The Niskayuna Central School District is piloting a new assessment tool this fall called the Social, Academic, Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) across five grade levels. According to a district announcement, the 19-item screener evaluates social, emotional, and academic behaviors to help staff identify student support needs early.
What Happened
Niskayuna is testing the SAEBRS tool in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 as part of its transition to a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. For second graders, teachers complete a short observational survey on student skills. Students in grades 4, 6, 8, and 9 complete an age-appropriate self-assessment, according to the Niskayuna Central School District.
At the elementary level, educators combine screening data with the district's Second Step curriculum to spot behavioral or learning gaps and teach skills such as empathy, goal-setting, and problem-solving. District officials noted in the announcement that the screening process could also help shape social-emotional learning instruction at the secondary level.
To act on the screening results, Niskayuna created a District Mental Health Team last spring. The team works with teachers, counselors, and school staff to connect students with individualized care when extra help is needed. "At the end of the day, if a student isn't feeling supported, they can't learn," Director of Counseling and ENL Mike Brannigan said in the district announcement. "These new initiatives and tools are helping us ensure every student is taken care of."
The Bigger Picture
Independent research supports using SAEBRS as an early warning tool, but it also identifies limits in how schools should read the scores. A 2020 study of urban elementary students found that teacher SAEBRS ratings showed strong test-retest reliability over four weeks and correlated significantly with both oral reading fluency scores and office discipline referrals. Similarly, a 2018 technical adequacy study found that elementary teacher ratings aligned well with another established behavior screener, though the researchers cautioned that score reliability can drop at the classroom level because individual teachers rate student behaviors differently. An independent replication study of the SAEBRS teacher and student scales found that the overall "Total Behavior" score is the most reliable metric across both versions, and recommended that school teams rely on the total score rather than breaking results into separate subscales.
While the district announcement describes Second Step as an evidence-based curriculum, peer-reviewed evaluations show mixed results on whether the program changes student behavior. A 2026 systematic review of elementary Second Step studies found that out of 13 methodologically sound studies meeting Council for Exceptional Children quality standards, only three produced positive effects while eight showed neutral or mixed results. A 2023 systematic review of the middle school Second Step program reached a similar conclusion, finding positive effects in just one of five rigorous studies. A meta-analysis of 27 Second Step studies involving 18,847 students found that while the curriculum consistently improved student knowledge and attitudes regarding violence prevention, it had much weaker effects on increasing prosocial behavior or reducing antisocial behavior in school.