School Counselors: Using Data to Help All Students Achieve

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School Counselors Using Data to Help All
Students Achieve

• Reese M. House
• Judy Bowers
• The Education Trust Conference
• November 11, 2004

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• How are School Counselors Using Data to Improve
  Student Achievement in Your School?

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Goals

• Connect school counseling programs to the new
  mission of schools to educate all students to
  high standards
• Establish school counselors as integral players
  in school improvement efforts
• Gain and use skills to advocate for equity and
  student achievement

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ASCA National Model
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New Vision Connecting to the Mission of Schools

• Leadership
• Advocacy for All Students
• Teaming and Collaboration
• Using Data to Spur Systemic
• Change to Benefit All Students

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What Data Should You CollectData has
many gap closing and diagnostic uses and can be
categorized differently
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Where Are We Now? 8th Grade Math All Students
2003
Source USDOE, NCES, National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) Summary Data Tables
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By Family Income NAEP 8th Grade Math 2003
(Nation)
Source USDOE, NCES, National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP)
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By Race, Ethnicity NAEP 8th Grade Math 2003
Source USDOE, NCES, National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP)
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Average Scale Scores by Race, Ethnicity NAEP 8th
Grade Math 2003
Source USDOE, NCES, National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP)
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By Race, Ethnicity NAEP 4th Grade Reading 2002
(Nation)
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By Family IncomeNAEP 4th Grade Reading 2002
(Nation)
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African American and Latino 17 Year Olds Do Math
at Same Levels As White 13 Year Olds
Source NAEP 1999 Long Term Trends Summary Tables
(online)
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State Data

• Black eight-graders and white fourth-graders had
  almost identical scores in math on a national
  standardized test in 2003.
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 23, 2004

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MA Passing HS Competency Exam
Source Massachusetts Department of Education
Web site.
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Opportunity Gap DataWhat do you want to know?

• Opportunity Gaps Are some students provided more
  opportunities than others?
• Access to rigorous curriculum
• Access to quality teachers
• School policies and climate
• Special Education Screening and
  Placement
• Participation in Support Services
• Tutoring, Mentoring

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• What are the Opportunity Gaps Behind the
  Achievement Gaps?

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MA Narrowing the High School Competency Gap
Source Massachusetts Department of Education
Web site.
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MA Raising First-Time Pass Rates and Narrowing
Gaps
Source Massachusetts Department of Education Web
site.
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Where are School Counselors?
Absent from School Reform
Peripheral to the Mission and Function of Schools
School Counselor?
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New Vision Connecting to the Mission of Schools

• Leadership
• Advocacy for All Students
• Teaming and Collaboration
• Using Data to Spur Systemic
• Change to Benefit All Students

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Standards-Based Reform
High Standards for All Students aligned with
Challenging Curriculum and Assessments
Ongoing Support for Teachers and Students
Increased Student Achievement
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DRIVERS No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

• Gap Closing Policies
• High Standards for All Students
• High Quality Assessments Aligned
• All Students Proficient in 12 Years
• Teacher Quality
• Support for Students

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DRIVER State RegulationsRI Board of Regents
High School Regulations

• Graduation Requirements
• Literacy
• Personalization
• RI Schools ARE Accountable for Student
  Achievement!!

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• How can school counselors use data to improve
  equity?

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Designing a Data Driven School Counseling Program

• Connecting to school academic achievement goals
• Using data to determine directions
• Measuring results
• Sharing successes

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ASCA National Model
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The Old Question was What do counselors
do?The New Question is How are students
different BECAUSE of what you do?
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New Essential Question

• How Has Student Achievement Increased as a Result
  of What Counselors Do?

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Paradigm Shift

• From
• Monitoring only process and measuring services
  delivered.
• To
• Focusing on results and measuring outcomes of
  our programs and services.

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• You held 5 different student groups this week
• You counseled 20 students today
• SO WHAT?

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How do you know if your program is working?

• If I feel good at the end of the day,
• then thats results

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Accountability System

• Results Report
• Program
• Guidance Curriculum
• Closing the Gap
• Impact Over Time
• School Counselor Performance Standards
• The Program Audit

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Program Evaluation Data What do you want to know?

• Process data
• Perception data
• Results data

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Process data What do you want to know?

• What you did for whom
• Evidence that event occurred
• How activity was conducted
• Did the program follow the prescribed practice?

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Process Data - Examples

• Weekly (32) academic support groups with 12
  students each were held
• 586 9th grade students received the The Four
  Year Plan guidance lesson
• All 4th and 5th (112) grade students
  participated in the bus buddy (4) guidance
  lessons

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Perception Data What do you want to know?

• What others think, know or demonstrate data.
• Measures competency achieved, knowledge gained or
  attitudes beliefs of students
• Pre-post
• Competency achievement
• Surveys
• Evaluations
• Measures what students are perceived to have
  gained in knowledge

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Perception Data - Examples

• Competency Achievement
• Every student in grades 9-12 completed a 4 year
  plan
• Every 10th grade student completed an interest
  inventory
• Knowledge Gained
• 89 of students demonstrate knowledge of
  promotion/ retention criteria
• 92 can identify Early Warning Signs of violence
• Attitudes or Beliefs
• 74of students believe fighting is wrong
• 29 of students feel safe at school
• 78 know the name of their school counselor

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Results Data What do you want to know?

• So WHAT data
• Hard data
• Application data
• Proof your program has (or has not) positively
  impacted students ability to utilize the
  knowledge, attitudes and skills to effect
  behavior
• Attendance
• Behavior
• Academic achievement

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Results Data - Examples

• 72 students on the retention list avoided
  retention
• Graduation rates improved 14 over three years
• Attendance improved among 9th grade males by 49

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How are students different as a RESULT of what
you do?

• Results Report
• Program
• Guidance Curriculum
• Closing the Gap
• Impact Over Time

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What Is Your Relationship with Education Data?

• Nonexistent?
• Reactive?
• Proactive?

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The Power of Data

• Provide objective snapshots of the students,
  school, community
• Surface evidence of access or equity issues
• Break old myths eliminate denial
• Create urgency/energy for change
• Provide direction data driven decisions

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The Power of Data

• Challenge existing behavior, funding patterns,
  programs, policies
• Use as an accountability tool
• Focuses resources where they are most needed
• Supports grant writing efforts

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Using Data to Spur Systemic Change

• School Counselors must be proficient in
• Accessing data
• Analyzing data
• Interpreting data
• Presenting data
• School Counselors must use data to
• - Recognize barriers to learning
• Point out the system inequities
• Advocate for system change
• Create urgency for change

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How Not to Use Data

• To place blame
• To focus on the past
• To maintain the status quo

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Counselors work to make systemic change so
studentsAcquire Improve

• Attendance
• Behavior
• Academic Achievement

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Attitude

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Examples of Data to Examine
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Why Kids Drop Out

• Students mainly consider dropping out because
  they are not engaged by the school.
• Students are most likely to cite the following
  reasons for considering dropping out
• School was boring (76) and
• They were not learning enough (42).

Source Metropolitan Life, Survey of the American
Teacher 2002 Student Life School, Home
and Community, p. 9.
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School Counselors Efforts Can

• Increase numbers of students in rigorous courses
• Help ALL students have access to the entire
  curriculum
• Lower dropout rates
• Raise attendance rates
• Reduce retention rates, and
• Help Schools Get to Proficiency

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Achievement DataWhat do you want to know?

• Achievement What does achievement look like at
  different levels and with different groups of
  students?
• Overall Achievement
• Grade point average
• Standardized test scores, SAT, ACT, State tests
• Passing all subjects
• Periodic assessment
• Semester grades
• End of course tests
• Ongoing classroom assessment
• Class assignment grades
• Tests

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Achievement-Related Data

• Course enrollment patterns
• Discipline referrals
• Suspension rates
• Alcohol, tobacco and other drug violations
• Attendance rates
• Parent involvement
• Extracurricular activities

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MPS Grade 9 Reading
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Academic Results Interventions (6-8)

• After Academic Counseling Groups
• 37 of 6th graders (64)
• 24 of 7th graders (47)
• 72 of 8th graders (46)
• Demonstrated GPA improvement

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One Vision, One VoiceSTUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
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How Can School Counselors Make A Difference?

• Taking a Leadership Advocacy Role in Schools
  Helps Bring About Systemic Change and Alter
  Student Outcomes

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CLEAR GrantCounselors Leadership for Excellence,
Achievement, and Resiliency

• Three year Federal Elementary Demonstration Grant
  
• Eight Elementary Schools
• Worked with 2,600 students
• Three goals
• Improve the student/counselor ratio
• Implement Protective schools framework
• Fully implement the CCBG program

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Documented Changes in Three Years

• Counselor student ratio went from 1-650 to
  1-350.
• At least 3,500 students were served
• Reading Scores Improved 6.6
• Math Scores Improved 9.0
• Attendance Improved 2.4
• Students are working from a strength base rather
  than a deficient base

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Longitudinal Study Results

• Started in third grade
• Followed to 4th and 5th grades
• Study included students from all project schools

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Longitudinal Study

• Questions
• 1) Will the use of the Protective Schools Model
  have any impact on academic progress and
  attendance for the participating students?
• 2) Will lowering the student to counselor ratio
  and fully implementing the CCBG program have an
  increase on academic progress and attendance for
  the students?

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Reading
2000-01 3rd grade, 2001-02 4th grade, 2002-03
5th grade
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Math
2000-01 3rd grade, 2001-02 4th grade, 2002-03
5th grade
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Attendance
2000-01 3rd grade, 2001-02 4th grade, 2002-03
5th grade
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Counselor Intervention

• Used data to determine students with most
  absences.
• Selected 12 students in 4th grade.
• Met for six weeks with the students
• Each week students charted their attendance and
  made a final bar graph to show the difference.
• On October 29th, all 4th grade students were in
  attendance.

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Attendance Data After Intervention for Six Weeks
(goal 5 increase)
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One Example of Counselor Intervention

• Utopia High School (true story)
• Freshman Class 60 students
• Honors Courses/AP Courses Students need teacher
  recommendation in order to take qualifying exam
• With this particular class, no teachers were
  willing to recommend any students for testing

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Utopia High School

• High School Counselor Intervened
• All Students were Given the Test
• Almost Half the Students either Qualified
  Outright or were in the to be Considered
  Category

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Activity

• Analyze (Look Behind) School Data

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Data Analysis

• Look for
• Pictures
• Patterns
• Gaps
• Questions
• What is positive in the data?
• What opportunity gaps do you see?

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• Sharing Success

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Personal/Social ResultsConflict Resolution
(K-5)

• Number of students who could
• peacefully resolve a conflict increased
• from 55 to 88
• Following implementation of a Conflict Manager
  program the number of suspended students was
  reduced from 13 in 97/98 to 3 in 01/02.

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Academic Results Interventions (6-8)
Pre Post

• Students on retention list
• 6th - 81
• 7th - 73
• 8th - 103

• Students who came off retention list
• 6th - 27
• 7th - 22
• 8th - 23

72 students avoided retention
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Jefferson County Public SchoolsLouisville,
Kentucky

• --26th Largest School District in U.S
• --152 Schools --27 High Schools
• --Approximately 96,000 students
• --13,400 Full-time
  employees
• --5600 Teachers
• --250 K-12 Counselors

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What Does Our District Look Like?

• 33 of our student population are
  African-American)
• 54 of our student population are from
  single-parent families
• 60 of elementary students are on free or
  reduced-price lunch
• ESL Population increased by 220

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Ninth Grade Retention Rate Reduction as a Result
of School Counselor Interventions
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Ninth Grade Retention Rate Reduction as a Result
of School Counselor Interventions
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JCPS
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Jefferson County, KYAdvanced Placement
Enrollment Race and Gender
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One Example of Counselor Intervention

• Utopia High School (true story)
• Freshman Class 60 students
• Honors Courses/AP Courses Students need teacher
  recommendation in order to take qualifying exam
• With this particular class, no teachers were
  willing to recommend any students for testing

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Utopia High School

• High School Counselor Intervened
• All Students were Given the Test
• Almost Half the Students either Qualified
  Outright or were in the to be Considered
  Category

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Where are School Counselors?
Key Players in School Reform
Connected to the Mission and Function of Schools
School Counselors?
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Websites

• American School Counselor Association
• www.schoolcounselor.org
• The Education Trust
• www.edtrust.org
• Tucson Unified School District
• www.tusd.k12.az.us

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The Education Trust

• College Begins in Kindergarten
• For More Information . .
• www.edtrust.org
• 202-293-1217
• judybowers_at_cox.net
• rhouse_at_edtrust.org