History of Connections Screener in RI

2. About the Connections Screener

The Connections Screener, as a tool, is actually quite simple. We've found that its simplicity can, unfortunately lead people to think the the screening process is easy. We'll be clear:

Simple Tool		Easy Process

The Connections screener has two components: 

• A survey given to students 
• A survey completed by staff

These may be found in the Connections Screener manual, which will be looked at in more detail in another activity. Although your screening process may look slightly different because of the COVID context or the group of students select for piloting your Connections Screener, you will want to refer to this manual and the resources within in, such as:

• Example scripts: These may be used as a guide for conversations with students to prepare them for the survey.
• Paper-and-pencil forms: These may be used as examples for creating your Google forms.
• Follow-up forms: These are used as a guide for follow-up conversations with students who chose not to participate in the survey or who do not indicate any connections at your school.

There are also some additional resources (found in later sections of this course):

• Connections Readiness  Checklist: This outlines essential features that we've found need to be in place for a successful screening process. You will be asked to take a deeper look at this in the next section.
• Steps for obtaining buy-in: This describes different ways you can communicate with staff to increase their awareness of the importance of connections and to increase interest and willingness to complete the staff survey and explain the student survey to their students in a meaningful way.