Participation from 31 states spells success for NSCLC 2020

Dr. Trish Hatch delivers a keynote address at the 2020 National School Counseling Leadership Conference in San Diego, CA.

Hatching Results, LLC held their third annual National School Counseling Leadership Conference (NSCLC) February 27-29, at Paradise Point Resort and Spa, located on Mission Bay in San Diego.

While Hatching Results generally focuses their year-round professional development on school counselors, this conference is directed at those who lead school counselors; the principals, assistant principals, district office leaders, and those school counselors working and aspiring to lead within their school systems.

“This year was our largest conference so far, in terms of both number of attendees and sessions offered,” said Whitney Triplett, Director of Professional Development at Hatching Results. “We were very excited to see a huge increase in the number of administrators attending - in fact, they were the majority of our conference attendees this year.” 96% of overall conference evaluation respondents agree that this conference will help them to be a better school counselor leader/administrator and 97% agree that they would recommend this conference to others.

Hatching Your Results

Keynote and general session speakers included Dr. Hatch of Hatching Results; Dr. Christi Barrett, Superintendent for Hemet Unified School District; Andrea Donegan, a school counselor from Burlington, Vermont, who is currently a fellow at the U.S. Department of Education; and Dr. Carl Cohn, professor emeritus at Claremont University and former superintendent for both San Diego and Long Beach Unified School Districts. All speakers were enthusiastically received and tackled topics relevant to the profession, with each drawing from their personal histories to connect with the audience.

Hatching Results staff members and Professional Development Specialists gather for a photo at NSCLC 2020.

“Our overarching goal was to address a critical gap in PD for administrators who oversee school counseling programs at the school, district, county, and state levels,” Whitney said. “Ultimately, we seek to empower and equip decision-makers to hire, mentor, lead, evaluate, and support school counselors, such that measurable student outcomes are at the core of all school counseling programs nationwide.”

The original concept of NSCLC was born during an intrastate road trip between Springfield and Chicago, Illinois, after Whitney and Lisa had attended an academy training Trish had conducted for the Illinois School Counseling Association in 2016. During the long drive, their conversation led to the realization that as district leads themselves (at Chicago Public Schools), there just wasn’t professional development available to help them learn how to better support and promote systems for comprehensive, K-12 school counseling programs across a district, and they were “essentially winging it,” Whitney said, to accommodate their roles.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be great if there was a conference just for district leads, administrators, and other leaders?” she said, adding that the conversation conjured up a great deal of excitement, buzz, passion and drive to make something happen.

“Imagine how impactful it could be to address this system's issue and knowledge gap; to help us support school counselors in planning, implementing, evaluating and improving comprehensive school counseling programs across an entire district, county, or even state,” Whitney remembers saying at the time.

From left: Dr. Carl Cohn, Dr. Trish Hatch, and Dr. Christi Barrett at NSCLC 2020.

They eagerly called Trish from the car and with her on speakerphone, began brainstorming ideas to bring the conference to fruition. Offering professional development for administrators in a conference setting had also been a long-held-dream for Trish.

“In each of the various roles I held early in my career – as a school counselor leader, site administrator, and central office administrator overseeing school counselors – I always wished there was a conference I could attend to connect with others in my position, to locate policies, practices, and procedures, and to learn, grow, and find ways to improve our program and outcomes for students,” she said. “We couldn't find what we were looking for, so we created it.”

At a recent administrator conference, Trish noticed that her presentation was the only one to address the role of school counselors. “That’s an example of the problem we were attempting to solve,” she said.

A little over a year after that fateful car ride – and with the added brain power of Danielle Duarte – Hatching Results put on the very first annual NSCLC for school counseling leaders in 2018. That inaugural event sold out at 180, with attendance increasing last year to 305. This year’s growth – in a leap year – reached 400 individuals, with 31 states and Canada represented.

What’s the Buzz?

The conference Exhibit hall buzzing with activity at NSCLC 2020.

This year, the conference not only expanded its footprint, but added a pre-conference plenary session to provide first-time attendees an overview of key aspects; “Buzz Sessions,” offering peer-to-peer interactions; an exhibitor area; and “Fireside Chats,” where education leaders conducted informal, interactive presentations around five firepits located along the shores of Mission Bay.

“We know that adults often learn best through offline discussions, so we expanded such opportunities,” Whitney said. “We also introduced a new conference app, which allowed folks to connect with one another at the conference, access all session materials, and engage in additional peer-to-peer and job-alike discussions.”

“The conference was well organized with a great balance of information and time for social networking,” said attendee Rebecca Aguila, an executive leadership coach at Fresno County Office of Education.

The fireside chats, called “intimate and authentic” by one attendee, were well attended and lasted longer than planned due to the dynamics of each conversation.

The exhibitor area included 12 different organizations that participate in the same arena: AERIES Software; the ASVAB Career Exploration Program; AVID – Advancement Via Individual Determination, a curriculum program designed to close achievement gaps in grades 4-12; California Association of School Counselors; CEBC – California Evidence Based Clearinghouse, overseen by Rady Children’s Hospital; Check & Connect, a model for student engagement from the University of Minnesota; Committee for Children, who run SEL-based Second Step program; Corwin, the publisher of Hatching Results’ four textbooks; Gemological Institute of America; SCUTA software; FightSong!, an anti-bullying organization; XELLO – a college and career readiness program; and of course, Hatching Results. Three of the vendors gave away special prizes at the end of the conference to those holding raffle tickets.

Fireside chats on the beach at NSCLC 2020.

“Having an exhibitor area for the first time was exciting,” said Morgan Hurley, the staff member who oversaw that aspect of the conference. “The exhibitors were carefully curated to ensure their mission matched our concept and aligned with what we wanted to offer attendees. There were some dynamic engagements going on between sessions with each of them, and we hope to expand the exhibitor area even more next year.”

Unparalleled Professional Development

The Hatching Results conference leadership team worked for months to develop a wide range of powerful, CE-carrying modules and ensure diversity across the board. As a result, attendees from around the country had plenty of options.

“There are so many sessions to choose from, a participant would never be able to say there wasn’t something available for them,” Rebecca Aguila said.

The leadership team firmly believes that strong session content is critically important to a successful conference. This year's event saw a huge increase in the number of sessions offered (74, up from 35 in 2019). “Audience strands” were also implemented, to help attendees determine which sessions were geared most toward them and their current roles. This allowed presenters to dive deeper into the content and create more interactive and engaging sessions.

“This conference is unique, as it has many sessions specifically for school district leaders supporting school counseling programs,” said Karen Fraleigh Norman, supervisor of counseling, from San Francisco Unified School District. “It was great to hear from colleagues in the field and learn from their experiences.”

Panel discussion at nsclc 2020 by nationally recognized school counseling leaders including team members Terri Tchorzynski and Dr. Julie Hartline.

“The conference and breakout sessions helped me get re-centered on what I need to do; it shifted my thinking around my role as a leader, and how I might advocate for school counselors in my district and as a whole,” said Joi Green, a counseling coordinator at the Cherry Creek School District Office in Denver.

Jaymes White, a New York State Association Board Member from Schenectady, New York, who also co-presented two sessions, called the conference “an unbelievable experience,” which more than exceeded his expectations. “The speakers, sessions, everything was just amazing,” he said. “I made some great connections and learned a lot.”

Networking

While many opportunities to connect were built into the schedule, a great deal of interpersonal interaction took place during breakfast and lunch, which also received high marks, and was located outside on the Paradise Terrace. Attendees said some of the most meaningful conversations came at this time, giving them the chance to build their professional networks, which lead to invaluable connections that will in turn, benefit students.

“For me it was the ability to just talk to others and bounce ideas off of those in similar positions,” said Joi Green, from Colorado. “Even after the sessions, the discussions about what I learned was great and helped further generate ideas into action.”

Karen Fraleigh Norman enjoyed the opening day social event, held Thursday on the Sunset terrace overlooking Mission Bay. “It was an opportunity to network and reconnect with people I had met at the first National School Counselor Leadership Conference, as well as other conferences,” she said.

“Seeing leaders from across the country make connections with one another, discuss current problems of practice, and talk about connecting their school counseling programs to student outcomes was powerful,” Whitney said.

Networking reception on Sunset Terrace at NSCLC 2020.

Resource Sharing

One of the more popular aspects of the conference has always been the direct, unlimited access online to all slide presentations and other tools provided to attendees. These links give attendees professional development tools to reconnect to for years to come.

“I will take back many of the things I learned from the sessions and use them in my work with school counseling teams,” said Karen Fraleigh Norman. “I also really appreciate having access to the slides and resources from all of the sessions.”

“What really makes Hatching Results so unique is the willingness to share an abundant amount of resources that assist school counselors and administrators to work together in building a strong school counseling program that will best support students,” said Rebecca Aguila.

While these resources were generally provided through a Google drive link, some sessions also offered takeaway resources, which could be incorporated into workplace strategies.

“Inspiring and energizing,” said one attendee of the Equity Through Empathy session, presented by Ricardo Cooke, a principal from Sweetwater High School District. “I brought the activity cards to dinner with my group and put them through the paces. We had fun and had a great dialogue about our work.”

Hatching Results Professional Development Specialists Nicole Pablo, Ashley Kruger, and Dr. Vanessa Gomez Present in a breakout session at NSCLC 2020.

Renewed Belief in Your Role and Profession

The Hatching Results team’s passion and drive to bring this conference into the fold has indeed made an impact.

A director of school counseling from Oregon enthusiastically shared her thoughts on the conference through the eval link offered to each attendee. She said she brought a team of administrators and was grateful to the conference for opening their eyes to the term “comprehensive counseling.”

“Their minds were blown and they are so excited to go back and advocate for Oregon SSA dollars to build a comprehensive program and RAMP our schools,” she wrote. “This was a freakin miracle conference; I was worried I was overselling it. The work of Dr. Hatch and the level of profession of school counseling - this conference was EXACTLY what I needed to not be the lone voice in our district!

“Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the team; to Trish and all to the wonderful presenters and participants. I can’t wait to start working with Terry and Becky - our students deserve all of it. Much love and mad respect,” the director wrote.

“After the conference, I told my coworkers I needed to step my game up,” said middle school counselor Tara Washington, who already identifies as an avid activist within her Baton Rouge, Louisiana district. “NSCLC 2020 gave me a new platform to stand on. I was growing so weary, because despite all my efforts, there was still no change. The conference gave me new energy to stay in the ring.”

Whitney said that as an observer, her big “a-ha moment” came as she watched and listened to the interactions between attendees. She said it became clear how essential it is for administrators to have even more opportunities to “engage in intentional conversations” around school counseling, because their “buy in” is required to move things forward. She emphasized that while school counselors can and should advocate for their roles, it shouldn’t “fall solely on their shoulders,” to affect the change needed.

Dr. Carl Cohn speaking in a breakout session at NSCLC 2020.

“The entire profession must rally around and support administrators if we really want to see a nationwide transformation in school counseling practice,” Whitney said. “We would encourage anyone reading this to think about how they might contribute to the pre-service education, professional development, and ongoing support of administrators as it relates to transformed school counseling practice and its measurable impact on students.

One attendee seemed to sum up the conference in one sentence in the online eval. “Thanks for the rich mix of ideas and experience to support our courage and resourcefulness for implementing large-scale change.”

As Dr. Carl Cohn said during the closing keynote, ”Lead, no matter your role.”

NSCLC 2021

An announcement about the dates and location of the next National School Counseling Leadership Conference will be made soon. To be in the know and receive news on Early Bird registration pricing, subscribe to our periodic communications.