Our first lesson, a Signs of Suicide (SOS) presentation, was completed with all students enrolled in Health Class, who are primarily freshman. Out of our 425 student who completed the BSAD (Brief Screener for Adolescent Depression), eighty-six students showed signs of depression and thirteen of those students needed immediate supports. BHS used this information to help develop more individual and group supports for our students to address their social/emotional needs. We continue to partner with a number of mental health agencies in the community to help support the work of BHS clinicians. We anticipate the number of students needing these supports will increase, which is similar to current national trends in adolescent mental health needs. By doing this lesson, we increased the amount of students identified with social/emotional concerns.
Our second lesson was a presentation given to juniors in homerooms (in auditorium for students who didn’t have a homeroom) regarding registration for senior year and the importance of class selection. A post-assessment was given and it was found that 75% or more of those students understood the key concepts presented in the lesson. While the number of students who understood the key ideas of this lessons, the Counseling team needs to develop another lesson or closing-the-gap activity to address the small group of students who did not understand these important concepts. Counselors were encouraged by the success of the lesson because anecdotal data collected suggests that more juniors came to individual registration meetings with their Senior Course Request sheet started.
Our final lesson involved engaging our freshman in a mock college admissions lesson and activity. While these students came into the lesson with some background knowledge as a result of presentations in middle school, there was growth in knowledge between the pre-assessment and the post-assessment. While the number of students who understood the key ideas of this lessons was high, the Counseling team needs to develop another lesson or closing-the-gap activity to address the small group of students who did not understand these important concepts. Also, the Counseling team will focus in on the 26.1% of these students who felt they are not on track for college admittance. Students held onto their SMART goal planning tool. School Counselors will discuss/update the goals with students again at the beginning of sophomore year. The lesson increases students understanding of creating a SMART post-secondary goal.
The Counseling team felt these three lessons were well organized, impactful, and worthwhile. We will continue to deliver and revise this content to meet the needs of our learners with a focus on reviewing the data, particularly the outcome data. As a team, we need to do a better job of analyzing the long term effects of our lesson and how it impacts the building as a whole.