Supporting our students with Satchel Pulse’s SEL assessments and interventions

Background

The Dodge County School District is a school district in Dodge County, Georgia, United States. We work with 4 of the schools serving 3,130 students and 200 teachers. The district has been using Satchel Pulse for 6 months, since October 2021, and have found the SEL screeners and interventions beneficial.

What was the main challenge that led you to speak to Pulse?

We started to implement MTSS and wanted to try a screener to see if we could focus on those intrinsic behaviors. So, we piloted three grades, second, fourth, and seventh. The first year, we identified five students who were sliding under our radar from that. And last year, with all the COVID stress, this increased to 20 students, and we provided services for those kids. But we were searching for something that would be easier because we were doing it on an Excel spreadsheet and having to piece it all together ourselves.

I did some research and spoke with others who had heard about Satchel Pulse. So when I checked into it, I loved that it was a screener already set up for both teachers and students. I kept watching the helpful videos you provided and made phone calls back and forth with you; I was primarily sold on the intervention library.

The support I get from Satchel Pulse is phenomenal when I'm trying to learn new things. It’s an all-in-one package to me. With teacher screening and student screening - we get the results, then I work with my team using this data. With this information, we've been able to identify the high-needs students and make sure that we are supporting them. I also love the interventions library. We're using that in several different ways right now

We’ve never had anything quite like Satchel Pulse. You are groundbreakers by providing both SEL screeners and interventions.

What was the most crucial factor when choosing a vendor?

Support is the main thing, and I love that I can contact you at any time with a speedy turnaround; you are all so supportive. I love that we can set up Zoom calls, webinars, and you always follow up, You are very good at listening to our feedback, and many of our requests are delivered the next day! I was sold on your support, and that's why I tell everybody that you're the best.

How are we different from the other companies you work with for SEL?

We've never had anything quite like Satchel Pulse. I think you are groundbreakers by providing both SEL screeners and interventions. I love that the videos are already there, as well as the lesson plans. That is very unique.

I like the way that you have organized the website so that there is a training center feature. It's very well-organized to help before, during, and after screening. You are excellent about providing the next steps but without overwhelming me at the same time.

We used a different academic screener in the past but it didn't have the intervention piece to it. So you are on the right track taking those two big critical issues that are so important for MTSS and putting them together in one package.

The support I get from Satchel Pulse is phenomenal. It’s an all-in-one package to me.

How's the district adapting to Satchel Pulse?

The PBIS school teams are really excited about it. They are going to utilize the intervention library from Satchel Pulse. They will select several Social Emotional Learning videos to discuss and ask the students to write about them. The administrators have an overall feel of the product, the teachers are grasping it well, and the counselors really do understand it. The people at this level and my MTSS and PBIS coaches understand it well.

What are the benefits of Satchel Pulse, and would you recommend us?

Yes, I would. I appreciate working with Satchel Pulse. It's the whole package: a screener and an intervention library together, as well as the incredible support I've received. Continuing to use Satchel Pulse is a no-brainer for me.

Satchel Pulse has provided a helpful data piece for us on our behavior rubric. We have an academic rubric for MTSS and a behavior rubric for MTSS. So we don't just want one piece to be our determining factor for a child receiving tier-two support or intensive tier-three support. Our behavior rubric includes a number of different activities such as the number of office referrals, number of minor incident referrals, and late attendance. We've added this as one of the data points that help build that bigger picture. We wanted to include this to have a deeper understanding and to then act on those identified students, it has been very helpful to add it to our behavior rubric.

We recently had a really beneficial meeting with a parent who came in a week after we had completed the SEL screener. The parent believed their child was not the one causing problems in the classroom so I pulled up fresh data showing the students' feedback. The students' self-assessment reported that they have a hard time getting along with others and they do not work well in a team. This data shifted the negative tone from the parent because they were now aware of what their child had said about themselves. That’s the great thing about Satchel Pulse, you can see what the students are saying through their self-assessments. With this data, we can hand that over to the parent and this has been very helpful.