How one school uses technology to monitor students’ well-being
Sierra Vista High School Principal John Anzalone has sat in on counseling sessions with his students, listening to their descriptions of feeling isolated and alone during remote learning. ¶ Some of the teenagers have parents at home who are deeply depressed amid the economic and social crisis that is the pandemic. ¶ “We’re seeing that kids are trying to interpret what they see on social media and in the news,” Anzalone said. “We have to be very careful as adults, leaders, how we are messaging things right now. I think even more so right now, we have to be more cautious of what we’re saying, what they’re exposed to.”
Anzalone, who at age 44 is an enerwhich could happen in early 2021 after getic and youthful educator, proudly fills the Clark County School District and the role of principal, counselor and older Clark County Education Association brother or uncle for many of his students. recently reached a tentative Memoran
His biggest priority is helping studum of Agreement on reopening plans. dents work through the isolation until “A student either goes one way or the school returns to in-person learning, other being engaged online, communicating, then all of a sudden one day it stops,” Anzalone said. “The opposite also occurs. They’re withdrawn and now out of the blue they’re almost overly engaged and the teacher wonders if they’re reaching out for something else.”
Sierra Vista is being proactive in its approach to mentor students.
It is one of 11 Clark County schools working with the Elaine Wynn Foundation on a pilot program that focuses on the social and emotional wellness of students amid the pandemic. The software created by Boston-based Panorama Education is designed to “play a powerful role in helping improve school climate and culture, teaching and learning, family and community engagement and students’ social-emotional learning,” according to Panorama’s website.
Financial support from the foundation has allowed participating schools to purchase software that monitors what
“A student either goes one way or the other being engaged online, communicating, then all of a sudden one day it stops. The opposite also occurs. They’re withdrawn and now out of the blue they’re almost overly engaged, and the teacher wonders if they’re reaching out for something else.” John Anzalone, principal at Sierra Vista High School
students are viewing online via their district-issued Chromebooks.
A Panorama-designed warning system alerts school administrators if students are using their Chromebooks to surf the internet for content that could imply that a child is depressed or considering hurting themselves. The alerts mobilize school administrators to respond by contacting parents and school counselors.
“To me, student voice means every student on campus can wake up and say, ‘I matter ... and I have a voice, and I can do something to make my life better, my school better and other people really care what I have to say,” Panorama founder Aaron Feuer says in a promotional video that appears on the company’s website.
The pilot program was such a success that it will be implemented at all of CCSD’S 360 schools starting in January. Officials invested $761,000 in a yearlong contract funded by grants from the Nevada Department of Education and U.S. Department of Education.
The programis muchneeded.
Clark County Schools Superintendent Jesus Jara recently reported that 11 students committed suicide in recent months. He did not provide any numbers for previous school-year comparisons.
“We’ve lost more this year in this first semester than all of last year,” Jara said last month.
The Panorama software routinely scans student attendance and grades, which serve as early-warning indicators, and sends regular reports to building administrators.
Punam Mathur, executive director of the foundation, has monitored multiple trends amid the school shutdowns of the past eight months — violence trends, thoughts of suicide s—and worked with district administrators to put together a Panorama pilot program.
She said the program complements the face-to-face, on-campus assessment for students in need of social and emotional support provided by school counselors and social workers.
Derryck Rickards, the assistant principal at Sierra Vista, coordinated the rollout of the Panorama software at the southwest
Las Vegas high school. Rickards said a significant portion of Sierra Vista students have grown accustomed to online learning, although freshman-class grades are down year over year.
Learning, on some days, is secondary to navigating the stresses brought on by the pandemic. Some students have been victims of the economic crisis with joblessness and homelessness. Others have seen family members fall ill from the virus. Most have been affected in some way or another.
“There are so many wild cards. You just don’t know how students will respond to this,” Rickards said. “There are some students who are excelling. There are some who will excel despite anything and bust through.”