Free Online Educational Programs on School Threat Assessment

Free Threat Assessment Educational Videos

It is essential that students, parents, and staff know that their school has a threat assessment team and are willing to report threats. To meet this need, our research team developed a series of free educational videos for students, parents, school staff, and threat assessment team members. The videos were developed to cover the relative safety of schools, the purpose of school threat assessment, how a threat assessment team functions, and when and how to report threats. This project was funded by the National Institute of Justice as part of a grant to improve the use of behavioral threat assessment in schools. The programs can be found on the Youth Violence Project YouTube page.

For Students, Parents, School Staff

• School Safety and Threat Assessment for Students – English 7 minutes
• School Safety and Threat Assessment for Students – English with Spanish subtitles and text 7 minutes 
• School Safety and Threat Assessment for Parents – English 14 minutes 
• School Safety and Threat Assessment for Parents – Spanish 19 minutes 
• School Safety and Threat Assessment for School Staff – English 16 minutes

For Teams

• Basics for Threat Assessment Teams – 15 minutes
• School Discipline and Research for Threat Assessment Teams – 15 minutes 
• Case Management for Threat Assessment Teams – 25 minutes

Threat Assessment Research Publications

This list presents peer-reviewed, published articles produced by the Virginia Youth Violence Project, Dr. Cornell’s research team in the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. The initial studies referred to the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines, which in 2018 was renamed the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines. This list does not include book chapters or descriptive articles that do not present original findings.

Field Tests

Cornell, D., Sheras, P. Kaplan, S., McConville, D., Douglass, J., Elkon, A., Knight, L., Branson, C., & Cole, J. (2004). Guidelines for student threat assessment: Field-test findings. School Psychology Review, 33, 527-546.

Kaplan, S., & Cornell, D. (2005). Threats of violence by students in special education. Behavioral Disorders, 31, 107-119.

Strong, K., & Cornell, D. (2008). Student threat assessment in Memphis City Schools: A descriptive report. Behavioral Disorders, 34, 42-54.

Controlled Studies

Cornell, D., Gregory, A., & Fan, X. (2011). Reductions in long-term suspensions following adoption of the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines. Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, 95, 175-194.

Cornell, D., Allen, K., & Fan, X. (2012). A randomized controlled study of the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines in grades K-12. School Psych Review, 41, 100-115.

Cornell, D., Sheras, P., Gregory, A., & Fan, X. (2009). A retrospective study of school safety conditions in high schools using the Virginia Threat Assessment Guidelines versus alternative approaches. School Psychology Quarterly, 24, 119-129.

Nekvasil, E., Cornell, D. (2015). Student threat assessment associated with safety in middle schools. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management 2, 98-113. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1037/tam0000038

Maeng, J., Cornell, D., & Huang, F. (2019). Student threat assessment as an alternative to exclusionary discipline. Journal of School Violence, doi: 10.1080/15388220.2019.1707682

Disciplinary Outcomes and Race/Ethnicity

JustChildren and Cornell, D. (2013). Prevention v. punishment: Threat assessment, school suspensions, and racial disparities. 

Cornell, D., Maeng, J., Huang, F., Shukla, K., & Konold, T. (2018). Racial/ethnic parity in disciplinary consequences using student threat assessment. School Psychology Review, 47, 183-195. doi: 10.17105/SPR-2017-0030.V47-2

Cornell, D. & Lovegrove, P. (2015). Student threat assessment as a method for reducing student suspensions. In D. Losen (Ed.), Closing the School Discipline Gap: Research for Policymakers (pp. 180-191). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Studies of Training Effects

Allen, K., Cornell, D., Lorek, E., & Sheras, P. (2008). Response of school personnel to student threat assessment training. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 19, 319- 332.

Stohlman, S., & Cornell, D. (2019). An online educational program to increase student understanding of threat assessment. Journal of School Health, 89 (11), 899-906. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12827

Stohlman, S., Konold, T., & Cornell, D. (2020). Evaluation of threat assessment training for school personnel. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tam0000142

Studies of Implementation

Burnette, A. G., Datta, P. & Cornell, D. G. (2018). The distinction between transient and substantive student threats. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 5, 4-20. http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-56103-001

Burnette, A.G., Huang, F., Maeng, J.L., & Cornell, D. (2018). School threat assessment versus suicide assessment: Statewide prevalence and case characteristics. Psychology in the Schools, 1-15. doi: 10.1002/pits.22194

Cornell, D., & Maeng, J. (2018). Statewide implementation of threat assessment in Virginia K-12 schools. Contemporary School Psychology, 22, 116-124. doi: 10.1007/s40688-017-0146-x

Cornell, D., Maeng, J., Burnette, A.G., Jia, Y., Huang, F., Konold, T., Datta, P., Malone, M., Meyer, P. (2017). Student threat assessment as a standard school safety practice: Results from a statewide implementation study. School Psychology Quarterly. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/spq0000220

Burnette, A. G., Konold, T., & Cornell, D. (2019). Grade-level distinctions in student threats of violence. Journal of School Violence. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2019.1694031

Maeng, J., Malone, M., & Cornell, D. (2020). Student threats of violence against teachers: Prevalence and outcomes using a threat assessment approach. Teacher and Teacher Education, 87, 1-11. doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102934