Measuring the Effectiveness of a New Tiered Intervention ZAP Matrix and Tracking Database

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Measuring the Effectiveness of a New Tiered
Intervention ZAP Matrix and Tracking Database

• Steve Stay
• Professional School Counselor
• Carthage Junior High School

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ZAPs in 2009-2010

• Step 1 Teacher writes the ZAP
• Step 2 Teacher emails students names at the
  end of the day to the process coordinator
• Step 3 Process coordinator compiles all
  teachers submitted names in Excel spreadsheet,
  then creates a separate list to feed to the
  auto-dialer
• Step 4 Teachers write the next morning to say
  who needs a lunch detention
• Step 5 Process coordinator copies certain names
  to new spreadsheet for lunch detentions
• Step 6 All corrections are done manually by
  contacting process coordinator (if you can find
  her)
• Step 7 Lunch Detention supervisor emails list
  of students who served to process coordinator
• Step 8 If you want to examine ZAP data, you go
  to process coordinator and she creates reports
  for you

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Problems

• Human error (misspelled names, forgot to email,
  etc.)
• Too much time involved in doing it manually
• Data is opaque and overwhelming
• Repeat offenders are hard to track
• No consistent intervention policy in place once
  repeat offenders are identified
• Only one intervention attempted, but too little
  too late (Organizational Skills Bootcamp)
• Too little parent involvement

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Changes Made for 2010-2011

• Counselor created ACCESS database on the network
  to automate the process of submitting, tracking,
  and reporting ZAPs and Lunch Detentions
• Administrators and teachers collaborated to come
  up with 7 levels of increasing intervention for
  repeat offenders
• Students write the ZAP instead of teachers

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ZAPs in 2010-2011

• Step 1 Students write the ZAP
• Step 2 Teachers select pre-typed names in
  database
• Step 3 Teachers click names who dont need
  lunch detention the next morning (teachers can
  make corrections themselves in database)
• Step 4 Lunch Detention supervisor clicks names
  of students who attended
• Step 5 All staff receive automated reports by
  email and act according to predetermined matrix
  steps in handbook

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Is it helping?

• Qualitative reports from teachers, process
  coordinator, parents, counselors, and
  administrators say Yes
• Less time devoted to it
• Fewer repeat offenders
• Everyones more informed
• Fewer errors mean fewer students disciplined
  unnecessarily, so students are happier

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Measuring the Improvement
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Measuring the Improvement
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Measuring the Improvement
Fewer than half as many Ds and Fs as we had by
this time last year! (44)
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So it is helping!

• Qualitative and quantitative measures indicate
  that our streamlined process and increased
  interventions have combined to cut the total
  number of Ds and Fs by more than half!

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What next?

• Weekly Missing Assignments letters started after
  Spring Break this year
• Automated Missing Assignments Report email next
  year
• Slight tweaks in the intervention matrix being
  used now