I engaged a school counselor working in the field for four years in Winter High School in Guidance Counselor Department. She assisted students who struggled academically in grade levels 10-12. In my opinion, her efforts are to develop a future world where students grow. To improve the outcome of students, school counselors came up with school counseling programs and deployed them (Dekruyf et., 2018). Teenagers are greatly affected by mental health and challenges. Their attainment can be affected. These affected students will be unable to respond effectively to high-pressure expectations of assignments and exams. She connected the school counseling programs to the school’s improvement plan and academic mission. It is a prerequisite for them to uphold the ethical and professional standards of ASCA and promote the school counseling program development through management, assessment, and delivery.
The school counselor efficiently and effectively managed the school counseling program. As the leader, she spent ample time conversing with parents, teachers, administrators, and the dean to determine the best interest of the students. I believe that she used the program focus and planning tools to pave the way for implementing and designing a school counseling program that obtains incredible results. Program focus deals with beliefs, vision statements, and mission statements. The planning program focuses on the school data summary, annual student outcome goals, action plans, lesson plans, advisory, calendars, use of time, and annual administrative conference, which are essential to get a precise outcome. On the other hand, action plans take track of closing the gap, and classroom and group whereas. Before carrying out the school counseling program, it should be scheduled either annually or weekly (Dekruyf et., 2018). She engaged the staff approach committee and faculty members with concerns and discussed the students to pave the way for solutions to school leadership. She believed that meeting students a minimum of three times a year is adequate for advising. Her team usually meets to discuss how they will conduct the meeting and what they prefer for the students, especially the changes in schedule and course selection.
She delivered developmentally appropriate activities and services to students. She can either do it directly or indirectly based on the interaction. It is assumed that when students engage in these activities and services assigned by the school counselor, they develop the ASCA mindset and behavior to excel and improve their achievements, discipline, and attendance. She ensures that students develop equitably career-wise, socially, academically, and emotionally. The school counselor can offer direct services to the students through counseling, appraisal and advisement, and instructions. On the other hand, the school counselor can engage with students indirectly through referrals, consultation, and collaboration (Dekruyf et., 2018). In her plan, she organized meetings with students, creating an environment where they could express opinions and ideas. Since she was involved in planning, she could say a lot about the students’ activities. She used referrals which is an indirect means of delivering services to students. Students were assisted by the school social workers and safe coordinates. When they were unavailable, she assisted students directly. According to her, safe coordinators, school social workers, and other mental health professionals at school help greatly in caring for students holistically.
A school counselor should assess students regularly. She engaged the assessing administrator to attend the team meeting to plan processes such as course registration. They do that to reflect how students are different after carrying out a school counseling program. The assessment also helped determine its effectiveness in the prospects of the students. Besides, an assessment will help reveal improvements to their school counseling program delivery and design. It is incredible that school counselors also assess themselves to determine their behaviors and mindset. This data is significant for their annual participation in a school counselor performance appraisal with a qualified administrator and professional development. Therefore, the national model provides annual results reports and school counseling program assessments to guide assessment and appraisal in program assessment. A school counselor performance appraisal template and ASCA school counselor Professional standards & competencies assessment is used to assess the school counselor assessment and appraisal (Dekruyf et., 2018). Therefore, the assessment paves the way to obtain valuable information on what students learned and the procedure used to learn it, and it exposes where they struggled to learn.
Promoting the school counseling program development through management, assessment, and delivery is essential to following the ethical and professional standards of ASCA. The school counselor manages the school counseling program effectively and efficiently through program planning and program focusing. She delivered activities and services to students that she believed that it has a positive impact on them student. She used either direct or indirect means to interact with students. She assesses the students to measure the impact of the school counseling program through program assessment. Ultimately, school chancellors carry out self-assessments on their behaviors and mindset. Therefore, the ASCA model is amazing, although the personal caseloads are over twice what ASCA suggests that making the following model undoable.
References
Dekruyf, L., et al. (2018). The Role of School Counselors in Meeting Students’ Mental Health Needs: Examining Issues Of Professional Identity. Professional Counselling school.