You’ve been collecting data all year—student attendance, classroom lesson frequency, intervention effectiveness, and student stories… but now what? In this episode, I’m walking you through exactly what to do with all that school counseling data so it actually works for you. Because let’s be real, data is only powerful if you know how to use it to show your students’ progress and advocate for your role as a school counselor.

You’ll hear how to make sense of the data you’ve collected all year without getting overwhelmed. Whether you’ve set SMART goals, facilitated small groups, or tracked individual student progress, I walk you through how to pull that information together in a meaningful way. We’ll review the three types of data to track and the important role each of them plays. Most importantly, you’ll walk away with five different places where you can share out your school counseling data. You didn’t gather all of that information only to not do something with it!

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Resource: Podcast Playlist for New High School Counselors
• Free Resource: Data Collection Ideas Guide
• Blog: 4 Valuable Places to Share Your Compelling School Counseling Data
• Blog: 3 Unassuming Ways to Incorporate Perception Data Into Your High School Counseling Program 
• Leave your review for High School Counseling Conversations on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Lauren:

• Sign up for the free, 3-day prep for High School Counseling Job Interviews https://counselorclique.com/interviews
• Visit my TpT store https://counselorclique.com/shop
• Send me a DM on Instagram @counselorclique https://instagram.com/counselorclique
• Follow me on Facebook https://facebook.com/counselorclique
• Send me an email mailto:lauren@counselorclique.com
• Join the Clique Collaborative http://cliquecollab.com

Full show notes on website: https://counselorclique.com/episode168

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A reminder for all of these sorts of data points. Of course,

place.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.