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Mills Park Elementary (2018)

Cary, NC

School Counseling Core Curriculum Results Report

The 5th grade anxiety lesson was taught to 179 5th graders. They learned about types of anxiety, coping strategies, assessed their own anxiety, discussed stressors and activities to ease anxiety. The students’ major worries were: demanding schedules, extra school work, grades and pressure from home. Coping strategies discussed were reading, playing outside, and taking deep breaths, but a lack of time to do them. Role playing was utilized to demonstrate how to talk to stakeholders about their anxiety. At the conclusion of the core lesson, 98% of the students could name 2 strategies to help with anxiety. The other 2% required the counselor to sit with them individually and suggest anti-anxiety strategies so they could name two they were comfortable with. A total of 15% of the students agreed to participate in a Tier II level of instruction. The outcome achievement data raised questions. Positively, 19% of the students scored higher in reading and 15% scored higher in math when comparing EOG scores from 4th and 5th grades. Comparing the same assessments, more concerning are the 33% of students who scored lower in reading and 22% lower in math. Looking ahead the counselor can look more closely at report card grades to give an indication as to if anxiety played a role in the drop. Moving forward, proficiency on EOG’s combined with Report Card data will be important to review together and Tier II support can happen earlier. The counselor can also move this lesson earlier in the year to give the students more practice time.

The Social and Emotional Lesson took 140 third graders through varying degrees of emotions and strategies they could use when emotions did not result in positive behaviors. One student explained a series of an emotion in this way: cranky, bothered, frustrated, angry and furious. They outlined different coping skills for each level of emotion: talk to a friend, think happy thoughts, one minute vacation, wall push ups, find a quiet spot. Before the lesson, 80% of the students were able to identify 1 coping strategy when prompted. At the end of the lesson, 98% of the students were about to identify 4 coping strategies. The perception data allowed me to access the students who had difficulty discussing coping strategies and could help these students 1:1 during the classroom. When looking at outcome data, teachers reported 12% of students struggled with handling their emotions before the lesson and 6% after the lesson. Looking ahead, if the behaviors of these students continue to be significant due to their emotional responses, a Tier III response could be created to give additional support. Also, I can work closely with classroom teachers providing options for ways to incorporate time and space to assist with elevated behaviors based on emotional responses. When teaching this lesson in the future I want more visuals to show students different coping strategies. It is developmentally appropriate for this age group since many are new to the idea of using coping strategies.

The second grade lesson was taught to 148 students and introduced SMART goals, short-term and long-term goals and the importance of setting goals for personal improvement and future success. All short-term goals were academic based and had to be time-bound to the end of second grade and all long-term goals had to be either college or career related. These goals were recorded by students and taken to each station. Out of these 148 students, 85% were able to successfully set a short-term academic goal and a long-term college/career goal. These results show that majority of students were able to understand the content of the lesson and apply it to their own lives in both the short-term and long-term capacity. In order to reach the other 15% of students, it will be important to allow more time for the stations to be completed and have counselor assistance and have ample time to create their goals. According to student report cards, across two randomly selected second grade classes, 15% of students showed improvement in math grades between quarter three and quarter four and 12.5% showed improvement in ELA grades between quarter three and quarter four. It is important to note that there are many other factors that contribute to academic improvement like classroom instruction, tutoring, classroom curriculum resources, etc. In order to more effectively implement and follow-up with this lesson, the school counselor can follow up with students’ on their progress towards their academic goals, especially with students who are performing below grade level.

Grade Level: 5

Lesson Topic: Anxiety

Lesson was Presented in Which Class/Subject: Guidance Special

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M1, B-SMS.6, B-SMS.7

Start/End: Jan. 2 - 31, 2018

Process Data (Number of students affected): 179 students

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): An informal pre-test was given asking students what they thought anxiety meant and how did they handle it. Several students shared answers to both questions in all of the 5th grade classes.
Percentage of students who can name 2 strategies to help with anxiety - 98% at the end of the lesson without assistance, 2% with assistance. On the post test, 15% of the students scored showing "high" test anxiety while the other 85% of the students scored in the low to average range.

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): 48% of the students' EOG scores remained the same when comparing 4th and 5th grades in reading and 63% in math. 33% of the students scored lower in reading and 22% lower in math when comparing their 4th and 5th grade EOG scores. 19% of the students scored higher in reading and 15% scored higher in math when comparing the students' EOG scores from 4th and 5th grades.

Implications: When looking deeper at the EOG scores it was noted that 2 students in math and 3 in reading were proficient last year and not this year. 1 student in both math and reading are now proficient and were not last year. Perhaps some of these students would also benefit from test taking strategies. Some of those strategies are built into the lessons, however perhaps another day or two would be beneficial.

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Grade Level: 3rd

Lesson Topic: Social Emotional Learning/ Ride the Wave

Lesson was Presented in Which Class/Subject: Classroom Guidance

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M1, B-SMS.7

Start/End: November 1 - 17, 2017

Process Data (Number of students affected): 140 students

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): Before the lesson, 80% of the students were able to identify 1 coping strategy when prompted.
At the end of the lesson, 98% of the students were about to successfully identify 4 coping strategies.

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): Behavior Data: Teachers reported that 12% of the students completed a school wide behavior reflection sheet due to a specific minor behavior. After the lessons 6% of those students had to complete a school wide behavior reflection sheet due to a specific minor behavior.

Implications: To deliver this lesson more effectively I would want to incorporate the teachers into the lessons so they can create interventions or tools that will work in their classroom settings to promote positive behaviors. By having the students hear their teacher talk about the interventions and tools it will allow them to know what options are available to them when they need help with coping strategies. The counselors have also been advocating for the need of a more systematic way of collecting behavior data and are working with the School Improvement Team to make this a priority in the upcoming school improvement plan.

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Grade Level: 2nd

Lesson Topic: Short-Term Academic and Long-Term Career Goal Setting

Lesson was Presented in Which Class/Subject: Classroom Guidance

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M 4. Understanding that postsecondary education and life-long learning are necessary for long- term career success B-LS 7. Identify long- and short-term academic, career and social/ emotional goals B-LS 4. Apply self-motivation and self-direction to learning NCGES Standards: EEE.CR.2 Understand the relationship among career goals and interests, personal interests, aptitudes, and abilities.

Start/End: January 2018

Process Data (Number of students affected): Lesson will be taught to 8 second grade classrooms, 148 students

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): 85% of 2nd grade students were able to accurately create both a short-term
academic goal and long-term college/career goal using the SMART goal model.

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): Achievement data for 2nd grade quarter four. Overall Math Achievement Scores between quarters 3 and 4 increased by 15%. Overall ELA Achievement Scores between quarters 3 and 4 increased by 12.5%.

Implications: In order to increase the percentage of students who were able to create short and long term goals related to academics and career, I think I would need to allow for more time at each station so students have more time to think about their goals and I have more time to help them. In order to create more time, I would consider removing one of the technology stations so that there were only three stations: 1 technology station, 1 short-term academic goal setting station, and 1 long-term career goal setting station.

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