Small group responsive services provide intensive support to our at-risk students. By using school achievement, attendance, and behavioral data we identified students to target to close the achievement gap. After our groups were planned based on school data, we matched the goals of the groups to the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors Planning Tool in order to fine tune the purpose of each group. We analyzed the grade reports, attendance reports, and test data to identify group members. Then as a counseling department we developed our Small Group Action Plans writing lessons to achieve ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors for each target group.



To meet our Counseling department’s 1st goal of closing-the-gap for failing students, students in each grade level were identified to be a part of our academic “Success Groups”. Students who were failing 2 or more core subjects were our target students. Counselors met with each student individually before forming the groups. Success Groups ran throughout the school year after each quarterly report card. Counselors held small group meetings to help students develop organizational skills, study skills, time management, and test-taking tips. Students in the small groups set individual improvement goals. The overarching goal of this intervention was to help all failing students earn promotion to the next grade. Out of 158 students participating throughout the school year, 99% of participants met promotion criteria with only 1 retention for the 2016-2017 school year. Since these small groups were so successful in helping these students prevent retention, we will continue this intervention next school year. One content improvement we will make for next year is to include growth-mindset lessons into our small group meetings. Through perception data collected, we realized many students who are failing have fixed-mindsets and by incorporating more growth-mindset activities can better address ASCA Mindset and Behavior M2: Self-confidence in ability to succeed.



Early in the school year we developed our 2nd goal when parents voiced a concern over the amount of stress their students were experiencing due to an increase of testing and the transition to middle school. We reviewed school attendance data and saw a trend in students missing class time to go to the clinic and chronic absences from school with stress related symptoms. In reaction to this trend each counselor formed a “Stress Busters” group for their grade level. Students were identified by teacher recommendation, parent’s request, student self-reporting, and attendance report. Small group techniques included play and art therapy, music therapy, stress relieving techniques, and relaxation breathing. Perception data showed lower stress levels throughout the group sessions and overall 81% of participants felt they were able to use the stress reduction techniques effectively. Sixth grade attendance improved by 80% as a result of the small group intervention. Upon evaluating delivery of the stress groups, data suggested that 4 sessions were too few and students would benefit from 6-8 sessions to carry students through one whole marking period.



Addressing our 3rd Goal, the Latino Mentoring small groups were formed across all three grade levels to help raise reading scores with our ELL population. End-of-grade data showed a dramatic drop in reading scores from 2015 to 2016. According to Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade scores, in 2015, 19% of ELL students were reading at “beginning learner” levels. That number increased to 58% in the spring of 2016 reading at “beginning learner”. Additionally, the CCRPI scores for the ACCESS test fell from 7.95 in 2015 to 2.18 in 2016 which was another indicator of a gap. Starting in the fall of 2016-2017 school year, all ELL Latino students were invited to be a part of the mentoring groups. Kennesaw State University’s ESOL department partnered with our Counseling Department to bring this group to our students. The small groups met with Counselors and Kennesaw State University mentors culminating with a field trip to visit the Kennesaw State University campus. During the small group sessions, students worked on reading skills, learned how to remove barriers as a Latino student, and read literature related to their culture. Students in this small group intervention showed a huge increase in reading scores improving by 45% and ELL students reading at “beginning learner” levels on the EOG scores dropped to a three year record low of 13%. Since the results from this group were positive in reading growth, we plan to continue this small group Kennesaw State University partnership next year.

Group Name: Stress Busters

Goal: By May 2017, attendance will improve by 80% from 40 absences to less than 10 absences, for the targeted students in the small groups for stress. DATA SOURCE- Palmer Middle School Attendance report, daily and monthly report.

Target Group: 6th grade students were identified by their teachers, parents, and documented visits to the school clinic or counselors office for stress related issues.

Data Used to Identify Students: Daily school-wide attendance report. Teacher, parent, counselor, school nurse referrals due to high levels of stress.

School Counselor(s): Barbara Truluck

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M1 M2 M6 B-LS 7 B-SMS 6 B-SMS 7 B-SMS 8 B-SMS 10 B-SS 2 B-SS 3

Outline of Group Sessions Delivered: Stress Busters- Session 1-4 Learning Competencies: Students will be able to identify and define stress. Students will understand and be able to apply positive and motivational strategies when dealing with academic stressors. Students will be able to identify positive and negative ways to cope with stress. Students will understand, demonstrate, and apply coping mechanisms to handle stress. Students will be able to identify places to seek support when dealing with stressful issues. Session 1: Meet groups members, define stress, identify negative and positive stress. Session 2: Steps to help reduce stress, visual imagery. Session 3: Worry and stress, irrational and rational thoughts. Session 4: Steps to reducing test anxiety, art therapy "Worry Catcher", reflection.

Process Data (Number of students affected): Group 1: 8 Group 2: 8 Total= 16 students Number of Sessions= 4 Each session= 45 minutes

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): Students were given the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) pre-test Likert scale instrument to self-assess their stress levels over the first month of school. Students rated their stress on a scale of 0-4 with 4= Very Often, 3= Fairly Often, 2=Sometimes, 1=Almost Never, and 0=Never. At the end of the last small group meeting, students were given the same Likert scale instrument for a post-test to measure the increase/decrease in stress levels after the small group intervention. The pre-test indicated that 11 out of 16 students were extremely stressed, 4 experiencing high levels of stress and 1 moderate stress level. After the small group intervention, only 1 student was still experiencing high levels of stress, and 10 students dropped to low stress levels.

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): Three forms of class absence were used to measure how many times identified students were missing class time: absent from school, visits to the clinic, and visits to the counselor’s office for stress related issues. In the first month of school before the intervention, students missed a total of 15 days of school and 25 times for out-of-class attendance. After the first 2 small group meetings, absences dropped to 6 days absent and out-of-class time dropped to 12. In October, after the 4th small group meeting, absences dropped to 5 and out-of-class time dropped to 8. In November, after the final stress busters meeting, absences dropped once again to 3 and out-of-class visits to the clinic and counseling office dropped to 5. Over all absences improved by 80%.

Implications: Students for this small group intervention were identified by their teachers, parents, and documented visits to the school clinic or counselors office for stress related issues. Students learned a variety of stress reducing techniques and coping skills. Sessions included group discussions, peer sharing, feeling frazzled activity, deep breathing activities, progressive relaxation techniques, journal writing, stress diary, art therapy, and physical activity. As a result this intervention helped 6th grade students cope with school related stress after their transition to middle school. The goal was to improve not only attendance rates but also to improve students leaving class time due to stress. After the first 2 small group meetings there was a dramatic drop in days absent from school and a steady improvement in both attendance and out-of-class time throughout the remaining months of the intervention. Overall, this group’s improvement of 80% showed this was a valuable intervention. The results from this intervention helped us determine that we will continue this small group expanding to all grade levels. We would continue using the PSS pre-post survey because it gave us valuable information on stress levels of our students. To deliver more effectively, we decided to increase the number of sessions from 4 to 6 which would span over Semester 1 providing more support to these students over a longer period of time. We also discussed adding ASCA Mindset & Behavior standard M5: Belief in using abilities to their fullest to achieve high-quality results and outcomes. We found most of the participants in the group had low self-esteem and incorporating growth mindset activities as well as cognitive behavior therapy would be helpful in boosting confidence, reduce stress, and reduce school anxiety.

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