For many high school counselors, the idea of data-driven counseling may feel overwhelming, especially since most counselors are responsible for hundreds of students at a time. Though adding data science to your practice can be intimidating, it will help you serve your students in a way that is timely and effective.
The first step to incorporating data science into your counseling practices is deciding which data is relevant to your programs. Once you determine and collect the data you need, you can use that knowledge to accelerate your process. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of data out there, remember that it’s meant to make your life easier, not more difficult.
Benefits of Data-Driven Counseling
Whether you’re a school counselor collecting your own data or using outside sources to gather and analyze information, data-driven counseling will give you tangible insight and understanding to help you better instruct, mentor, and coach your students.
The use of data goes beyond counseling, and can also benefit entire school teams interested in learning how to increase their impact on student achievement. School counselors, teachers, and administrators can all develop skills to build and measure action plans that boost student success.
Resources to Consider
Education Trust is a site for college planning results. It includes college completion rates, percentage of Pell students, percentage of graduate students, and more! This resource can serve as an ideal tool when gathering facts about colleges.
The Department of Education provides useful information when it comes to net price and calculating out-of-pocket expenses. Use these resource for guidance on affordability.
College planning accounts such as myOptions can help your students manage their tasks and connect to colleges and scholarships that fit their needs.
Virtual tours will help students gain a more accurate picture of what they are looking for in a college, and where they feel comfortable. By taking note of the college tours your students enjoy, you can better understand their college fit.
These are only a few of the many resources available to gather data about colleges that will assist you in mentoring your students. To get through everything on time, you can work together with mentors, families, and students. Ultimately, data science will help you form thoughtful questions and collect information your students need as college applicants.