You’ve Collected Data All Year – Here’s What to Do With It Now [Episode 168]

Lauren 0:00
So let’s talk data. I know it doesn’t always feel like the most glam thing to talk about, but it’s really important, especially at this time of year. Your data is a huge advocacy tool, and honestly, it’s pretty pointless if you just let it go to waste and you don’t do something with it. So let’s be thinking about that as we get into the last few months of the school year.

Lauren 0:28
You got into this profession to make a difference in your students’ lives, but you’re spread thin by all the things that keep getting added to your to do list. I can’t create more hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor clique where you’ll finally catch your breath. Come with me as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that’ll help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your students. I’m Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job.

Lauren 1:01
I hope this episode is coming to you at the perfect time where you’re thinking, Okay, I only have a few weeks or a few months left. What should I be keeping in mind so that when we get to the point where we’re trying to cruise out the door and turn our keys in and lay by the pool—okay, wait. I know that was wishful thinking. But when you are ready to walk out that door, I want to make sure that you are ready for summer, but that you’ve collected your data and used it in a way that can help remind you of the impact that you’ve made this school year, so that when you are relaxing by the pool, you know that what you have done has been good work, and you are advocating for all of the great things that you’ve done this year, and you are dreaming of all the things that you want to do in the future. And you can only do that with the data that you’ve collected.

Lauren 1:49
So you may already have in mind that you want your data to move your program somewhere special. Maybe you’re hoping that next year you get another counselor hired on, so that your caseload will be lower and you can have more time with students, because that’s what you really want, right? Your data is clutch in making that happen. Maybe you’re hoping that next year is the year they assign someone else to testing, anyone but you, and your data right now could be the thing that moves the needle for that as job responsibilities are shifting here and there, and as your principal is maybe hiring someone or moving someone into a different position.

Lauren 2:22
Perhaps you’re just feeling really scattered in general, and you’re wondering if anything you did this year was actually worth it. Putting together your data where you tie a pretty bow on it can be a huge sigh of relief and a really welcome reminder, like what I’m doing truly actually matters. Students are different because of what I did. And I may sound like a broken record, I say that a lot. I say, Are students different because of what I did? I love measuring our effectiveness of being a high school counselor by this phrase, are students different because of what I’m doing here?

Lauren 2:54
Whatever you’re dreaming of for your program, it’s not going to happen on its own. You know that. You have to bring something compelling to the table and make it impossible to say no to. If you want big changes, you got to have the data to support it. Data is going to be your best friend in making that happen. So there’s a huge piece of all of this that’s advocacy driven. You’ve done the work this school year. So let’s see the results, and then let’s tell other people about the results.

Lauren 3:21
Now, I’ll admit, my brain does not naturally think in numbers. It doesn’t even go there. If I’m being honest, I still have trauma from my advanced math classes in high school where I never knew what was going on. And I found it really annoying that I had to take statistics in undergrad and grad school to find T scores and Z scores and whatever other scores that I literally don’t know what that means right now. That stuff does not matter to me if I can’t figure out what it means or why I collected it, or what implications it has on my program.

Lauren 3:51
So I’m here to encourage you that it doesn’t have to be complicated. Don’t make it complicated. I’m gonna link in the show notes a blog post that really simplifies what you can be looking for and where you can pull numbers from. I’m also going to link to a free resource that is 49 places that you can look for data in your program, just ideas of places to dig in for numbers that are already sitting there waiting for you to peek at them. So you can download that one for yourself by clicking on the link in the show notes or going to counselorclique.com/dataideas.

Lauren 4:20
I want to give you some ideas of some of those places where you can pull those numbers and see how they may be impactful for your people. You know, all those stakeholders who are taking interest in what you’re doing. But remember, this is totally unique to you, your program, what your goals were for this year, what you’re hoping to change for next year, or just ideas that you hope to implement in the future.

Lauren 4:42
So I would start first by reflecting on my goals from this year. Did your team, are you working with a team, did you all set goals way back when, in the summer, on a planning day or when the year started? Or did you write out some goals in your administrative agreements? Did you sit down and determine the direction of where your program would go, or what you’d be doing this year at a team meeting?

Lauren 5:04
If the answer is no to any or all of those, step one for you is thinking about next year, putting that on the calendar, because we can’t go back in time right now and change that for at the end of this year. But if you did have those goals, let’s stop and think, How did you do? It’s time to pull out all the numbers. I’m hoping this one isn’t too difficult, like I’m hoping that you can look at the goal and then kind of answer that, evaluate it, did you meet it? So if you had a goal of doing X amount of classroom lessons, or you were hoping Y percent of students were promoted, or Z number of students could identify their number one career cluster after your career fair, did those things happen? Let’s provide the data answers to all of those smart goals that you set.

Lauren 5:46
So remember, you accomplishing those or not accomplishing those is not a true measure of your value or your success as a high school counselor this year. You may have arbitrarily picked a number to increase by or a percentage to hit just because you needed to pick a number that felt right, because you had nothing else to start from. So now that you’ve got a good starting place, you can pace yourself for years to come. So don’t get down on yourself if you did not meet your goal.

Lauren 6:15
Are you a new high school counselor navigating your role for the first time? Maybe you started in this role mid year, or you’re dreaming of getting your first job when you finish up your internship. I’ve got the perfect free resource for you. Head to counselorclique.com/newcounselorplaylist for a curated Spotify playlist, just for new high school counselors. This tailored resource will help you level up your counseling skills, boost your confidence, and gain some wisdom that’ll ease your transition for your beginning years. With episodes like, what I wish I knew as a beginning high school counselor, to mistakes to avoid high school counseling, you’ll be ready for anything that comes your way. Get ready to hit play on your podcast player and start your journey with confidence, inspiration and expertise. Head to counselorclique.com/newcounselorplaylist. Happy listening.

Lauren 7:05
I’d say that following up on those smart goals with the results of data or closing the gap goal are your key places that you’re going to want to pull data from to highlight. But maybe after looking at the free data ideas guide I mentioned, or just contemplating some different types of data, like process, perception, outcome data, you may realize that you want to organize it in a different way. I write about this in a blog post that I can link, but it’s worth reminding to you if it’s been a hot minute since you learned these things in grad school.

Lauren 7:32
So I’ll just kind of chat with you here real quick about process, perception, outcome data. A reminder—process data is like your cold, hard facts, like, how many students attended an event, how many classroom lessons you did, or how many students finished a small group that you ran.

Lauren 7:47
The perception data can be things like quotes from students or pictures of events or initiatives that you hosted related to your goals, or even stories from your students or your school counseling team. Perception data really can help you answer questions of how students are different because of what you’re doing as a high school counselor. The thing I said before as like a really great measure, perception data is kind of the encompassing thing that could help you get there. So when students answer questions like, I know, or I believe, or I can, like I can do this thing now, you’ve got some insight for your perception data. I like to work these phrases into post test or like post surveys or, needs assessment’s not the right word, but the surveys that you give, or the ways that you’re assessing students when you’re asking for feedback for something that they’ve done.

Lauren 8:34
Outcome data is probably the stuff that you’re getting intimidated with around data, the graphs, the charts, the visuals with the numbers that you collected that show the results. Think of outcome data like the before and after to show the effectiveness of your intervention that you put into place.

Lauren 8:49
A reminder for all of these sorts of data points. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily feel good to be like, Oh, we didn’t hit our goals. Or here’s the data to show for it, and it’s not the data I thought it was gonna be. But maybe your outcome data reveals that your intervention wasn’t as meaningful of a thing as you hoped it would be. But guess what? That is still good news. You can scratch it from your interventions for next year, or trash it completely so you don’t waste your time anymore. Or you could tweak things with that intervention, and now you have education from the data that you collected to change those things up, and really permission to change it up.

Lauren 9:26
So now, once you’ve kind of thought of where you’re going to pull your data from, what kind of data that’s going to look like, what are you going to do with it? I want you to spread it far and wide. Think of all of your end of the year meetings that you may already have on your calendar, or the places that you’re going to show up as you’re wrapping things up and putting a bow on the end of your year, I want you to format your data to be shared out in these places.

Lauren 9:48
So do you have one more advisory council meeting? Use this space to revisit the goals you’ve been talking about with this crew, and then share your results. These people are showing up. They’re interested in it. You’ve got a captive audience, so let’s go ahead and share it with them. This can be on a printable PDF handout, like to all of the members of your advisory council, or can be on a slide deck that you present on a TV screen. This is a great small group of people to share those more personal perception type data stories with them. You don’t have to use real names, but you can share student quotes or pictures of events or interventions that you ran this year. People love visuals and storytelling. I know that I do.

Lauren 10:26
I’m sure you’ll have an end of year staff luncheon, or one more faculty meeting. Ask for a few minutes of their time, or, you know, get on the principal’s list of the presentations that are happening at that faculty meeting. If you’ve been working on your teachers to have buy in, or this is something that you’ve been trying to get them on your team to care about what you’re doing, it’s important to be transparent with that data you collected. Don’t just present it at the beginning of the year, tell them your role and then never check back in and share what you’re doing. I think a lot of respect can come from being transparent with your numbers.

Lauren 10:57
So let them see what came out of your data driven program that you’ve told them that you’re running, let them celebrate with you. You can probably use the same sorts of compelling data that you did at your advisory council here with your teachers. Remind them that you got to this point because of their willingness to partner with you. You genuinely couldn’t do it without their partnership. But if you’re listening to this and you feel like you don’t have them on board with what you’re doing, you know that it feels like running a marathon in the mud, like you’ve got boots on, trailing through the mud and you can’t make any progress without their buy in. So this is all kind of tied together.

Lauren 11:31
You can send a follow up email after this faculty meeting with those key points that you summarized at the meeting. So whether someone was there and they need this re-emphasized and they get to look at it one more time, or maybe they missed the meeting, you’re hitting those key things with them here. So maybe you can link to that PDF that you printed out and put on their tables. Maybe you can just hit those bullet points, make it short and sweet in an email, and have them be able to visually read that and remember all the good things that you’re doing.

Lauren 11:59
If you have a district get together that maybe someone higher up than you hosts, don’t be afraid to share out your good things. I know sometimes it can feel awkward to be the one that stands up and says, Yeah, I have something to share, but you being one person to be bold and start that conversation will inspire other high school counselors. So I’d challenge you, why can’t it be you who stands up and shares something awesome?

Lauren 12:23
Share online in your communities that you’re a part of. If you’re in the Clique Collaborative, go share over in our community, we want to celebrate with you and chat about how you got your results and what you hope to do differently next year. If your school has a social media page or your school counseling department is active on social media, share out some of those results there, people want to celebrate you, and honestly, they’re gonna file it in the back of their brain, like, hey, what they’re doing matters, and that’s really cool. I didn’t even know they did that.

Lauren 12:52
I ended up having a lot more to say about end of year data than I originally thought I did, because, like I said, I don’t think it’s particularly sexy or glamorous to talk about data, especially when that’s not my natural inclination to gravitate towards data. It’s not what I want to do for fun. My husband would beg to differ in terms of interests and stuff, he’s the numbers guy. But I wanted you to think a little bit differently about the data that you might uncover that is already in front of you, that process, perception, outcome data. And then I want you to brainstorm places that you’re going to share that good news to. So use those five different places that I gave you, and I’m excited to see and hear how you share out your data and how it inspires other people to take interest in your school counseling program.

Lauren 13:40
So remember to check out the show notes for that free data guide, and then all of the related blog posts and podcast episodes around data and other end of year ideas. If I spark some questions, always feel free to reach out to me on Instagram DMs, I am happy to chat, and I’ll see you next week.

Lauren 13:59
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of High School Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcasts so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique, that’s C, L, I, Q, U, E. I’ll see you next week.