Perception Data: Sample Survey

This year my school division is teaching the 16 career clusters (3-4 per grade level beginning in first grade) as well as important key career exploration and development competencies. This is my draft grade 4 Pre-Survey. The 2-3 lesson unit will address the following ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors:  M-4 Understanding that postsecondary education and life-long learning and B-LS 1 Demonstrate critical-thinking skills to make informed decisions. The ASCA National Model Implementation Guide recommends writing more questions than actually needed to make it easier to revise and adjust the assessment after it is used.

Perception Data: What to do with data from pre-post surveys

For the Accountability part of the ASCA  National Model counseling programs develop results reports or they can use the DATA Report form from the Making DATA Work (Third Edition). Basically you want to share with stakeholders  the before and after score, average or percent for the surveys. Results should be summarized succinctly, shown for comparison, and calculated for percent change.

For example, 

After the STEMazing month of April, both 3rd and 4th grade students (both genders) showed increases on the  survey.

Comparison:

Grade 4 Pre-Survey: 63.4 percent

Post-Survey: 66 percent

Report on percent change:

There was a 4.1 percent increase in attitudes about careers in the STEM cluster for fourth graders from the beginning to end of April.

The main reason I like to report my results using the DATA format over the Results Report is one to two simple graphs can show the pre-post surveys in a way that stakeholders can easily see the activity resulted in a change. In other words, what the counseling program offered had a direct impact on students.

Be sure to share these results with stakeholders on school website and with your School Advisory Council. Some results might be appropriate to share in a staff training like I do annually with my Bullying and School Climate data.

Perception Data: Knowledge

What do we expect students to know as a result of a lesson, group session, or other counseling activity? Perhaps a group of students lack tools to regulate anxiety at school. The pre/post survey for a "Chill Group" might include
I know how to use belly breathing to calm myself down.
I know that exercise reduces the effects of stress.
I know that not getting enough sleep makes anxiety worse.
I can think of ways to use visual imagery when I am anxious.
I can think of at least three ways to help me stay focused during large group lessons.
These statements can then be turned into Likert items with a 4 point scale.

ASCA suggests one or two short answer questions on pre/post surveys can yield better data, rather than students just rating themselves.
You can also ask a simple question and ask the student to write a specific response:
What are the 4 steps to solving a problem?
What are 3 positive things to do if you start feeling nervous before a test?
Other types of questions include write a definition of key terms, describe how to do something, or list the steps or components.
For example,
Define bullying behavior.
Describe what a helpful bystander should do if they are aware of classmates spreading a cruel rumor about a student in another class.
What do the letters SMART stand for in a SMART goal?

Perception Data: Skills

What skills or behavior do students need to produce the ultimate change to achievement, attendance and/or behavior? Skill assessment can be varied but there must be a consistent method for measuring the desired behavior.

Likert scale: Write "I can" statements and have students  self-report their ability to use the skill.

I can get to school and in my seat on time.
I can ask a classmate to play a game during indoor recess.
I can manage my time so that I complete long-term projects by the deadline.

These can be assessed using a 4-point scale (Almost never, Rarely, Sometimes, Usually).

Demonstrate: Create a task that students can do either individually or in groups.

Students can demonstrate the 4 Conscious Disciple breathing techniques.
Students can state one way they are the same and one way they are different than their partner.
Students can set a goal and pass a ball around a circle so that each student touches the ball one time in __ minutes.

Role Play: Given a bullying scenario a group can act out the role of a helpful bystander.

A rubric would be used to determine if the criteria was met (an assertive response, and report to adult).

Illustrate the skill or give an example: Drawing a response and labeling is an excellent way to assess younger students skills. Writing an authentic response is a great way to assess if a student can apply the target skill.
Grade 1 - Draw and label the 4 step problem solving model.
Grade 4 - Write a "email response" to a cyber-bullying message.

An open ended question at the end of the pre-post survey is a common way to assess a skill, but have a clear way to assess if the response indicates the competency has been mastered.

Perception Data: Attitudes

How do we determine what students believe or think about the presenting need, issue or concern? 

Self-efficacy is the basis for whether or not the individual thinks goal or task accomplishment is possible. To measure self-efficacy we develop attitude statements related to what we are measuring as beliefs students might have related to the competencies we are covering.

Attitudes can be assessed using scaling techniques, likert scales. or card sorts. Scales are used to measure intensity and generally the end points and middle are labeled. Likert items written as "I believe,,," can be rated on a variety of scales but it is best to use an even number (like 4 or 10) forcing a positive or negative response rather than neutral.Picture choices like emotions or the sun scale with No and Yes can be used for first and second graders.  Card sorts allow students to indicate if they believe something is not at all like me, very much like me, or sometimes or placing possible responses in order what happens most often to happens rarely.

Sample attitude questions:

How confident do you feel asking to join a game already in progress at recess?

Scaling

1       2       3      4     5      6      7     8    9     10

Can't do it             Sometimes           Can do it

Likert Scale

I believe I have as many friends as I need.

Strongly Agree   Agree                 Disagree           Strongly Disagree

1                         2                         3                        4

Card Sort

Think how you feel on the playground when these types of situations happen and place the cards into 4 piles indicating how you think you would respond.

Perception Data Series

 

I am passionate that all school counseling programs implement the ASCA National Model with fidelity so that all students have the benefit of a comprehensive counseling program.  I believe that all counseling offices should have the 4 books shown above on their shelves and they should be used to guide program development and implementation. I have been a counselor educator, supervisor, mentor, and practicing school counselor since before the Model was developed. I am sorry to say that many counselors still do not understand data; therefore, they cannot answer critical questions: 1) Do you know the needs of your students? 2) Can you advocate for the needs of your students? 3) Is your program meetings the needs of your students? and 4) How are students different as a result of what you do? Most counselors are good at collecting Process Data "What you did for whom?" Outcome Data showing impact of what counselors do on attendance, behavior, and achievement is not available for everything counselors do but it is the data that answers "So what?" Perception Data can and should be collected for all aspects of the counseling program so we can say "How are students different because of school counselor involvement?"

Perception data requires counselors to plan and develop the tools they need to measure the impact of what we do. I was asking a presenter at the ASCA Conference about the perception data for the study being shared and the response I got was, "What do you mean by perception data?" As a RAMP reviewer I have seen applicants struggle on several components because they did not have good perception data that would provide evidence their program was effective. I attended 5 presentations at the ASCA Conference that mentioned perception data. ASCA is trying to make it clear that it is not meaningful to ask participants if they enjoyed the activity or believed it was beneficial. Counselors need to assess attitudes, skills, and knowledge before and after activities. Unless counselors construct good perception measures that are easy to administer, score, and analyze there won't be worthwhile accountability data to report. 

ASCA Tweet Up 2016

One of my favorite events of the ASCA National Conference is meeting up in person with my "Tweeples." Twitter and other social media allow counselors to build an international Professional Learning Community. But it is great when at a state SCA or ASCA you get to meet in person the counselors you have been following and sharing with online. It happens annually at ASCA and hopefully someone in your state will organize a Tweet Up at your state conference. These are all counselors that participate in the regularly scheduled Twitter Chats during the school year #sccrowd #scchat and my favorite #escchat. During the school year the #escchat is from 8-9 PM on the second and fourth Thursdays each month. Each one covers a different topic and it is generally about 7 Questions & Answers moderated by 1-2 school counselors. Even if you don't like to tweet, please join us or follow the chat feed that gets archived for those who were not able to participate live. An online PLC is so rewarding to an elementary counselor like me who is the only counselor in my building. Spread the word.