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MEASURE
Mission, Element, Analyze, Stakeholders-Unite, Results, Educate,
A Six-step Accountability Process for School Counselors
Name and Address of School: John Overton High School
4820 Franklin Road
Nashville, TN 37220
Principal: Dr. Pittman
Name of Counselor(s) Leading the Initiative: Susan Vaughn
Enrollment: 1900
School Demographics:

STEP ONE: MISSION

Mission
Connect your work to your schools mission in keeping with the ASCA or your
states comprehensive school counseling model.
Your school or departments mission statement is:
John Overton School Counseling Program is committed to providing each
student with academic, college/career, and social/emotional support. Our
mission is to guide and facilitate strategic partnerships between the school,
family, and community to ensure that all students will acquire the attitudes,
knowledge, skills, and education to be productive and responsible citizens. We
value all students and believe they have the ability to succeed. Our datadriven school counseling program advocates for students in response to their
individual needs. The John Overton Counseling Program adheres to the

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American School Counseling Associations national model and supports the
overall vision of our school and district.

STEP TWO: ELEMENT

Element
What critical data element are you trying to impact? (Examples include:
grades; test scores; attendance; promotion rates; graduation rates;
postsecondary-going rate; enrollment into honors or AP courses, special
education; discipline referral data; etc.
What is the baseline for the data element? Where do you hope to move it goal?
Element: Retention rate of first time 9th grade EL students
Baseline: Last year, 20 students out of 132 were retained, this was 15.1% of the first
time 9th grade EL students.
Goal: To reduce the retention percentage by at least 1 percent.

STEP THREE: ANALYZE

Analyze the data element. You can use percentages, averages, raw scores, quartiles,
or stanines. You can aggregate or disaggregate the data to better understand which
students are meeting success. You can disaggregate by gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or in a multitude of ways to look at student groupings.
The Baseline Data revealed:
I had fewer students last year than this year. I was aware of some things that I needed
to change and work on in order to try and reduce the percentage.
STEP FOUR: STAKEHOLDERS UNITE
STAKEHOLDERS - UNITE to develop strategies to impact the data element
Beginning Date: 08/2014
Ending Date: 05/2016

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Stakeholders
School Counselor(s)

Strategies

Administrator(s)

Teachers

Stone & Dahir, 2003; 2005 rev.

Did a classroom presentation that

went over graduation requirements
and promotion and retention. I went
to the English I classes and the ELD
1B classes. I then did smaller groups
with the Spanish, Nepali, Kurdish,
Arabic, Karen, and Burmese
translators so this information was
given in 7 different languages.
I got the MNPS graduation
requirements translated into 5
different languages (Spanish, Arabic,
Kurdish, Somali, and Burmese). I am
still working on getting it done in
Karen and Nepali.
We had a Freshmen parent night to
help students with graduation
requirements and tips on how to be
successful in high school.
Had a senior night for Spanish and
Nepali families. These were not senior
specific, and invited anyone who
wanted to come to learn about how to
graduate and be successful in high
school.
Worked with students individually the
first semester to try and determine
how they could pass classes they
were currently failing and to remind
them of what it takes to be promoted.
Worked with students and parents to
get students to come to summer
school to try and reduce the retention
rate more.
Celia Jolly
Various teachers allowed me to come
to their classrooms and do the
presentation. Other teachers allowed
me to take students out of their
classrooms in order to do the smaller

Students

Parents

Translators

group presentations.
Students listened and participated in
the classroom visits and small
groups.
Parents came to the parent nights
and participated by asking questions.
Parents have been vocal in getting
their kids to come to summer school.
They helped me translate the small
group lessons, parent nights, and
graduation requirements.

STEP FIVE: RESULTS

Results: Restate your baseline data. State where your data is now. Did you meet your
goal?
Restate baseline data: Last year, 20 out of 132 students were retained, this was 15.1% of
the first time 9th grade EL Students.
Results (data now): This year, 20 out of 149 students were retained, this is 13.4% of the
first time, 9th grade, EL Students.
Met Goal: Yes:

No: ____

Questions to Consider as you examine results and revise your MEASURE:

Which strategies had a positive impact on the data?
I think the small groups that I did really had a positive impact on the data. Last year, I did
not do those small group lessons, so the students in ELD 1A did not get the information. I
also think that our parent nights were helpful this year, especially the Nepali one. We were
able to go out to the apartments where many of our Nepali students live and give them a
presentation with our Nepali translator on what it takes to succeed in high school, and I
really think that made an impact.
Which strategies should be replaced, changed, added?
Something that should be added is another conversation with the students in the late 3 rd 9
weeks/early 4th 9 weeks. I was unable to speak with them and I wonder if that
conversation could have changed the outcome on a few of the students. I also would like to
add another parent night during the 2nd semester. It would be great if we could meet with
the parents of the students who failed a class and do a specific lesson just for them. This
lesson could describe the impact of having a poor Freshman year and how it isnt too late
to change. I would like to get the graduation requirements translated into more languages,

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specifically Nepali, Karen, and Kinyarwanda. We also want to build a partnership with the
refugee organizations. We want to teach them this information when they come into the
country so they can understand what it takes for their child to be successful in our
educational system.
Based on what you have learned, how will you revise Step Four Stakeholders-Unite?
I need to add more things in for my portion, like more one on time with students. I would
also like to get more parent involvement. I want to have more workshops and conversations
with them to help them understand the implications of failing grades. Many of these
parents are not from the United States, and do not understand the way our educational
system works, so more education for them would be great.
How did your MEASURE contribute to systemic change(s) in your school and/or in your
community?
Two of our department goals deal with this specific population. One is promotion rate in
the 9th grade and the other is closing the gap in our EL graduation rate. Both of those are
determined by how well our EL students do as first time 9th graders. With this focus, we
have tried to make sure that we have done our best to support this group of students. I
think that support has shown this year with our increased parent outreach to our
international families.

STEP SIX:

EDUCATE

Educate others as to your efforts to move data. Develop a report card that shows how the
work of the school counselor(s) is connected to the mission of the schools and to student
success.

Principal: Dr. Pittman

Susan Vaughn
Enrollment: 1900

Overton MEASURE OF SUCCESS

School

Stone & Dahir, 2003; 2005 rev.

Counselor(s):

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Principals Comment

School Counselor(s)s Comment

Although I am happy I met my goal, I was
hoping I could go down by more, and I
know I can do more things to try and get
a lower number. I will strive to get better
in the future.
Critical Data Element (s)
Retention Rate of first time 9th grade EL
students
Systemic Changes
We are trying to get these students to
start their high school career positively. It
is very hard for students who fail in their
freshmen year to graduate with a good
GPA, and it is even harder for EL students.
If we can catch these students at the
start, there is a better chance for them to
succeed.

Results
The retention rate went down almost 2%,
which exceeded my goal.

Faces behind the Data

Susan Vaughn
Translators
First time 9th Grade EL Students

Stakeholders Involved
Counselor(s): Susan Vaughn
Administrator: Celia Jolly
Teachers: All Teachers
Parents: First time 9th Grade EL
Students parents.
Students: First time 9th Grade EL
Students

The Educate step in MEASURE has been adapted with permission from the Student Personnel
Accountability Report Card sponsored by the California Department of Education and Los Angeles
County Office of Education.

Stone & Dahir, 2003; 2005 rev.