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District will pilot SABERs SEL survey, move from Panorama and embed Second Step lessons in classrooms
Summary
The West Allis‑West Milwaukee School District discussed replacing Panorama with the SABERs student self‑assessment, piloting it in spring, and embedding Second Step social-emotional learning lessons into classrooms to free counselors for targeted interventions.
District leaders told the board they will pilot a shorter, FastBridge‑integrated social‑emotional learning survey (SABERs) and expand classroom delivery of Second Step lessons so counselors can deliver targeted supports.
Kristen Brownell, lead elementary counselor, said the district’s previous Panorama surveys were lengthy and sometimes developmentally inappropriate for younger students, and that SABERs — a 20‑question student self‑assessment housed in FastBridge — addresses those problems. “The mySABERs is the student self assessment component,” Brownell said, noting SABERs also offers a teacher‑report option to add adult perspective where needed.
Nut graf: The district proposes SABERs to standardize social‑emotional screening and reporting, align results with Response-to-Intervention work (the district’s Equity Multi‑Layered Student Support, EMLSS), and ensure consistent building‑level follow‑up. A spring pilot will include a range of grades (3rd, 7th and 10th), and rollout would be timed to fall, winter and spring assessment windows.
District staff said Second Step’s new digital lessons are being used at the elementary level and will be piloted in middle school advisory periods. Brownell told the board that embedding SEL in classroom instruction allows teachers to “stop, pause, recognize what they learned, and how they can apply it in that moment,” and frees counselors for one‑on‑one and small‑group supports. She said administrators will provide letters and a standard protocol so families are informed and buildings respond uniformly to survey results.
Board members raised privacy and data‑retention questions. A board member asked who would see SABERs results and how families would be notified; Brownell answered that access will mirror how the district handles other FastBridge reports — classroom teacher, counselor and principal — and that buildings will send explanatory letters to families. On historic data, counselors said Panorama data are no longer accessible from the Panorama platform; some buildings manually archived prior reports in local drives but there is no district‑wide Panorama export. Staff said WiseDash contains more recent, manually uploaded data and that consistency of archived Panorama records varies by building.
Ending: Staff said the SABERs pilot and Second Step classroom rollout will be reported back to the board after the spring pilot, and the district will align survey results with its EMLSS protocols to ensure consistent, documented follow‑up.
