What Now?

When 5-Star Students was created, our core belief was that students involved in their school would be successful during their time on campus. After 8 years of data collection and program enhancements, we have absolute proof that engaged students are more successful than those not involved.

Originally, most educators and administrators agreed with our theory, but now that we have the proof the big question is “what now”?

To answer the question of how to get more students involved, review our “5-Point Plan” below.

Step #1: Have your students take an Interests survey, a built-in feature within 5-Star Students. This allows you to gauge student interest levels for different activities and help locate new pockets of interests. This can be a valuable tool when addressing non-involved students later.

Step #2: Collect Activities data. This step consists of entering club lists, athletics rosters, performing arts groups, etc. into the 5-Star Students program. The process will give you a great idea of your on-going student participation on campus.

Step#3: Collect Event data. Select a sampling of school events throughout the year and check-in/scan attendees to see who is involved at the spectator level. Attending events often provides a low-risk way for students to be involved on your campus.

Step #4: Ask students to take surveys about your activities and events. A great way to improve your programs is to get input. Both positive and negative data will help.

Step #5: Compare your resulting involvement data with key factors like Demographics, Attendance, GPA, Discipline, etc. This will allow you to see both positive and negative areas. You can also set bench marks for future comparisons

If you need any help getting your "5-Point Plan" started, please drop us an email. We would love to help!

Survey Of Student Engagement (SSE)

5-Star Students is proud to partner with Advanced Education Measurement to develop the Survey of Student Engagement (SSE). Dr. Bryan Shelly designed the SSE to ensure that schools could quickly collect the most valid, reliable information possible on student engagement, self-esteem, and attitudes towards their school, teachers, peers, and future.

The SSE robustly measures the factors most related to student success in just 10 carefully selected questions, so that schools can quickly capture critical information. With the SSE results and professional data analysis, schools can track whether their programs are helping students become more engaged, whether their self-esteem is rising, and so on during the course of a year.

For more information, please visit 5starstudents.com/SSE

  

House System

Current class competition systems, used by many schools, result in older students competing against younger students. Often, the number of students in each grade level can vary by hundreds.

In the Harry Potter books, made famous by JK Rolling, students at Hogwarts were separated into 4 different houses. Gryfindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. This allowed the school to organize students of all different ages, genders and talents to be together on the same team.



This type of "house" system has been used at schools and universities in England for quite some time. In the US, Harvard and other Ivy league schools also have a deep tradition of school houses.

5-Star Students is excited to offer schools the ability to organize students into houses (or groups). This allows the separation of students by something other than just grade level.  Points and involvement data can be viewed by group, providing insights into group success.

Take the Diamond School Challenge!

Is your school doing all it can with 5-Star Students to increase student involvement on campus? Follow our list of Diamond School criteria below and be recognized for your efforts!

• Administer the Interests Survey
• Use a point system for activities or events
• Offer incentives or rewards for involvement
• Track at least 4 different types of activities
• Administer at least 1 voting poll
• Administer at least 1 feedback survey for an event or activity
• Establish school web page to promote your involvement program
• Establish points leaderboard for individuals to access their point totals
• Track an average of 3 school events per month
• Track participation in at least 80% of school activities
• More details at 5starstudents.com/diamondschool

Student App - Now Available!

We are excited to announce our new mobile app for students, which gives schools even more power to engage their campus around activities.



The new app is available in the Apple App Store (iOS) and on Google Play (Android).  Students can download for free and register the app with their school.

* Note that each school must purchase the Student App option and enable their school for registration

 Once registered, students can view their own data stored in 5-Star Students including:

• Point totals
• Participation in activities
• Event attendance
• Behavior occurrences
• Eligible surveys
• Eligible voting polls

Students can also view lists of available school activities and upcoming events, right from their device.

School managers can post news items that will appear within the app and send mobile notifications to those students that have opted to receive messages.

These options provide multiple opportunities for schools to promote their activities and events directly to students.

The Student App also features several options for students to "self check-in" to events. The first option allows school personnel to create a temporary code for an event to allow students to check-in themselves. The second option utilizes a proximity beacon, available from 5-Star Students. Each beacon broadcasts a Bluetooth signal that can be detected by the app if within range. A student would be be able to view the associated event when near a beacon, allowing them to check into the event on their own.

More information about the Student App is available at the following locations:
http://5starstudents.com/studentapp
https://5starstudents.com/pricing
http://5starstudents.com/Products/Beacon
Student App Overview

Student App - Coming Soon!

This summer we will introduce another major enhancement to the 5-Star Students system. Our mobile app for students will give schools even more power to engage their campus around activities.

The new app, coming to both the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android), will allow students to download for free and register a phone or tablet with their school. Once registered, students can view their own data stored in 5-Star Students including:

• Point totals
• Participation in activities
• Event attendance
• Behavior occurrences

In addition, students can access eligible surveys or voting polls right from the app, making for a simple distribution process for the school. Schools will also be able to send mobile notifications through the app to those students that have opted to receive messages.

Students can also view lists of available school activities and upcoming events, right from their device. This will provide multiple opportunities for schools to promote their activities and events directly to students.

Lastly, the app will feature several options for students to "self check-in" to certain events. First, school personnel can create a temporary code for an event to allow students to check-in themselves. The other option is to utilize a proximity beacon, available from 5-Star Students. Each beacon broadcasts a Bluetooth signal that can be picked up by the app if within range. A student would be notified by the app when near a beacon, allowing them to check into an event associated with the beacon during that time.

We will be publishing more information about the Student App, including pricing and beacon options in the coming months. If you would like to be contacted directly when it's available, please drop us an email at info@5starstudents.com

Welcome aboard!

This spring we welcomed 35 new schools to the 5-Star Students family!

Armand Larive Middle School (OR)
Brea Olinda High School (CA)
Cabrillo High School (CA)
California School For The Deaf (CA)
Century High School (CA)
Chino High School (CA)
Clairemont High School (CA)
Clovis High School (CA)
Concord High School (CA)
Covina High School (CA)
Elk Grove High School Agriculture (CA)
Golden Valley High School (CA)
Hermiston High School (OR)
Kea'au High School (HI)
Lindhurst High School (CA)
Lower Lake High School (CA)
Martinez Junior High School (CA)
Mayfair High School (CA)
Monterey Trail High School (CA)
Natomas High School (CA)
Northview High School (CA)
Patriot High School (CA)
R.J. Fisher Middle School (CA)
Rancho Buena Vista High School (CA)
Rocklin High School (CA)
Rolling Hills Middle School (CA)
Rubidoux High School (CA)
Sandstone Middle School (OR)
Saratoga High School (CA)
Sterling High School (IL)
Sunny Hills High School (CA)
Toppenish High School (WA)
Valley Christian High School (AZ)
Warren Township High School (IL)
West Bend High School (WI)

Congratulations Redlands High School!

Congratulations to Redlands High School on becoming our first 5-Star Students Diamond School!

Last summer, with help from some wonderful high school interns, we established a list of criteria utilizing all aspects of the 5-Star Students program to provide the best chance of increased involvement on school campuses.

• Administer the Interests Survey
• Use a point system for activities or events
• Offer incentives or rewards for involvement
• Track at least 4 different types of activities
• Administer at least 1 voting poll
• Administer at least 1 feedback survey for an event or activity
• Establish school web page to promote your involvement program
• Establish points leaderboard for individuals to access their point totals
• Track an average of 3 school events per month
• Track participation in at least 80% of school activities
• More details at 5starstudents.com/diamondschool

"This year we have applied all areas of 5-Star on our campus and have gained a better understanding of what our student body is interested in. We have been able to take that information and develop new ways of targeting our student body so that we can provide activities that they like, contact students who are not being active on campus, reward students who participate in activities on campus and ultimately increase our school spirit and participation."
- Katie Baker, Activities Director

Redlands High School has met all our requirements and they now shine "like a diamond", a great example for other schools to follow. Congratulations to Katie Baker, Alisa Beal, Redlands ASB and the entire Redlands HS team!

Camp 5-Star in Northern California!

On April 25th we held our second Camp 5-Star event at Sheldon High School in Sacramento, CA. Over 100 students and advisors attended, representing 12 different schools.

Everyone was exposed to some new program concepts and there were plenty of great ideas shared to keep student engagement at the forefront.

Craig Grivel from Sheldon held a breakout session on things his school does with 5-Star Students to make it one of our flagship schools in northern California. Hannah Kincaid (Toby Johnson MS) and Donna McNeel (Katherine Albiani MS) led our middle school breakout and showed off their amazing use of 5-Star's survey and voting capabilities.

A big thank you to Craig and his leadership students at Sheldon HS for hosting the day and helping with setup and clean-up activities!

5-Star Students Tech Tip

Submitted by Jose from La Sierra High School in Riverside, CA.

In spirit of easing student involvement at La Sierra High School, I thought of shortening the link for students to access voting polls, surveys, and school web pages. This makes it easier for students to remember the URLs.

I set up the main domain, in this case lshsasb.com, to go directly to our 5 Star Students school web pages. For voting, I set up what is called a sub domain, which allows you to choose a word or phrase to go before the domain (vote.lshsasb.com). Below I’ve included the instructions for GoDaddy.com, but I would be happy to assist anyone in need. You can contact me at JoseBCadenas@yahoo.com

GoDaddy Instructions

How to permanently direct a domain to 5-Star Students school web page:

1. Sign in at dcc.godaddy.com
2. Click ‘Use My Domain’
3. Click ‘Connect to an Existing Site’
4. In the box provided for ‘Forward To Any Site’ insert the school web page provided by 5-Star
5. Click ‘Next’
6. Make sure all information is correct and click ‘Finish’. Give GoDaddy a couple of minutes to update servers to insure the domain points to the school web page without any issues.
7. Click ‘Manage Connection’
8. A pop up will be displayed. Find and click on ‘Edit’.
9. Under ‘Redirect Type’ click ‘301 (Permanent)’
10. Click ‘Edit’

How to set up a subdomain:

1. Sign in at dcc.godaddy.com
2. Click ‘Manage Connection’
3. A pop up will be displayed. Make sure to be on the ‘Subdomain’ tab.
4. Click ‘Add Subdomain Forwarding’
5. Enter Subdomain word or phrase. Phrases should not have spaces.
6. Enter URL the subdomain will redirect to. Include the correct ‘http://’ or ‘https://’.
7. Click ‘Add’

Thanks Jose for the great tip and detailed instructions!