Comprehensive School Counseling Programs: Qualities and Benefits

1. Publisher to insert cover image here CHAPTER 3QUALITIES OF COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL COUNSELING PROGRAMS Developed by: Kelli Saginak, Amy Taake, & Anna GirdauskasUniversity of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

2. CSCPs for all Students are: • Holistic • All aspects of student development • Systemic • All significant individuals and influential systems • Balanced • By equalizing the primary services of CSCP • Preventative • To mitigate the effects of circumstances that could compromise students' development and academic achievement

3. CSCPs for all Students are: • Integrated with the Academic Agenda • Through embedding the CSCP into all facets of the school experience • Reflective • Through rigorous program assessment, accountability, and school counselor self-reflective processes

4. CSCPs are Holistic • Academic Development-Mission of Schools • Confirms the partnership between school counselors and the educational mission of institution • School Counselors involved in the pursuit of academic excellence for all students

5. CSCPs are Holistic • Academic challenges are what often connect students with the school counselor: • academic failure • education and transition planning • academic mediation • academic barriers to learning

6. Learning Theory • Conceptualizes how students learn and academic issues: • Behaviorism: explains all behavior through the process of cause and effect • Cognitivism: we understand mental functioning best through information processing

7. Learning Theory • Constructivism: learning is an active, constructive process where the learner is constructor, or co-constructor, of information and learning • Humanism: learning is a personal act intended to fulfill the learner's potential • Combination of theoretical assumptions creates a richer more comprehensive view of learners

8. Multiple Intelligences • Focuses on how individuals learn within a specific discipline • Intelligences: • verbal/linguistic • logical/mathematical • visual spatial • bodily/kinesthetic • musical/rhythmic

9. Multiple Intelligences • interpersonal • intrapersonal • naturalist • Explains why students learn, how students learn, and how students demonstrate that learning has occurred.

10. Self Determination Theory (SDT) • Seeks to understand individuals' motivation and personality within social contexts • 3 Universal Needs for optimal functioning: • competence • autonomy • relatedness • Beneficial when identifying barriers and obstacles to learning that might involve motivation, personality, environment, and context

11. Character Education • Positive character development of children includes: • decision making • conflict resolution • leadership • problem solving • understanding rules • diversity appreciation • service to community • School-wide character education programming has positive effects on school climate, student behavior, and staff morale

12. Character Traits • Traits essential for students to development: • grit • self-control • zest • social intelligence • gratitude • optimism • curiosity

13. Character Traits • Necessary for college, career, and post-secondary vocations: • resourcefulness • resilience • ambition • professionalism • integrity

14. Career Development • Lifelong process of integrating knowledge and learning, personality, leisure preferences, and work aspirations • Begins before children enter school • Integral component of identity development • Competencies that must be integrated throughout CSCPs: • innovativeness • acceptance of broad responsibilities • demonstration of agility • responsibility for ongoing learning and development of character traits

15. Lifelong Career Process • Step 1: Understanding of Self • Step 2: Understanding of the World of Work • Step 3: Reality Testing • Step 4: Commitment • Step 5: Career Preparation • Step 6: Placement/career Entrance • Step 7: Evaluation and Renew

16. Life Designing • Model based on constructivist and narrative beliefs that view the self and identity as integral components in the narration and design of our life • Inspires individuals to engage in meaningful activities • Life Design Interventions: • construct career through small stories • deconstruct these stories and reconstruct them into an identity narrative • co-construct intentions that lead to the next action episode in the real world

17. Career Clusters • Career pathways (16 clusters) intended to assist high schools and colleges with educating and training workers to meet the demands of the workforce

18. Career Clusters • Agriculture and Natural Resources • Architecture and Construction • Arts/Audio Video Technology and Communications • Business and Administration • Education and Training • Finance • Government and Public Administration • Health Science

19. Career Clusters • Hospitality and Tourism • Human Services • Information Technology • Law and Public Safety • Manufacturing • Retail/Wholesale and Services • Scientific Research and Engineering • Transportation/Distribution and Logistics

20. The Career Portfolio • Students use to document: • self-knowledge of personal qualities • character traits • personal skills • decision making processes • various competencies • educational development • individual student planning • Final document is a personal career plan • Closely aligned with Individualized Learning Plan (ILP)

21. Career and College Readiness • Developmental education that prepares students for expectations and demands beyond high school • Involves student mastery of: • key cognitive strategies • key content knowledge • key learning skills and techniques • key transition knowledge and skills • Point is to inspire students to focus on their post-secondary options and plans earlier rather than later

22. Career and College Readiness Continued • 8 Competencies to strengthen the career domain of CSCPs: • College Aspirations • Academic Planning for College and Career Readiness • Enrichment and Extracurricular Engagement • College and Career Exploration and Selection Process; College and Career Assessments • College Affordability Planning • College and Career Admission Processes • Transition from High School Graduation to College Enrollment

23. Career and College Readiness Continued • How to implement successfully: • create a career-and college ready culture in school and community • include indicators beyond standardized test that measure career and college readiness • align courses with career and college ready standards • partner with local post-secondary institutions and businesses

24. Social and Emotional Development • Self-concept and identity development are integral tasks for children and adolescents • Involves perception of self and others • Influenced by culture and diversity and peer interaction • When integrated into CSCPs, school counselors aim to promote identity development for all students while teaching universal tolerance towards all throughout the process

25. Emotional Intelligence • Involves: • Self-awareness • Self-regulation • Internal motivation • Empathy • Social Skills • Support academic achievement, while also having positive influence on youth attitudes, behaviors, and resilience

26. Positive Psychology • Reactions to negative events or situations reflect 3P's: • permanent • personal • pervasive • Relevant when considering how students internalize events at school • Skill of optimism can motivate us to view the situation objectively using short-term explanations

27. Hope Theory • Goal-directed cognitive process • In order to have hope, students need: • clearly articulated and meaningful goals • different ways, means, or pathways to achieve the goals • agency, or believing that you can achieve goals even when challenged • Higher hope corresponds with superior academic performance, greater physical and psychological well-being, and enhanced interpersonal relationship

28. CSCPs are Systemic • The systems that surround students as they grow influence their development, positively or negatively • Rules of Systems: • All actions within a system affect all members of that system • The values and attitudes that are directly or indirectly taught through that system can affect young people profoundly

29. Social Systems: Family, Peers, School, Community, and Culture • Family: primary and most intimate system • School counselors and CSCPs can support parents and children to strengthen family systems and supportive positive development • Peers: offers youth opportunities to experience and learn ways to address relational conflict, express and manage emotions, and receive honest feedback about behaviors and attitudes • Valuable social contexts for student development and important to consider when designing CSCPs

30. Social Systems: Family, Peers, School, Community, and Culture • School: bring students in contact with other influential adults outside the home and family • Should establish schools as nurturing environments and influencing positive school climates where all students can thrive

31. Social Systems: Family, Peers, School, Community, and Culture • Communities: provide extended social opportunities for youth to experiment beyond family boundaries and learn from other adults • Community-based partnerships can positively influence student development and achievement • Culture: most influential of all on development • Crucial that school counselors are aware of how culture is expressed, responded to, and integrated into the landscape of student development and learning

32. Systemic Change and Multisystemic Interventions • Developmental Assets and Relationships: • External Assets: consist of relationships and opportunities provided to young people • Internal Assets: values and skills young people develop that are used for self-governance • Developmental Assets: weave all systems together to create the solid fabric of support for students • Multisystemic Interventions: • Designed to meet the various needs of all students • School counselors must view students in context

33. CSCPs are Balanced • Balanced must be maintained: • Across academic, career, and personal/social delivery components • Throughout the activities of the school counselor • Between all partners in the process • Between prevention goals and intervention goals • Best practices of School Counselors' Time: • 80% direct services • 20% indirect services

34. Balanced Counselor Activities • Leadership Activities: leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change • Management Activities: creating the foundation, management systems, and accountability systems of the program • Counseling Activities: individual and group counseling, crisis response, appraisal and advisement • Educating Activities: developmental curriculum • Consultation Activities: consultation, referrals, and collaboration

35. CSCPs are Preventive • 5 Risk Status Categories: • Minimal risk: students with positive socioeconomic demographics and limited psychosocial and environmental stressors • Remote risk: students with negative socioeconomic demographics, and some psychosocial and environmental stressors • High risk: students with negative socioeconomic demographics, numerous psychosocial/environmental stressors, and development of at-risk markers

36. CSCPs are Preventive • Imminent Risk: students with negative socioeconomic demographics, numerous psychosocial and environmental stressors, development of at-risk markers, and development of dangerous unhealthy behaviors • At-Risk Activity: students with negative socioeconomic demographics, overall negative interactions, numerous psychosocial and environmental stressors that escalate into more high risk behaviors, and development of at-risk markers.

37. Assessing Risk • Red Flags: • tardiness • absenteeism • poor grades • truancy • low math and reading scores • failing one or more grades • rebellious attitudes towards school authority • verbal and language deficiency • inability to tolerate structured activities, dropping out of school • aggressive behaviors and violence

38. Assessing Risk • Early Warning Signs: • poor academic performance • behavioral problems • affective characteristics • personal circumstances

39. Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment • Prevention: target enhancing resilience, promote wellness, and reduce at-risk characteristics • Intervention: aim towards arresting the deterioration of existing at-risk characteristics, or alleviate the effects of psychosocial or educational stressors • Treatment: address fully developed at-risk behaviors

40. CSCPs are Integrated • ASCA urges all school counselors to design programs that reach all students • "opt in" or "opt out" practice • ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (2014): articulate "knowledge, skills, and attitudes students need to achieve academic success, college and career readiness, and social/emotional development” • organized into 3 domains: • academic development • career development • social/emotional development

41. CSCPs are Reflective • Schools counselors must be accountable to their schools to their communities, to their students, and for their own contribution to the CSCP: • Identify specific roles and functions • Determine the measurement to be used to assess performance • Create methods and procedures for gathering data • Examine whether or not the services provided make a difference in the lives of students, parents, and teachers • Critical data to target: student attendance, truancy, grades, graduation rates, behavior/disciplinary referrals, and expulsions

42. Reflection on the Quality of Program and Counselor Performance • What does it mean to "manage" a program? • Planning: setting goals and objectives, and developing "work maps" showing how goals and objectives are to be accomplished • Organizing: brings together resources to accomplish the goals and objectives derived from the planning process

43. Reflection on the Quality of Program and Counselor Performance • Motivating: working effectively with the human resources available to meet those goals and objectives • Controlling: the use of feedback and results to compare outcomes with intended goals and objectives, and to make informed modifications where anticipated outcomes diverged