REVISED SECTION



As a counseling team we reviewed multiple data sources to determine gaps in our counseling program that impact our students. We reviewed the school performance framework, our student and family perception surveys, attendance data, academic data, and observed trends in our school. Three gaps emerged from the data pertaining to attendance, counseling office support, and credit recovery completion.



1) Attendance: Students who are new to North attend school at a lower rate than their peers who are continuing in the same school.

2) Support in the counseling office: Female students seek support in the counseling office more frequently than their male counterparts.

3) Credit recovery completions: Male and female students are enrolled in Credit Recovery at equal rates; however our semester 1 data indicates that female students complete courses at a higher rate than their male counterparts.



We brought these three gaps to our counseling advisory group in January in order to both share our findings and determine which gap we would prioritize during the 2017-2018 academic year. Our advisory group determined that the attendance gap would be the priority for the school year and aligned with our Mindsets & Behaviors.



While the counseling team was eager to start implementing activities to address this gap, we first turned to the literature to determine best practices for engaging transfer students in our school and facilitating a smooth transition for them. From the American Counseling Association (VISTAS Online), we found information about the first connections students make at a new school and how counseling groups can reduce social isolation, create connections within the school, and share procedural information about the school with new students. The intervention we chose was to conduct lunch groups for our new students. We piloted lunch groups with the new 11th grade students in the fall to incorporate this best practice from the literature. We invited 38 students to attend by sending passes in the fall and spring and 13 ultimately attending. In our lunch group we had conversations between North staff members and the new students, we shared practical information about the school, and provided an opportunity for new students to connect with one another. In the future, in order to be more effective, we will message about this opportunity more frequently, and use text messaging and email to remind students about the lunch groups.



We then went on a listening tour and solicited information from both new and continuing North High School students through new student experience focus groups. We did this because we wanted to hear directly from our students impacted by our identified gap. Our findings from the focus groups will drive the forward movement of this effort in future years (details provided below) and help us revise the new student orientation process (which was an existing part of the counseling program).



The 2017-2018 school year served in many ways as a pilot year for transfer students supports. Our attendance gap for transfer students compared to continuing students closed by almost four percent and students reported having trusted adults in the building at higher rates (34% increase). This programming allowed the counseling team to successfully start to address various identified Mindsets & Behaviors like M 3: “Sense of belonging in the school environment.” Our efforts this year were a combination of existing new student supports ( student-led tours and the orientation process), information collecting efforts (our focus group), and new interventions (our lunch groups).



In future years we will be expanding our programming and starting it earlier in the year. We will be adding teacher video introductions which is an example of an idea that came out of our focus groups. We will continue to hold follow- up focus groups to collect new and innovative ideas from our students, staff, families, and community members. In addition, we will explore in both the literature and in student facing surveys the links between engagement and attendance in order to ensure we are using the correct outcome measures for this closing-the-gap project. There are a multitude of reasons that the new student experience is important to our counseling team. Many of these reasons are reflected in our attendance goal and pertain to our highly mobile student population. The annual number of transfer students in our school is staggering. This can be seen by the fact that over the course of three years, in the Class of 2019 (190 students at the time of this report) over 160 students have transitioned in and out of North High School.

Goal: By June 2018, incoming transfer students to North High School in grades 10, 11, and 12 will increase their average attendance rate by two percent from 81% to 83% in order to close the gap in attendance when compared to their continuously enrolled peers.

Target Group: Transfer students to North in grades 10 through 12

Data Used to Identify Students: Enrollment data from the North High School registrar and attendance data from Principal’s Portal

School Counselor(s): All North HS Counselors

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M 3; BSS 3; BSS 2; BSS 8; B SMS 6; Social/Emotional

Type of Activities to be Delivered in What Manner?: New student lunch 11th grade pilot; new student lunch (spring semester); new student experience focus group (lunch provided); student-led tours for new students; new student orientation with grade-level counselor.

Process Data (Number of students affected): 57 students

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): REVISED “There is a trusted adult in the building who I can talk to.” In the fall pre survey 50% of transfer student respondents indicated that they knew of a trusted adult in the building. In the spring, post survey 84% of transfer student respondents indicated that they knew of a trusted adult in the building. Advisement/learning community time was used to collect perception data. All students identified as transfer students in grades 10, 11, and 12 had the chance to respond.

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): Attendance: In the 2016-2017 school year, the 10, 11, and 12th grade transfer students had average attendance of 81.2% and their 10, 11, and 12th grade peers had average attendance of 86.7%. This is the data used to identify our gap. Our goal was to increase the 81.2% attendance rate of transfer students by 2%. In the 2017-2018 school year the 10, 11, and 12th grade transfer students had average attendance of 84.6% and their peers had average attendance of 85.5%. The gaps closed by about 4%.

Implications: REVISED Process Data: There were 57 new students in grades 10 through 12 identified by the North High School registrar. All students participated in student-led tours and the new student orientation process. 37% of invited students attended new student lunch meetings. Process Data Implications: We were somewhat disappointed by the low turnout for our new students lunch meetings. While student-led tours and the orientation process are mandatory for new students, the lunch groups are not. Next year, we plan to increase the communication about this opportunity and ensure that it is advertised in our orientation process as well as text and email reminders. Perception Data: In the fall only 50% of new students knew of a trusted adult in the building. In the spring this number increased to 84%. Perception Data Implications: We will be replicating this year’s transfer student programming. We are unsure if our one knowledge question, used to measure perception data captures the whole picture of the new student experience. Starting next year, we will have students take a pre survey with question about attitudes, knowledge, and skills pertaining to starting in a new learning environment. We believe that the connection between students and adults in our building is instrumental for students’ academic, social/emotional, and post-secondary success and will continue to use the question about knowing a trusted adults; however, we will strengthen our perception data by adding more questions next year and looking at peer connections as well. We are considering adding individual quarterly check-in (counselor and new student) to further strengthen this closing the gap effort. Outcome Data: Our attendance data analysis indicated that transfer students were attending classes at a higher rate this year when compared to last year (by approximately 4%). Outcome Data Implications: We will be replicating this year’s transfer student programming. We will continue to track our new students’ attendance rates because we feel that increased attendance can be an indicator of both academic success and school engagement. As a school in a neighborhood that is quickly gentrifying, we have a high turnover rate with students being priced out of our neighborhood and new students moving in. Next year, we will adjust our outcome data tracking by looking at month to month attendance data for our new students in lieu of yearly.

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