Tell Your Data Story

Do you collect data about the interventions you conduct? Do you look at the grades of students in the groups you run? Do you identify the goals you create for your students based on data? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have a story to tell. Collecting and analyzing your data and then creating a data-informed story is the best way to advocate for your students and your programs.
 

Why Tell Your Story?

School counselors who do not tell their data story miss an opportunity to advocate. Sharing the school counseling program data story fosters student advocacy, program advocacy, profession/role advocacy and self-advocacy.

• Student advocacy is the primary goal of school counseling programs, and sharing outcome data aligns with stakeholders' focus on student performance and success.
• Program advocacy can be accomplished by connecting the school counseling program to student success by sharing data and impact stories.
• Profession/Role advocacy clarifies the role of school counselors, and outcome data demonstrates the critical role that school counselors play in student development.
• Self-advocacy includes sharing the data story with key stakeholders to build support for school counselors as essential contributors to student success.

 

How to Tell Your Story

Creating your story begins with data. Reviewing your school’s data, the school’s annual improvement plan and end-of-marking-period grades are a few of the best ways to identify the students who need you the most. Where are the gaps? Who are you worried about? ASCA provides all the tools you need to create a goal based on the needs of your students.

1. Annual Student Outcome Goal Plan
2. Consider what you want the identified students to believe, learn or be able to do.
3. Identify one to two ASCA Student Standards that align with your goal.
4. Choose the best practice or evidence-based interventions,
5. Plan data collection procedures: How will you measure success? Identify the outcome.

Follow the How to Tell Your Data Story template and example. The template provides step-by-step instructions and an example for you to use to tell your data story. Once you have the information and the data, following the template provides the framework to tell the narrative.
 

Where to Tell Your Story

Once you have collected and made sense of your data, it is time to decide who needs to hear about it and how it will be shared. The first group is stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, parents and students at your school. Take advantage of the newsletter, school or school counseling website, and bulletin boards to share your successes and help stakeholders understand your results data and what it means for the students and school. Other stakeholder groups include the district leadership and other school counselors in your district. Look for opportunities to present to peers, other school staff or the school board. Presenting to counselors at your state or national level is another opportunity to tell your story.
 
Specific examples of where you can share your data story:

• School level: Newsletters, websites, blogs, PTO meetings, faculty and school counselor meetings, evaluation meetings, parent meetings, back-to-school night
• District level: district meetings, professional development and training, district publications, school board meetings
• State level: State school counseling conferences, state Department of Education meetings and websites, state association journal
• National level: ASCA conferences, ASCA Scene, ASCA publications

 

How to Tell Your Story: Publishing Guidelines

You might choose to write your data story for ASCA’s Professional School Counseling journal. The journal is interested in publishing practitioner research – your data story. Practitioner research links practice to research by evaluating the impact of school counseling interventions designed for a specific group of students, class, school, or school district. Ideally, practicing school counselors are the primary researchers; however, partnering with school counseling university faculty, district coordinators, interns, and school counseling colleagues is also encouraged. Whether the practitioner research is being conducted for the benefit of a group, a class, a school, or a district, the research is site-based, and school counselors are the practitioner researchers. Daunting as it might feel to write your story for publication, writing guidelines and mentoring help are available. Tell Your Story: Publishing Guidelines.
 

A Story Worth Telling

Success stories with students should be celebrated and school counselors are significant participants in those stories. Following the templates provided will help you write the narrative of your important work with students. Most important, your significant contribution to student success should be shared. It’s a story worth telling!
 
Carol J. Kaffenberger, Ph.D., is an associate professor emerita at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Tammy Davis, Ed.D., is a professor emerita at Marymount University in Arlington, Va.