A Data Day is like a Mental Health Day!

Now I know, you probably read the title of this post and you thought, "Data and Mental Health? How can those two possibly go together?" Well they do.  Honestly.

While this combo does not conjure thoughts of the spa, beach, golf course, or a day at home in your PJ's binge watching Netflix, preparing for the coming school year can give you peace of mind that leaves you feeling rejuvenated. There's nothing like the feeling of closing out the school year with your data disaggregated and an intentional and comprehensive school counseling plan in place to greet you at the start of a new school year.  Taking a day away from school at the end of the year to review your data and plan ahead can do just that.

The Spark of an Idea
As president of our local School Counselor organization, I hosted an on-line book club in the fall semester using Dr. Trish Hatch's book, The Use of Data in School Counseling.   In the course of  our study, our group excitedly came to the conclusion that uninterrupted time to review and disaggregate data was essential for planning a successful comprehensive school counseling program.  However, we were discouraged because the time did not exist during our school day to give data a proper look.  As you have no doubt experienced, once you walk on campus the needs of the students and the demands of the day take priority and time for data review and program planning is non-existent. The further we got into Hatch's book talking about intentional school counseling versus "random acts of guidance," the more often this conversation about wanting time to work with our data occurred. We knew we needed a day away from campus to analyze our data and make plans for its use in order to create an intentional and comprehensive school counseling program.

The Idea 
With state testing behind us, three weeks of the school year remained. My entire school district was in countdown mode, asking for summer school teachers, recruiting presenters and attendees for summer institutes, looking at student achievement data, and planning the school calendar for the coming year. It seemed everyone was looking ahead and planning for the new school year. Except School Counselors. Just like every other day, we were dealing with the multitude of issues that came through our doors.

But why not School Counselors?  While everyone else was in preparation for the upcoming school year why not School Counselors?  Now was the opportunity for School Counselors to get the time needed to work with their data.  What we needed was a "work"shop.  No one had ever requested such a thing, so no such workshop existed on the professional development calendar for our district. So what's a School Counselor to do?  Create your own!

After consulting with my VERY supportive principal and a savvy district "insider" about the who and how of putting together a workshop, getting in-service points for the attendees, and how to reserve district spaces for workshops, I was set.  I took my workshop description and goals to my academic coach who assisted me with posting our "Data Day" on the school district professional development website.  An email was sent along with workshop description and agenda to School Counselors and their administrators and School Counselors started signing up.

The Preparation
As a workshop organizer, my preparation involved writing the proposal, getting the workshop on the district PD website, securing the space, and sending email notifications to Prinicipals and School Counselors.  As the workshop facilitator, my preparation involved creating the schedule and PowerPoint for the day, leading the SMART goal activity, answering questions, keeping time, and leading the debriefing and feedback at the end of the day.  Attendees brought coffee, doughnuts, and chocolate to share.

The Mental Health Data Day
After being a testing prisoner for 5 weeks, working away from campus with other School Counselors to think and plan was such a relief.  Yes, I was going to be facilitating and working on disaggregating my school data, but it felt like a mental health day. And my other test weary colleagues agreed. Hanging out with other School Counselors always feels so good.  Add to that a large quiet space to spread out and work, access to our data, reliable wifi, coffee and doughnuts, table chocolate, easy bathroom access, and the chance to go out for lunch.  Yeah it was like a mental health day, only better, because when we left that day, we had a plan.  We had reviewed our data and had the outline of a comprehensive school counseling plan for the coming school year.

The workshop was called the "ABC's of Implementing a Comprehensive School Counseling Plan." There was a PowerPoint with a schedule, but mostly this was a "working" workshop for giving School Counselors uninterrupted time for analyzing, brainstorming, and creating.  ABC. The schedule was to help us manage the day and keep us on track with our tasks. The PowerPoint included an agenda, schedule, and a review on how to write SMART goals. This was really the only presenter piece. I think a lot of School Counselors struggle with writing SMART goals and it was something we struggled with as a group too. (Worksheets, handouts, forms Counselor were asked to bring)

So from 8 am-3 pm we worked.  I mean really worked.  We did the brief SMART goals activity and a short calendar brainstorming activity, but for the most part it was an uninterrupted time to analyze and focus on the needs of our individual schools.  We even got so involved no one wanted to leave for lunch.  We ordered in pizza, took a short break and went back to work. Throughout the day there were intermittent bursts of conversation and spontaneous questions, but for the most part it was parallel work, silently analyzing and creating side by side.

The Feedback
At 2:45 pm we stopped to process the day and complete workshop evaluations.  The feedback was amazing!  Everyone felt rejuvenated.   One person said, "This feels like a mental health day!" Other comments included:
"This is just what I needed!"
"There's no way I would ever be able to do this at school."
" It was good to be away from school and plan for next year."
" I would have never gotten this done during the school day (or at home).  I can't wait to show my principal our data and the things I have planned."
" I'm excited to share this with my department."
" I'm so glad we did this now rather than during pre-planning.  I actually have time to discuss this with my principal and get some things on the calendar."
"I liked that we did this at the end of the year rather than the beginning. It gives me time to talk to my administrators and start the year with a plan in place."
"Two days to do this would be even better. I felt like I needed more time for planning."
"We need to do this every quarter to look at our new data."

The Take Away: Advocate for the profession
When you think about it, teacher teams meet regularly to look at student achievement data and plan their lessons and programs to meet their students' needs.  Why not School Counselors?  When do School Counselors get to do this, especially elementary School Counselors? Why don't we have special planning times designated for School Counselors to collaborate with their same level peers to create a comprehensive school counseling program?   Is it because we never thought about it or because we never thought to ask?  For those who are not quite sure what a comprehensive School Counseling program looks like,  reading a book like Hatch's, The Use of Data in School Counseling will answer your questions and get you started.

Advocating for the profession is not easy.  I won't lie to you, I ran into a series of roadblocks and some resistance that could have prevented me from bringing this workshop experience to life, but we cannot be deterred.  When you see a need,  speak out, address it.  When you have questions, ask.  Do whatever you can to make it happen. That's advocacy.

Reflection
All the feedback I received both written and verbal indicated the workshop was a positive experience and a much needed opportunity.  Discussion and suggestions included advertising workshop opportunities earlier so more School Counselors could plan to attend, offering a series of days both quarterly and during the last 2 weeks of school to make it easier for School Counselors at the middle and high school levels to attend by staggering their attendance. Also, offering a series of days would enable School Counselors who needed additional time for disaggregating and planning a chance to return and complete their work.

Does your district give School Counselors time away to disaggregate data or plan for the upcoming school year?  If so, I would love to hear about it! Please share below the planning process School Counselors in your district have for creating a comprehensive school counseling plan.

The Comprehensive School Counseling Program vs. Random Acts of Guidance

(Part 3 of a 4 part series)

When reading Trish Hatch’s book, The Use of Data in School Counseling, I came across the term “Random Acts of Guidance,” and without reading further I knew exactly what she meant.  I have always thought of it as “hit and run guidance,” but whatever you call it, “Random Acts of Guidance” is a reactive approach that is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining on a School Counselor.  Hatch uses this term to describe the approach taken by School Counselors to handling their busy and often chaotic school day. She says School Counselors feel like “their days happen to them; they don’t happen to their days.”

And if you are a practicing School Counselor you know EXACTLY what she means.  Many days it starts the minute you walk in the doors of your school.  Teachers, parents, administrators, and students are all clamoring for a piece of you to address some real or imagined emergency.  There are the drop-ins and the drama, the requests for your presence at a conference or meeting to handle a “sensitive” student/parent issue, or to offer consolation and counseling to distressed students, parents, or faculty.  There are the urgent random requests to teach a class on body odor, honesty, friendship, or stealing. Maybe it is the plethora of non-counseling duties  you are assigned that cause you to desperately try to do a little School Counseling between lunch duty, testing duty, and clerical duty.  These types of days, happening with increasing frequency, can leave School Counselors feeling frustrated and burned-out. You may feel a lack administrative support or your school is too big or has too many issues to address them all.  You know if you were able to provide proactive, preventative programming and lessons many of these problems would be addressed.  But how?  You know the answer.  Data.

The Flashlight Approach

The way School Counselors begin to show the value of their programs and the significant impact they can make on student achievement is by using the Flashlight Approach.  School Counselors performing random acts of guidance may feel intimidated by the data, or feel it is not possible to do or they do not have the support needed to implement this approach.   Take courage and find one thing you already do and measure it well.  The data generated is the start of showing how students are different because of what School Counselors do.  Share your success.  This is what administrators need to see.  For more details read “The Flashlight Approach,” the second of posts in this series.

The Comprehensive School Counseling Program

So you’ve used the Flashlight approach and you’re ready to take the next step.  Aligning your school counseling program with the ASCA National Model is that next step.  The goal of the ASCA National Model is to do more school counseling and take things off your plate.  It provides a framework for building a comprehensive, data driven CSCP that can improve student achievement.  It is comprehensive, preventative, and developmentally appropriate, teaching knowledge, attitudes, and skills to all students at each grade level.  The CSCP should be an integral part of the school academic mission statement, driven by ASCA, state, and district standards as appropriate and providing equitable access to all students.  It should promote learning for ALL and of course be DATA driven.  School Counselors delivering a CSCP should be state credentialed School Counselors and collaborators with parents and other educators for promoting an environment of student achievement.  School Counselors delivering a CSCP should spent 80% of their time in direct and indirect services to students.  A CSCP is intentional, targeting underperforming or under-represented students and promoting systems change when appropriate. 

EVERY student gets EVERY thing

The ASCA National Model recommends choosing your guidance curriculum by first reviewing the standards, the developmental needs of the students, and analyzing school wide data.  Look for real data driven needs related to attendance, behavior, and achievement, not perceived needs.  For example, rather than asking teachers what they think students need for classroom lessons, ask teachers which of the following data identified needs they feel is the most urgent.  The guidance curriculum you create to meet these needs will be received by EVERY student at your school.  Collecting data to demonstrate the effectiveness of these lessons is important, but Hatch tells us there is no time to measure every lesson.  She recommends selecting a few lessons to measure the effectiveness to inform your future practice.  Then share your success with everyone.

Intentional Guidance – Some kids need more.

The ASCA National Model includes the concept of intentionality.  Although we guarantee EVERY student gets EVERY thing, we sometimes find there are students who need more.  By looking at the data, School Counselors can see which students are in need of what services.  The data may indicate a need for a small group, or maybe a tutoring referral, individual counseling, or a community referral.  The idea of intentionality is to recognize the discrepancies and meet the needs of the student. To best provide interventions of intentional guidance, School Counselors need to decide what data will be used for identifying students who need more, what data will be used to determine their success, and when these interventions will be provided.

When looking at intentional guidance, and choosing who needs assistance, School Counselors need to consider whether this is a student need or a systems need.  Can this be addressed by a small group or school wide intervention or is an intervention needed to address specific policies, programs, or practices?

The ASCA National Model

This is just an overview of what is involved in developing your CSCP.  I have touched briefly on some of the content of the 4 components of Foundation, Delivery, Management, and Accountability discussed in the ASCA National Model.  It is important for each School Counselor to take the time and begin to examine the components of your own program to determine where you are in the process of providing a CSCP for your students.  Spend some time reading and studying the ASCA Executive Summary for information on what your school counseling program may be missing. 

I know personally I thought I had this CSCP thing down.  But, in reflecting on my school counseling program, I have done too many lessons just because I liked them, or thought they were cute, or comfortable, or requested, or were just a little “holiday” fun.  I never looked or stopped to consider if there was data to support the lesson.  Because of this I realize I have missed opportunities to teach the kind of lessons that can only be provided by a School Counselor.  The kind that teach students real life attitudes, knowledge, and skills that can impact their achievement, academics and personal/social success.  Now after my trip to the Evidence-based School Counseling Conference, my study of the National Model, and reading Hatch’s book, I am keenly aware of my own program weakness.  There is much I need to do to create a CSCP and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but motivated.  I am ready to create a miracle.  It will be small but it will be a start.  Between now and the last 7 weeks of school, I am going to take Dr. Hatch’s advice and use the Flashlight Approach. I have already chosen one thing I am doing and I will measure it well.  My challenge to you is, will you join me?  Let’s make lots of little miracles all across School Counseling!

Next time, The 21 Day Daily Data Challenge.