How Satchel Pulse helps to meet students' SEL needs

Background

Niles Middle School is a public school in the Niles City School District in Niles, Ohio. The school has 459 students in grades 6-8 with a student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1. The district has been using Satchel Pulse since December 2021, and has found Satchel Pulse’s SEL solution beneficial for their students.

Why did you choose Satchel Pulse compared to other vendors?

I was looking for something that would meet our students' needs. After the pandemic the students came back with a lot of needs, I wanted a system that had tiers to it so that we can pull kids individually, or work in groups. I also wanted resources available to the teachers within the system so they didn't have to do additional work. Satchel Pulse had everything we needed, it was very easy to implement. We integrated it right into our Google Classroom so that students had access to any of the curriculum for their specific needs.

The highlights of partnering with Satchel Pulse would be working with the team for integration support. I had ample questions and there was always somebody that could help me, which is great when you're implementing any new system, you need a lot of support. I was pleasantly surprised during the onboarding process that it was all done for me. I was given directives on how it works so it made me a little more independent in the future if I needed to do some things on my own.

Satchel Pulse has everything we need, it is very easy to implement.

How easily did your district adapt to using Satchel Pulse?

It was almost immediate. Since I was well-versed in how to integrate the system and implement it, I was able to train my teachers to do it. The students jumped right in because everything was done for them. They just had to take their assessment and they were directed to do so. Once I tiered them, it was really easy for them to go in and utilize the resources. My colleagues and I really made sure that we kept up on the tiers, and as the students moved through tiers, we continually met the needs that they had.

What are your overall results by using Satchel Pulse?

Using Satchel Pulse has given us clear insights into how our students are doing and I was surprised to see how accurate these insights are. For example, when a student did an assessment, if we knew that child was easily angered, the results showed us that anger management was one of their areas of concern. We now have the resources and materials to work with the student on that. We also used some of the responses and answers from the tiers to help write IEPs and implement 504 plans. Satchel Pulse delivers great data especially when you're trying to collect as much data as you can on a student to help with their academic success. Teachers no longer need to find their own SEL resources and their own curriculum because it is all available in the Satchel Pulse library. It's allowed more time for the teachers to actually utilize the resources as opposed to finding and implementing them.

Satchel Pulse gives us clear insights into how our students are doing.

I've been most impressed with how accurate the results are and how, as I've been noticing students change and their behaviors and needs change, so do their scores. It’s great that we get to assess them multiple times during the year to see how their needs are changing and what we can do as a building to assist them with those changes. Satchel Pulse really helps to meet students' SEL needs, and that's why we're in education - to make sure that our students are well taken care of. We're going to continually work with Satchel Pulse and work with the resources through them because we are seeing that we have helped our students’ needs since using the solution.