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Returning to School
All across the nation, schools are returning to school in some form. Whether that be online, seated or a blended format. It seems like one of the main focuses across the board is how we will be assessing students upon returning to school. Stakeholders are wanting to see the effects of learning loss and of course, help with any mental health concerns our students may be facing.
This is great that figuring out how we can help kids is at the forefront!
One of the things school counselors need to remember is that they will not be the only ones assessing students. The district, administration and even the teachers may have their own form of assessment whether it be formal or informal to see where they can start helping students. We need to make sure we are not overwhelming our students and parents with tons of assessments right off the bat.ย
Ease into school, help find resources and meet the crisis needs first. Then, assess more as needed. Start with sending out a newsletter, email or video of you introducing yourself and explain how you are available if anyone needs to communicate any concerns about what their child has been experiencing.
Remember, families are still trying to find their new normal and returning to school in any format will be an adjustment.
How & Why Are You Assessing Students?
When you decide to move forward with assessments, think about how you will use the data for improvements. It would be wise to start with the end in mind. How are you going to use the information and why do you need it? Don’t assess if you’re not doing it for a purpose that is useful.
Think about what focus you are going to have for the year. Is there something you are wanting to accomplish or improve within your program? Use data to solve those problems and find ways to meet the needs of students and improve your relationships with families.
Can you assess students informally? YES! Can you casually gather information from students to see if they are gaining concepts from your lessons? YES! During this article, Iโm really referring to more of the school-wide assessments that every student in your building will be encountering at the beginning of the year.
After assessing students always remember to think about how you will share the information. Will it be collective data sent out to families or will it be for program improvement?ย
Routine Assessments
Whatever assessments you are planning to do, try to think about the end in mind and have a plan! How are you going to get the assessment out (Paper, Google Form, Survey, ect.), how are you going to use it to help better your program and how do you plan on sharing your results (Family Communication, Graphs, Curriculum Map, etc.)?
- Needs Assessments: These are assessments that go out to students, parents, and staff to assess the needs of the students and school community. This will allow you to plan your lessons and small-groups according to the assessed need. In our district, we do this every three years.ย
- Family Assessments: This is probably called something else in your area, but for me, this is what I do when I am trying to assess the needs of my families in the community. This helps my student leaders know what community service projects to host. We want to make sure our service projects are fulfilling a need within our community.ย
- Universal Screener: These screenings are used to assess behavior concerns, as well as, social & emotional health so that we can develop a tiered approach to work with individual students.
Minute Meetings
Taking one minute and meeting with each student can be very helpful! The task sounds daunting when you have a lot of kidsโฆ but broken down within the week and grade-levels, it really isnโt bad and gives you a lot of insight into your student population.ย
Read more about how I like to conduct Minute Meetings in my building! Click… The Do’s and Don’ts of Minute Meetings
Iโve done Minute Meetings with 2nd-4th grade consistently and so many students who would not refer themselves or come to me during the whole group, will say they need to meet with me about something in our minute meeting. It also gives you a chance to sit down with them and let them know you are there if they ever need anything. Sitting in the hallway, on-on-one and explaining this to them is a pretty powerful piece of building rapport!
Let me know how you plan on assessing student when we return to school! What’s your plan? ๐
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What universal screener do you use?
Hello Rebecca! Thanks for asking! So, Universal Screeners are somewhat new to our district, so we haven’t used a formal Universal Screener yet because we want to find out exactly what will serve our students best. We are looking into this one simply because it looks like it’s easy to administer and gives the tiered approach in the form of “stop light” colors. It also tells exactly what skills the child needs improvement on, so grouping kids for small group will be a lot easier and guidance for individual counseling goals will be there. I hope this helps answer your question! This is new territory for us too! I can’t wait to see how it goes… I think it will be extremely helpful!
https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professional-Assessments/Behavior/SSIS-Social-Emotional-Learning-Edition/p/100001940.html