SCCPSS: SCCPSS Using Data To Respond To Student Needs

Press release from Savannah-Chatham County Public School System:

10/19/2021

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In support of the District's strategic goals to ensure student success, academic achievement and life readiness, SCCPSS has implemented a survey mechanism for engaging students that will provide tailored supports to enhance learning recovery, social-emotional learning, and life-skill development.

Why is Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Important?

Skills learned through a focused SEL approach have shown that students are better able to cope with emotional stress, implement problem solving skills, and stand up to the pressures that can often lead to harmful activities or destructive choices.  Students who experience tailored supports that help them respond to problems in a responsive, creative, positive manner are better able to navigate challenging situations such as learning during a pandemic or losing a loved one to COVID-19.

School districts across the nation utilize surveys to assess students' social-emotional learning and well-being needs.  The responses and information are used to identify areas of strength and those that need improvement to help educators ensure all students experience a positive and supportive school environment. Throughout the academic year, schools will also use a variety of other resources to provide support.  Other popular programs in our school district include Character Counts, Conscious Discipline, EVERFI, Leader in Me, Sanford Harmony, as well as Second Step.  SCCPSS will add a survey platform through Panorama Education to remain responsive to student needs.

Panorama Education is an independent education technology company that partners with schools and districts to support student literacy and social-emotional learning (SEL).  Panorama's SEL measures help educators understand student competencies and their perceptions of how supported they are in their school environment. The questions and prompts are created to be broadly applicable in school districts.  Panorama Education was founded in 2012 and serves 1,500 school districts today.

Schools and districts use Panorama's products and services to help support their operations and improve outcomes for their students. Panorama's products include student, family, and staff surveys to support school climate and social-emotional learning and a platform to help district leaders and educators understand how their students are doing and take action to support them.

THE SURVEY PROCESS:  All student data is owned by SCCPSS.  Questions and prompts are designed for two groups: students in grades 3-5 and students in grades 6-12. There are also optional questions for teachers of these students.  To meet the needs of school communities, school districts select which SEL measures to use by selecting the scales that seem most important to their community.  The scales are grouped into student competencies, student supports and environment, and teacher skills and perspectives.  Within categories, there are also “recommended" and “supplemental" scales.  Any parent who seeks to opt out of the survey for their child(ren) may do so.  This is not a mandatory survey. If a child inadvertently responds to the survey when a parent seeks to opt-out, the survey information obtained will be deleted from the survey platform.  

• Student Competency & Well-Being

• The data will help schools foster best practice for improvement and success
• SCCPSS will conduct school-wide SEL focus lessons through advisement, morning meetings, or other designated times during the school day
• SEL lessons are built based on each school's focused SEL, which may include other programs like Character Counts, Second Step, Conscious Discipline, Leader in Me, Sanford Harmony, or EVERFI
• Small-group and individual interventions will be implemented to customize learning
• Provides for the assessment of student and school-wide progress
• School teams (Administrator, School Counselor, SEL Team Lead) participate in Panorama Data Inquiry and Action Planning Sessions

• Student Surveys
• Teacher/Staff Surveys

• Development of Project Timeline
• Manage setup and administration
• Customize Configurations
• Coordinate rollout of reports

• Unlimited access to Panorama Academy for on-demand tutorials and trainings
• Panorama Community Professional Development
• Custom design and facilitation of two virtual Professional Development sessions for up to 2 hours and 50 participants

This press release was produced by Savannah-Chatham County Public School System. The views expressed here are the author’s own.