Counseling encourages students to improve their actions and make better life choices by advising them. School counseling addresses the social and personal development of the students and provides the foundation for growth as they progress to adulthood. Counseling is a significant part of the school curriculum, and counselors collaborate with the learners, family members, school staff, and the entire community to complete the process. Counseling programs encompass different ventures such as enhancing academic performance, advocacy, intervention and prevention practices, career preparation, therapy services, and emotional and social growth of the students. Creating an advisory team and gaining administrative support was advantageous, as decided by the counseling department. This paper entails developing a comprehensive counseling program design following the implementation steps provided by Brown and Trusty 2005.
Demographics
School demographics are collected from performance reports of Elite High School. The school has a population of 1398 students, where 54.1% are male, 45.2% are female, and 0.7% of the school identifies as undesignated gender or non-binary. The school race and ethnicity component include 75% white; the remaining students are 8% Hispanic, 6% black, 6% Asian, and native Hawaiians. 3% of the students in the school identify as English language learners, while 8% of the students qualify as disabled learners. Students who benefit from free lunch programs are 6%, while those who receive reduced private lunch programs are 10%. According to statewide assessments, 61% of the students show proficiency in English language arts, and 42% are proficient in math. 94% of the learners graduated within four years, while the rest may be chronically absent. According to the assessment, 56% of the students enroll in colleges and University institutions, while 1% drop out of school.
Define
Mission Statement
Elite High School’s counseling program aligns with its mission to focus on each student and their inclusivity. The program aims to ensure that each learner achieves their full potential. The counseling program relies on decision-making based on data using a collaborative effort to enhance students’ development and achievement and create a positive climate of learning. The program’s purpose is to provide structured services that ensure each student with unique skills, behaviors, knowledge, and differences achieve productivity and superior traits. The program advocates for every student’s comprehensive support and long-term success.
Vision Statement
All Elite school students will be intelligent and capable of being critical thinkers, emotionally and socially able to influence the world, and motivated to seek vocations that serve their community. Students understand their worth and value, appreciate heterogeneity, can make informed choices, skillfully demonstrate empathy, and can cope with both short- and long-term adversities. The students will additionally have the needed values to avoid disciplinary issues.
Goals of the Program
The program’s goals are significant to define how the counseling program is guided and how the mission and vision are accomplished through close gaps in the action plan. The program has goals based on specific concepts that focus on the counseling initiatives of the school (ASCA, 2019). The program is determined to assess the needs of each student within the school and apply collaborative measures that support the opinion and beliefs.
Needs Assessment
It is crucial to assess the needs of students to determine the significant ventures for implementing the program. After performing a needs assessment, the team realized discipline referrals are about 160 students annually in the school. Another issue is that the counselors identify that most Elite High school students have limited information about career opportunities and post-secondary education. Google forms will be very helpful to assess further students, consisting of a survey with four questions. The student answers this survey questions within the first week of school. The question relates to whether the students have had a discipline referral over the past three terms and if they know what they wish to do after high school. The other questions entail their plans for attending universities or colleges, and if they know the opinions available regarding post-high school. After collecting this data from the survey questions, assistant counselors realized that 40% of the students were aware of available options and felt the need to continue their education after high school. Career development is essential for students to prepare them for what awaits them after high school and for preparation for their future careers.
SMART Goals
The school canceling program plans to increase communication with students by up to 6% for the remaining 2022-2023 school year. Elevation of classroom instruction will help increase communication to reach more learners. Pre and post-surveys will help evaluate the success of increased communication, which can be carried out after three months. The counseling department plans to reduce discipline referrals by up to 4% for the remaining school year. Small groups will be involved in carry-outs counseling sessions for the students to achieve this goal and address behavior and mindsets for students’ success as provided by ASCA. Sessions for the counseling groups will be carried out for six weeks and target at-risk students. The student’s progress will be re-evaluated by checking their grades and discipline referrals. Additionally, the program aims to ensure that 80% to 100% of the students gain ample information about post-high school opportunities. The objective will be achieved by offering lessons that spark interest in the students to choose their career paths and institutions they need to join after high school.
Management
Annual Agreements
Annual agreements are used as management tools to help administrators better understand the school counselor’s position and roles. The annual agreement will detail the program’s stated goals and aims for the school counseling program. Specifically, it will show how much time the school counselor spends on program development and direct and indirect service delivery (ASCA, n.d.a). The annual agreement will feature a calendar and a set of yearly objectives, and established corresponding action items. At the end of the course, the program will address some useful resources for self-evaluation and other ways to enhance learning and growth.
Advisory Committee
The advisory committee’s goal is to eliminate bias, advance a common understanding of the most pressing problems, and provide solutions for the challenges. This committee has ten people, including teachers, students, parents, guardians, and community members. They have all been selected because they represent the diversity of the student body and offer valuable multicultural insights. Following that first meeting in September 2022, a preliminary needs assessment was drafted. On October 1, 2022, the committee formed a meeting to discuss program goals, choose program elements, and create SMART goals. The program’s new features will be introduced gradually over five years, starting in January 2023. Therefore, the committee will hold another meeting in June 2023 to review the school counseling department’s outcomes and make changes to the program’s components for the following school year based on the data presented. After that point, the committee will meet twice yearly for more assessment and make necessary changes.
Role of Counselor
The school’s counseling and guidance program is the responsibility of the school’s counselors. There needs to be an evaluation system to ensure all students get the same developmental counseling level and guidance services from the school counselors. The counselors will deal with students individually or in small groups when they have unique challenges. Counselors help students in oblique ways by informing administrators, teachers, families, and others about how to recognize and address students’ psychological, emotional, and social difficulties. School counselors oversee the various programs and services offered to students to foster positive mental health. Actions such as referrals, placements, and follow-ups are crucial in the counseling process and are foreseen by the counselor.
Timetable
The Elite High School counselors will use timetables to determine the time given for the services to be provided in the program as given by the ASCA guidelines. The timetable will stipulate the amount of time that will be spent on each of the components as well as the counseling activities. The counselor will keep daily records for documentation of activities carried out and the time each session or activity takes (Brown & Trusty, 2005). The documentation will help with the analysis of time spent and will help make adjustments that can assist utilize the time for the comprehensive counseling better to achieve successful results that serve the students. Time for individual and group counseling will be indicated in the timetable to ensure that each student is catered to and their needs are considered.
Professional Assessments
Each counselor will need to evaluate their performance every two years. ASCA Professional Standards and Competencies Assessment will be used by the school counselors to self-evaluate (ASCA 2021a). The professional foundation, beliefs, indirect and indirect services, program planning, and school counselor evaluations are all included in this self-evaluation. Each counselor will also have an annual evaluation meeting with a school administrator to assess the outcome data at the end of each school year (Dahir et al., 2019). The school counselor’s consultation, advocacy, and collaboration efforts should be documented alongside lesson plans, student needs, advisory committee meeting minutes, time usage, and calendars.
Lesson Plans
Each school counselor needs to devise a program of small-group counseling and classroom instruction. The name of the counselor, the topic of the lesson, and the students who will be the focus will all be included in the outline (ASCA, 2021b). Then, the attitudes and actions of the intended students must be disentangled from the learning goals. In addition, after the first six lessons, school counselors will decide what will be covered, the teaching techniques needed, and reinforcement methods. There is also a significant need for reporting on participation and defining data on the outcomes of the students.
Calendars
The use of schedules helps to keep a sense of unity among team members, help everyone remain focused on the overall program objectives, and ensures that individuals are held accountable. Because school counselors spend a significant portion of their time working directly with students, they must employ time management strategies when putting together individual planning program components and items of the curriculum. The counseling staff at each school’s responsibility is to develop and maintain a written plan and calendar for service delivery’s monthly and annual scheduling (ASCA, n.d.b). This plan should include some flexibility to make adjustments as necessary. Keeping track of the amount of time spent on tasks, setting goals, and documenting whether or not a program or service is successful can all be accomplished with the help of the counselor’s calendar.
Delivery
Direct Services
Core Curriculum for the Program
The curriculum entails structured developmental lessons designed to help the students achieve desired competence to deliver skills and knowledge. School counselors will design these lessons based on the results of needs assessments. School counselors will incorporate meaningful lessons into all subject areas through K-12 classrooms and group activities (Putri et al., 2018).
Systematic activities will include individual student planning to establish personal goals for the students and develop future plans. The school counseling department may mandate that classes include a unit on drug abuse. Responsive services will be implemented, which involves meeting individual students or groups to discuss life events or situations in their lives. System support, such as an organized activity, will help management and administration maintain, establish and enhance the counseling program. Students will fill out a survey for school counselors before other activities based on the needs assessed. After school counselors have compiled the results, students can use the raw data to explore statistical concepts and correlational relationships. The school counselor can then facilitate a class discussion about the students’ observations and perspectives.
Finally, in November, the school counseling program will replace individual meetings with 11th graders to discuss college and career planning with a two-hour college and career presentation for students and parents. The presentation will be made available on the school’s website. As an added convenience, students can access printed versions of the outline in their preferred languages. The school counselor will begin meeting with students individually and in small groups to discuss post-secondary options.
Personal Student Planning
Advisement and Appraisal Activities
Planning for each student’s unique needs is essential if the program is to succeed in meeting their post-secondary education and career goals. The school counseling staff has an annual spring ritual of gathering in subgroups to discuss standardized test results and make recommendations for the upcoming school year’s curriculum. The meeting is an important part of tailoring lessons for each student (ASCA, n.d.b). Users of the parent portal will also help gain access to the learners’ report cards and standardized test scores, both in hard copy and digital formats. School counselors must observe these students in the classroom to handle discipline referrals and create positive behavior and intervention support plans. It has already been stated that the school counseling department intends to use small groups to aid these students in developing social and self-control skills. Group sessions can address coping with life issues, self-worth, anger, and conflict.
Responsive Services
Group and Individual Counseling
The school counselor can benefit from reality therapy and rational choice theory when providing short-term counseling. The goal is to help the students learn more efficient and accountable means of meeting their basic needs and pursuing their personal goals. Based on this framework, role play can help students work through problems in the classroom and in their personal lives. Roleplaying is a useful tool for helping students practice for situations such as classroom discussions, job interviews, and even conflict resolution (Saunders & Merlin-Knoblich, 2021). Additionally, managing emergency response services addresses students’ professional, academic, and urgently required personal and social concerns. These problems are often resolved through either individual or group therapy. From time to time, a crisis management response is necessary. Dollarhide and Saginak (2017) argue that environmental crises, mass shootings, student deaths, and immediate threats to personal safety require a team response. The protocol will be followed in selecting and training a crisis team.
Indirect Services
Consultation
School counselors provide one-on-one assistance to students’ teachers, families, and other adults in the student’s life as part of a triadic consultation model. School counselors consult with parents and guardians when they are asked to help with a student’s actions, behavior, mindset, or worries. Parental involvement is encouraged in activities such as committee meetings and educational programs. School counselors collaborate with other teachers to create positive behavior management programs (Mujiyati et al., 2020). The vast majority of these scenarios are amenable to large group consultation. The school counselor would meet with many students at once instead of meeting with just one student. With the number of referrals for disciplinary action, school counselors are better equipped to help students learn to manage their behavior at school and home. Counselors will work with the personnel on committees to improve school climate, morale, and communication.
Student mental and physical well-being and access to social services are among the most common referrals made by school counselors to community partnerships. Successful school counselors also benefit greatly from meeting with a professional supervisor to discuss challenging cases and identify areas for growth for the students they serve. Furthermore, the school counselor will eventually need the assistance of outside counsel when confronted with moral and legal dilemmas.
Referrals
School counselors can help students and their families more if they are well-versed in the resources available in the surrounding area. The assist the students with disabilities, the school counseling staff are familiar with accessible industries that hire people with disabilities. Additionally, there are economically disadvantaged students; hence the program may help refer them to mental health and substance abuse services at facilities that accept their insurance and offer sliding scale fees. It is important to be aware of the many available resources for dealing with issues such as eating disorders and coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Collaboration
Students gain from school counselors’ teamwork and ability to bring outside help and assistance. Counselors will work with classroom teachers to embed the counseling profession’s central tenets into the syllabus. Another example of a well-coordinated effort is the advisory committee. On the other hand, the school counseling staff may devote time and resources to fostering cross-departmental cooperation to address social justice concerns. The school counseling division reports that a lack of authority is one barrier to enacting systemic change (Mujiyati et al., 2020). School counselors must work with other stakeholders to combat racism and other forms of prejudice based on students’ cultural identities if they are to successfully close achievement gaps in line with the school’s objectives. To remove obstacles to students’ success and growth, discussing them in detail and their possible solutions are important.
Accountability
The School Counselors
The performance of the school counselor will be evaluated through several methods, such as administrator observation, professional growth goals, self-evaluation, and professional development attainment. Data to be collected on their work include communication skills, self-efficacy, personal reflection, mentoring capabilities, and critical thinking. The administration will evaluate professional identity annually based on performance assessment and the annual agreement. The school counselor’s professional identity will be developed through training, the dissemination of accurate information regarding the counselor’s duties and activities to the principal and other stakeholders, and the exercise of appropriate supervision. The school counselor is also responsible for implementing the ASCA National Model’s four tenets of collaboration, leadership, advocacy, and systemic change (ASCA 2019). The school counselor’s responsibility is to keep track of each student’s achievements, progress, and growth.
Progress Monitoring
It is crucial to gather baseline information before estimating students’ starting points. A review of the school’s data profile includes checking student grades, attendance, and graduation rates for the data collection process. School counselors can collect process data, such as the type of intervention used, how often it was used, and the number of people who participated after they put the program into action. For example, 400 students participated in a single integrated curriculum lesson on substance abuse taught in a math class. School counselors may use pre- and post-testing to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions on students’ understanding. These statistics will help school counselors examine student perceptions and actual performance discrepancies. Furthermore, students’ perspectives on each intervention will be gauged through periodic surveys. The results of these polls will serve as a starting point for school counselors’ analyses.
Program Evaluation
Each year, the school counseling department will collect summative data and use MEASURE, a process for measuring accountability that emphasizes counselor-led group work and pinpoints individual students’ progress based on yearly benchmarks to assess their performance. The process is short for mission, elements, analysis, stakeholders, reanalysis, and education. School counselors must determine whether or not a given aspect of a program aligns with the organization’s overall goals (ASCA 2021a). Using the school’s data profile, they can create academic and demographic reports and analyze data. The school counselor’s next step is to confer with relevant parties, make any necessary adjustments to the action plan, and share the outcomes with the public.
Multicultural Considerations
Social justice advocacy is essential to increase access, rectify inequities, and boost educational outcomes for all students. To advocate for and implement equal opportunities for all students, counselors must continually educate themselves and their colleagues on the biases and prejudices that affect students. To ensure a wide range of opinions, the advisory committee will reflect the student body in its curriculums. Counselors provide services to students with special needs and advise on and participate in the development of Individualized Education Programs (ASCA 2021a). To better understand the needs of their students, school counselors will also consult with other teachers and the student’s families. Finally, guidance counselors will support English learning students by considering their strengths and interests when recommending classes, introducing them to extracurricular activities, and matching them with mentors. Students will work in smaller groups to make new friends and smoothly execute the transitions. The school counselor will additionally use a translator in all interactions with students.
The use of technology will be helpful for the counselor to reach all students efficiently. Technology will assist in communication with shareholders, students, and their parents or guardians. Information will be presented on the counseling school website, which can be accessed easily. The involvement of the community and the parents should always be emphasized (Rumsey, 2021). They will receive monthly newsletters about their children’s progress and the program. The newsletters will encourage them to continue participating and being involved in the counseling process for better student results and achievement of the goals stipulated.
References
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2019). ASCA school counselor professional standards & competencies. Web.
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2021a). ASCA assets, mindsets, and behaviors for student success. Web.
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2021b). The school counselor and cultural diversity. Web.
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (n.d.a). Annual agreement template. Web.
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (n.d.b). Templates & resources. Web.
Brown, D., & Trusty, J. (2005). Designing and leading comprehensive school counseling programs: Promoting student competence and meeting student needs. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Dahir, C. A., Cinotti, D. A., & Feirsen, R. (2019). Beyond compliance: Assessing administrators’ commitment to comprehensive school counseling. NASSP Bulletin, 103(2), 118-138. Web.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2017). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action (3rd ed.). Pearson.
Mujiyati, M., Mayasari, S., & Adiputra, S. (2020). A comparison of accountability models in school counseling programs. Konselor, 9(3), 117-124. Web.
Putri, M. A., Neviyarni, N., Ahmad, R., & Syukur, Y. (2018). Guidance and counseling in school accountability. Jurnal Bimbingan Konseling Islam, 1(2), 108-117. Web.
Rumsey, A. D. (2021). A Review of Program Evaluation in School Counseling: Improving Comprehensive and Developmental Programs. Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation, 3(1), 1-5. Web.
Saunders, R., & Merlin-Knoblich, C. (2021). Implementing Large-Group Consultation in Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 46(4), 294-308. Web.