Why look at Grade Spans through Multiple Lenses?

Pre-K-4 has been doing a version of proficiency-based and student-centered learning work for awhile, and our 9-12 team has been leading the charge in transitioning our district to be ready for the proficiency-based diploma law, enacted in 2012.  Grades 5-8, however, have lagged behind a bit.  So to provide a full look at our needs (and similarities of needs regardless of grade span) we compared varying grade span’s needs. This was to see if there were any commonalities in needs from our two strongest grade spans in terms of proficiency-based learning design. The data showed us and our staff that the needs of K-4 teachers are similar to 9-12 teachers, however, implementation of those needs will vary based on the students.

Seesaw

Seesaw is a digital portfolio tool to support students in documenting and sharing their progress over the course of their academic careers. Students can “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links.

Seesaw can give educators, counselors, and school leaders a view of what a student is learning across classes. Counselors can use SeeSaw to see a fuller picture of what the student is learning, leverage this tool to start conversations with the student about progress, and access this information to help students make postsecondary choices. Seesaw provides training materials for all types of school staff via their Seesaw for Schools Success Plan.

Noted communication and collaboration features:

• Opportunity for students to share and demonstrate learning to the school community and beyond.
• Ability for parents to have greater access to student work.
• Downloadable portfolios of student work for reviewing and sharing.
• Students can blog or journal on the platform.

Testimonial:

“Naviance has been, by far, the best ed tech for our student-centered transition. I can journal with a student on his/her progress, I can work with them to plan on the platform, I can have private meetings, and also communicate with other stakeholders (parents, teachers, administrators).”
–Sherry, High School Counselor, Pittsfield, NH

Reviews:

• Graphite.org
• iPad Educators
• EdSurge

Naviance

Naviance (paid service) is a college- and career-readiness platform that helps connect academic achievement to postsecondary goals. Its comprehensive college and career planning solutions optimize student success, maximize counselor effectiveness, and track results for teachers as well as school and district administrators.

Noted communication and collaboration features:

• Opportunity for students, teachers, and counselors to write and share journal entries.
• Ability for students to create a plan (for social/emotional growth, or future planning) and share it with others who can track milestones.
• Opportunity for virtual debriefs with students, especially useful when connecting with student during out-of-school time is necessary.
• Outreach and support capabilities via SMS and mobile device.

Testimonial:

“Naviance has been, by far, the best ed tech for our student-centered transition. I can journal with a student on his/her progress, I can work with them to plan on the platform, I can have private meetings, and also communicate with other stakeholders (parents, teachers, administrators).”
–Sherry, High School Counselor, Pittsfield, NH

Reviews:

• Graphite.org
• G2Crowd
• EdSurge

PowerSchool

PowerSchool provides a central data hub for schools and districts to improve cross-role knowledge-sharing and collaboration efforts. Educators and support staff can capture academic, social, and emotional progress with ease and communicate needs and opportunities with their colleagues. Administrators can easily view activity, reports, and progress for both students and staff.

Noted efficiency features:

• Capture academic, social, and emotional data as well as community service and progress toward college and career goals
• Ability to take and share notes with students, teachers, and families
• Ability for parents to view select data and be more involved in a student’s school experience

Testimonial:

“I love that all of the information and data is in one place and shareable. It allows me to focus on the students as opposed to collecting data from a lot of different sources. ” –Counselor, Pittsfield District, NH

Reviews:

• EdSurge
• G2Crowd
• SpiceWorks

Remind

Remind.com is an SMS-based communication tool for teachers and school community members. Staff can send one-way text message reminders, attach documents, and more to an entire class or select group of students at no cost. They also offer a blog that highlights features and best practices for tool implementation for a range of users, including support staff.

Noted efficiency features:

• Ability to contact parents and students in real time to mobile device, SMS, and email
• Delivery receipts let staff know if messages made it to a student’s device, or if a phone number may have changed
• Messages are translatable—com can instantly translate a text into over 70 languages, based on the recipient’s preferences

Testimonial:

“I can send a text to the whole sophomore class reminding them of an upcoming PSAT deadline, or send to a group of students to remind them to set up a meeting with me. It takes all of the back and forth out of scheduling and really frees up my time and theirs.” –Counselor, Pittsfield District, NH

Reviews:

• EdSurge
• Graphite.org
• EdTech Round Up

ClassPager

ClassPager is a platform that educators can use to run classroom polls and instantly message students’ phones (while protecting privacy). According to ClassPager, 98 percent of text messages are read within 15 minutes, so utilizing SMS in this way is a powerful way to communicate with students.

Noted efficiency features:

•  Reach multiple students by running school-wide polls and surveys using text messages.
• Give personalized feedback to individuals or groups.
• Broadcast updates and information to parents and students.

Testimonial:

“I can contact a whole group or one student – right to their phone. It helps in a lot of ways, but mostly it makes it so I can have contact and a relationship with some of the students I might not meet with frequently and make sure they understand the options available to them.” – Counselor, Newton District, MA

Reviews:

• EdSurge
• Graphite.org
• TeachersFirst

School Counselor Blogs

School counselor blogs are an invaluable professional development resource. Counselors share their insights, inspirations, resources, and tips, encouraging others to share as well. Below, please find a few (and contact us with your favorites).

Noted professional development features

• Extensive lists of online professional development networks for counselors for all grade levels and across social media platforms.
• Comprehensive, plainly written blog posts, with references and linked resources, that are relevant to anyone working in an educational setting, but especially to student support staff.
• Find other blogs, or be inspired to start blogging, sharing resources, and inspiring others.

Recommended counselor-centered blogs for getting started:

The Helpful Counselor is a blog created by a school counselor with a “goal in creating [a] website to share ideas and strategies to promote social, emotional and behavioral development”. Offering a large set of resources, the author provides an explicit list of online professional networks for school counselors across grade levels.

Helpful post: List of Professional Development Networks for School Counselors

The Counseling Geek is a blog to help counselors use technology in their programs. The author notes that blogging “has created incredible opportunities for professional development and collaboration.”

Helpful post: Top 5 Counseling Tools for your mobile device

The School Counselor Advocacy Letter was created with counselors and is addressed to teachers, school leaders and other staff. The goal of the letter is to open a conversation about the areas in which counselors can be valuable team members in the changing 21st century learning environment.

With a greater emphasis on college and career readiness, school communities can utilize a counselor’s deep expertise in the academic, personal, and social development needs of all students, potentially leading to improved student success. A letter like this can be especially useful in times of school community transition. Counselors can adapt this letter as they see fit.

Please note: The letter is written in the first person and is meant to take on the tone of an “open letter”. As noted above, adapt as needed.

Formative

Formative is a feedback tool that can be used to gauge learning for individuals and whole groups through formal or informal check-ins. In a professional development setting, this tool can be used to model different ways of virtually gauging student progress.

Noted professional development features

• Ability to collect and assess educator understanding and feedback through polls and surveys after professional development sessions.
• Enable school counselors to use a tool in their own professional development that they may also use with students.

Testimonial

“I find that professional development opportunities are few and far between—and sometimes [tools like Formative] would be nice to have a quick assessment, to be sure I retained the information and am working towards mastery.”
– Counselor, Wayland District, MA

Reviews

• EdSurge
• EdShelf
• Teacher’s Tech Toolbox

Vyew.com

Vyew allows meetings and sharing content in real-time and anytime. Multiple users can upload images, files, documents, and videos in any room, anytime.

Noted professional development features

• Use video for classroom observation allowing for opportunities to support teachers in classroom management
• Opportunity to debrief observation with stakeholders anytime, anywhere
• Real-time communication with many parties in school community

Testimonial

“When we use Vyew well, we can observe, debrief and change practice very easily. It gives counselors access [to the school community] they don’t normally have.”
– Counselor, Wayland District, MA

Reviews

• TechRepublic
• TechCrunch
• TopTenReviews

Interested in exploring our technology recommendations?

For a list of curated technological tools to support communication, collaboration, and professional development for support staff, visit this resource page.

Examples of professional development opportunities

A quick note: Because of the dearth of current examples of counselor-specific professional development opportunities in student-centered schools, we draw here on several examples of professional development opportunities geared for teachers that can be used as models when considering professional development options for support staff.

• The American School Counselor Association offers professional development online, with a number of topics relevant to integrating counseling more deeply in the classroom. Webinars are archived, free, and can be viewed by members anytime, anywhere (there is an annual fee). Relevant topics include “The School Counseling Supervisor’s Role in District-wide Program Advocacy”, “Incorporating STEM Into Your School Counseling Program”, and “Culturally Competent School Counseling”.

• At Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME, professional development means daily planning time for teachers, independently or in teams. “Learning walks” and monthly check-ins with lead teachers and administrators help develop understanding and capacity. Casco also has a three-day summer institute to support the Casco community in preparing for the upcoming year.

• New York City Department of Education offers professional development opportunities that include teachers, counselors, and school leaders for a number of topics: “Classroom Management and Youth Development Principles,” “Curriculum Development,” and “Leadership Development.”

• The Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) released a set of case studies in 2014 that highlight some best practices in student-centered professional development and practice. At Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch, CA, a weekly early release of 90 minutes allows for teachers to partake in “Collaboration Wednesdays.” This weekly professional development opportunity is intended for teachers to connect with each other and see how their work is aligned with other classrooms. On page 47 of the SCOPES case study, a Health teacher expresses appreciation for the collaboration time: “I can do things here in class that help the [students] with their physiology or English. If they’re doing a big assignment there, I can try to do something that supports what they’re doing. So I feel like that helps a lot with the student experience. They know that we’re communicating with each other. I think that just makes them feel better about what they’re doing.”

Examples of cross-role collaboration

• The Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) released a set of case studies in 2014 that highlight best practices in student-centered professional development and practice. Their case study on Impact Academy provides an overview of how “lead teams,” consisting of a teacher, learning specialist, counselor, and administrator, meet once a week to discuss opportunities for professional development and anticipated school policy changes prior to being presented to the larger school community. (Details on this can be found on pp. 43-45 of the study.)
• The Maine Department of Education created a Maine Comprehensive School Counseling Program Model, which emphasizes counselors’ need to receive “training in student learning styles, classroom behavioral management, curriculum and instruction, student assessment and student achievement” (p. 9). Though this guide is older, it draws on the ASCA National Model and is quite comprehensive.
• Initiatives such as the Shadow A Student Challenge invite district leaders to observe classrooms and gain insights on day-to-day student experiences. As part of “Shadow a Student” day, counselors could be given the opportunity to do the same. This is a low-effort, high-impact way to support counselor integration and understanding.

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Resource Title

Opinion Editorials (Op-Eds) | Talking About… | Frequently Asked Questions | Brochures and Explainers

Opinion Editorials (Op-Eds)

The following op-eds appeared in newspapers and on websites across northern New England. They cover a wide range of issues but all of them incorporate the framed story of education and learning.

Champlain Valley Union High School: an op-ed about the school’s re-design efforts by Andre LaChance, English teacher and school advisor.

Theordora J. Kalikow, President, University of Southern Maine, weighs in on education reform.

David Theoharides, Superintendent, Sanford School Department in Maine shares his thoughts on proficiency-based graduation requirements.

Talking About…

Tammy Davis, Superintendent, Winnisquam Regional School District in New Hampshire, talks about systemic reform in the first in a series of newspaper columns.

The following documents and links reflect recommendations based on the results of research on how Americans think about education and learning. Understanding what we are up against in the public square is important if we are to overcome the entrenched ways of thinking that will undermine our efforts to move student-centered education forward.

Talking About System Redesign
A set of Talking Points created by the Shaping Our Future Together statewide campaign in Vermont.

Talking About 21st Century Skills
A summary of why the common use of the term“21st century skills” may not help your efforts to build public understanding.

Talking About the Achievement Gap
A summary of how the term “achievement gap” could inadvertently reinforce individual blame and the idea that some are simply more capable than others.

Talking About Equity and Disparities (16:08)
A video about what research has revealed on the gap between expert and public thinking about educational equity, and how to close it.

Talking About School Budgets
A summary of the problems with talking about school budgets in conventional ways and how to get out of common traps.

Talking About Common Core State Standards
One part of an extensive toolkit created by FrameWorks Institute on behalf of the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation.

Talking About Digital Media and Learning

A set of talking points to guide conversations about digital media, and about learning more generally.

Talking About Response to Instruction (RTI)
A graphic describing the Winnisquam Regional School District’s Response to Instruction strategy, a key component of the district’s larger district re-design process.

Frequently Asked Questions

These documents can help you create well-framed responses to questions about student-centered learning, district/school redesign, and other issues related to education and learning.

FAQs: Vermont’s Changing Education System
Questions and well-framed responses about new, student-centered legislation in Vermont.

FAQs: Digital Media and Learning
Common questions and well-framed responses about learning in general and digital media in particular.

FrameWorks Institute Education Reform Toolkit: Frequently Asked Questions

Brochures & Explainers

The following brochures and explainers are good models for what districts, schools and non-profit organizations might create to build public understanding of student-centered approaches to learning and system change. Please see Making Original Products for additional examples.

British Columbia’s Education Plan
A description of student-centered learning as articulated by the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, Canada.

Deering High School, Portland Maine
A document that describes the high school’s remodeling efforts and its move toward global education, including its affiliation with the International Studies Schools Network (ISSN).

Winooski Middle High School, Winooski, Vermont
A brief description of the school’s redesign efforts that went home with school progress reports.

Pittsfield Middle High School, New Hampshire
A condensed version of the Pittsfield Explainer, used by the district to build understanding of student-centered learning.