• Counselor’s Role in the Age of High School Reform

March 3-4, 2005

Judy Bowers, TUSD Guidance Coordinator

President, American School Counselor Association

Education Trust

• “For the first time in history, schools are being held accountable for the achievement of all groups of students. School counselors are ideally positioned to serve as advocates for students and create opportunities for all students to reach these new high academic goals.”

Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust

The old question was…“What do counselors do?”

The new question is…“How are students

different because of the school counseling program?

School Counselors’ Efforts Can:

• Increase numbers of students in rigorous courses

• Help ALL students have access to the entire curriculum

• Lower dropout rates• Raise attendance rates• Reduce retention rates, and

Help Schools Get to Proficiency

Equity?

New Vision of School Counseling

Connecting to the Mission of Schools

• Leadership• Advocacy for All Students• Teaming and Collaboration• Using Data to Spur Systemic Change• Providing developmental guidance

lessons for All Students

ASCA National Model

Student Achieveme

nt

Why Kids Drop Out

“Students mainly consider dropping out because they are not engaged by the school.”

Students are most likely to cite the following reasons for considering dropping out:

• School was boring (76%); and• They were not learning enough

(42%).

Source: Metropolitan Life, Survey of the American Teacher 2002: Student Life: School, Home and

Community, p. 9.

Designing a Data Driven School Counseling

Program

• Connecting to school academic achievement goals

• Using data to determine directions

• Measuring results • Sharing successes

Using Data to Spur Systemic Change

• School Counselors must be proficient in: – Accessing data – Analyzing data – Interpreting data – Presenting data

• School Counselors must use data to:– Recognize barriers to learning – Point out the system inequities– Advocate for system change– Create urgency for change

Examples of Data to ExamineTest Scores

AchievementStateNational

Enrollment Honors/AP Classes College Track Special Education

Graduation Rate By Gender By Ethnicity By SES

Attendance Absences Tardies By Grade Level

Discipline By Classroom Types of Problems Gender

GPA/Class Rank By Gender By Ethnicity By SES

Retention Rates By Subject Area By Grade Level By Gender, Ethnicity

Special Education

By Gender By Ethnicity By SES

Dropout Rate Grade Levels Gender, Ethnicity… Reasons Why

Data InterpretationLook for:

Pictures Patterns Gaps

Questions:• What problems or needs surface?• What achievement gaps exist?• What opportunity gaps do the data

suggest?

Achievement DataWhat do you want to know?

Achievement: What does achievement look like at different levels and with different groups of students?

• Overall Achievement– Grade point average– Standardized test scores, SAT, ACT,

State tests– Passing all subjects

• Periodic assessment– Semester grades– End of course tests

Opportunity Gaps: Are some students provided more opportunities than others?

• Access to rigorous curriculum• Access to quality teachers• Special Education Screening and

Placement• Participation in Support Services

– Tutoring, Mentoring

Opportunity Gap DataWhat do you want to

know?

GAPS

What are the Opportunity Gaps Behind the Achievement Gaps?

Uncovering the Opportunity Gaps

• Access to challenging courses• Access to support services• Access to resources• Percentage of high quality

teachers in school• Distribution of teacher talent

Your part:

•How can school counselors use data to improve equity?

Jefferson County, KYAdvanced Placement Enrollment:

Race and Gender

13111350

1772

15301696

2242

45220

282427

1224

26212764

3587

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

Male Female Black Total

1999-20002000-20012001-20022002-2003

Attainment DataWhat do you want to

know?Attainment: How many make it to - and

beyond key points in the system?

• Advance to next grade• Transition from middle school to high

school• Graduation rate• Matriculation to an institution of higher

education• Persistence beyond freshman year• Earning a college diploma

Counseling Priorities

• Designing post-secondary education planning as the counseling department’s top priority was associated with an increase of between 4 and 11 percent more students moving on to four-year colleges and universities after high school.

National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), 2004.

• Spending 10 percent more time on postsecondary planning is associated with a 4 percent increase of students moving on to four-year college education after high school.

• Correspondingly, each additional ten percent of counselor time spent scheduling courses is associated with a 4 percent decrease of students moving on to four-year college education.

National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), 2004.

• Each additional 10 percent of counselor time spent proctoring tests is associated with a 6 percent decrease of students moving on to four-year college education.

National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), 2004.

Research Supports Classroom Guidance WorkAcademic Achievement Brigman & Campbell (2003)

implemented a research-based school counseling curriculum to assess the impact of academic achievement on students in grades 5,6,8,9  Findings: School counseling interventions that focus on the development of cognitive, social, and self-management skills can result in sizable gains in students’ academic achievement.

Research Shows That School Counselors Are

Effective In:• Decreasing inappropriate behaviors• Improving academic achievement

– Preventing school violence– Reducing bullying– Classroom disturbances

• Increasing productive on-task behaviors• Preventing student suicides• Preventing students from dropping out

Research Shows That School Counselors Are

Effective In: • Teaching conflict management • Having better relationships with

teachers• Enhancing career development• Increasing positive attitudes

toward school• Believing education is important to

their future

School administrators, parents with special interests,

teachers or others may feel their agenda ought to be the school counseling program’s

priority. The results often lead to

confusion and criticisms when they are disappointed.

(Carolyn Maddy Bernstein, 1995)

When schools fail to clearly define the counselor’s role...

How Should The School Counselor’s Role Change to

Support Academic Achievement?

• Take counselors out of the clerical role • Less computer/scheduling

responsibilities• Full time secretary for the counseling

department • Adequate career center with a full time

career counselor• Allow more time for counselors to teach

lessons in the classrooms

Counselor’s Role cont.

• Develop minimum standards of service for each grade related to competencies in the academic, career, and personal social domains.

• Develop aggressive parent programs to support academic achievement.

• Support consistency across the district.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.

– John F. Kennedy

But let us begin.

Success• Have a passion for what you do. • Do what you are passionate about. • Success comes from expectations

and hard work. • Surround yourself• with positive people.