills (SSS) is a school-based programme delivered to students (from P1-S7) to promote their cognitive, social and self-management skills. This is with the aim of enhancing students’ confidence in their abilities, boosting their classroom efforts, promoting more positive school experiences, and improving their academic outcomes.

  • Is your service looking to deliver a programme that aims to promote student success in schools?
  • Is your service looking to deliver a programme that aims to promote children’s cognitive, social and self-management skills?
  • Is a universally delivered intervention that is delivered to students within the school setting a priority for your organisation?

Existing Initiatives

  • Does your organisation already have existing programmes for that aim to promote students’ academic success and positive school experiences?
  • Are there components addressed by Student Support Skills that are not met by existing programmes?
Capacity

Workforce

Student Success Skills (SSS) is typically delivered by school counsellors, teachers or mental health workers (including social workers, mental health counsellors and psychologists). Practitioners deliver the classroom curriculum in five 30-minute or 45-minute lessons (one lesson per week), with three booster sessions delivered over three months. Small group sessions are delivered to groups of 5-10 children, in eight 45-minute lessons. Practitioner training is highly recommended and is available online in ten 30-minute modules.

  • Does your organisation have qualified practitioners who are available and interested in learning and delivering this programme?
  • Will group sessions be delivered to students with additional needs?
  • Will your organisation provide practitioners with the support needed to deliver these additional sessions?

Technology Support

Practitioner training is available online. Lessons can be delivered to students using power-point presentations or Google slides to ensure standardisation across the delivery environment.

  • Can your organisation provide technology to support practitioner training and programme delivery to students (e.g. computer, broadband, and projector)?

Administrative Support

Student Support Skills (SSS) is a universal, school based programme delivered to students in P1-S7. It is delivered in classroom and small group formats (for students needing additional support). A parent component is also available and is delivered in four 90-minute parent workshops.

  • In what year group(s) will Student Support Skills be delivered in the first year?
  • Does your organisation have administrative capacity and systems to support programme delivery in the chosen year group(s)?
  • Can you organisation support delivery of parent workshops?
  • Do you have a venue for delivery of parent workshops and small group sessions?

Financial Support

Start-up costs for Student Support Skills (SSS) includes practitioner training costs and programme material costs. The highly recommended practitioner training costs $80 per practitioner, K-1 classroom manual and story books costs $195, while the classroom manuals for all other grades, the group manual for grades 4-12, and parent success skill manual all cost $85 each.

  • Will your service train practitioners to deliver this programme?
  • In how many classrooms will Student Support Skills be delivered?
  • Will the programme be delivered in small group format?
  • Will parent workshops be delivered?
  • Can your organisation financially support costs for practitioner training and programme manuals to support delivery of the chosen programme components?
Need

Comparable Population

Student Success Skills (SSS) is universally delivered to students in P1-P7 and S1-S7. Evidence of effectiveness comes from multiple studies that included students in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools. Participating students were ethnically diverse (including Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Haitian, and multi-racial students), and were recruited from urban, suburban, and rural schools. Some study participants were receiving free or subsidised lunches.

  • Is this comparable to the population your organisation would like to serve?

Desired Outcome

Student Support Skills (SSS) aims to enhance students’ confidence in their abilities, boosts their classroom efforts, promote positive school experiences and improve academic outcomes. Programme delivery is associated with significant improvement across several outcomes including increased total wellness, academic achievement, prosocial behaviours, listening comprehension / listening skills, feelings of connectedness, positive behaviours, self-motivation, self-discipline, self-regulation, coping skills, and executive functioning skills.

  • Is delivering a programme for the purpose of promoting students’ success in primary and secondary schools a priority for your organisation?
  • Does your organisation have other initiatives in place that effectively and efficiency address the above outcomes?
Developer Details

Professor Greg Brigman
Florida Atlantic University
gbrigman@fau.edu
+1 561-297-3602