With the necessary supports in place, school counselors are uniquely equipped to promote academic success. We know the importance of using evidence-based interventions to set counseling goals and support guidance programs. Here are 5 ways Schoolzilla supports counselors like you in achieving these goals.
1. Gather a Holistic View of an Individual Student
You can quickly gather a holistic picture of a student’s progress, including over past years, using Student Profile. You can use the dashboard for your own work, to identify root causes for challenges or celebrations. You can also efficiently prepare for meetings with individual students, family members or other interventionists. With the additional benefit of student photographs (ask your SZ admin), the dashboard helps you to keep the student at the center of the conversation.
Example: Use the Student Profile to have a grounded discussion in how attendance may be impacting academic performance
When: As needed, likely 2-3 times/week
What: Parent phone calls, one-on-one meetings with students or parents
2. Develop and Prioritize SMART Goals for Your School Counseling Program-Aligned with School/District Priorities
As a multi-measure dashboard, Schoolzilla is a great tool for a complete picture of the performance of your school. No need to track down data across multiple platforms; all your attendance, behavior, and academic data are in one place to help you set goals in a data-driven way. In addition, Metric Zoom functionality within School Profile allows you to dig deeply into your school's data to see trends over time. You can also look at behavior data by location and time of day.
You can then set counseling priorities at the student or student group level to support overall goals.
Example: Principal sets a goal of reducing suspensions by 25%. Use Schoolzilla to identify which students/groups of students were most often suspended the previous year and think about ways to support those students.
When: Annual
What: Annual planning meeting, year-in-review step back; site plans
3. Engage in Collaborative Decision-Making
Use Schoolzilla as a tool to foster conversation among your colleagues, including other counselors as well as teachers and administrators. The School Profile can be used along with data driven dialogue protocols to jointly brainstorm intervention supports and services. Via progress monitoring over time, you and your colleagues can learn from and share successful practices, grounded in the data.
With your goals in mind, use the Our Schools dashboard to find others in your district who can share best practice. If your EL students have lower attendance than you'd like, use the filter and sort tools on Our Schools to see which schools have the highest attendance for EL students. Consider reaching out to other sites for suggestions on initiatives or best practices.
Example: Use in monthly meetings within and across buildings to identify common pain points and collaboratively brainstorm solutions.
When: As needed or based on schedule set by administration (e.g. monthly)
What: Collaborative data-driven decision-making meetings with administrators, other counselors, and/or teachers
4. Use Student Groups to Monitor Progress
Using the Our Students dashboard and student intervention group functionality, you can identify and create groups of students who need extra support based on criteria or triggers you set across a range of indicators (including assessments, attendance and/or behavior.) You can then track your groups over time and share these data with students’ assigned classroom teacher.
Learn more about student intervention groups here.
Examples: Monitor students above a certain number of referrals and/or below a particular attendance threshold who are receiving a particular intervention
When: As needed or based on schedule set by administration (e.g. every other week)
What: Meetings with your administrators, intervention teams, other counselors, and/or teachers to align on interventions and progress
5. Identify and Track Students with Specific Needs
Using Views in Our Students, you can set criteria for different student outcomes so you are always up-to-date on the students you serve. Views are dynamic, meaning the list of students who meet the criteria will update automatically when your data refresh.
Views are particularly helpful for continuous tracking of multiple indicators (e.g., office discipline referrals and attendance). They are also perfect for quarterly or semesterly celebrations, such as awards for perfect attendance.
Example: Create a view and export a list of students with perfect attendance at the end of the 2nd quarter
When: As needed or based on schedule set by administration (e.g. every other week)
What: School leadership team meetings, student support team meetings, personal planning, school or student celebrations