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COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENTAL GUIDANCE


Comprehensive Developmental Guidance Program

CNDV 5330 Developmental Guidance – Final Project

Student Name: Amy A. Monk

Part I. Foundations of the CDGP

  1. a. What is the importance of an advisory team?

Anactive and diverse advisory team is important to “guide program efforts, advocate for change, and be a voice for school counseling in the district” (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p.102). Advisory teams allow a cooperative effort between teachers, administrators, community members, parents, and students to work together toward a common goal to benefit all students. Collaboration is encouraged among the communities’ stakeholders to work together to achieve common goals that benefit each student. An advisory council reviews the counseling program and makes recommendations to the campus principal or other decision makers. The committee should reflect the diversity in the community and include expert members. The advisory teams’ input is important to improve the program and provide needed support.

b. List the potential team members of your advisory committee (e.g., school staff and community members):

  • Students
  • Parents, guardians, and caregivers
  • Colleagues in the schools (teachers, aides, and administrators)
  • Colleagues in the community (business owners, medical professionals, and community leaders)
  1. What is the importance of the School Mission Statement?

The school mission statement gives the program overall direction and vision, describes the program’s purpose, and provides a clear vision of what every student should accomplish. A school mission statement creates one vision, establishes a structure for innovations, and maintains the program’s focus on their beliefs and philosophy.

  1. a. What is the importance of the Counseling Program Mission Statement?

The counseling program mission statement falls under and is aligned with the school district’s mission. It supports the learning environment while also making individualized contributions to meet every student’s needs.

b. Write your statement

My mission as a school counselor is to facilitate each student’s personal/social, academic, and career development through the delivery of guidance and counseling activities, as well as through a collaborative effort between the home, school, and community. I want to help students identify their interests and abilities to improve their level of productivity, creativity, and responsibility to build necessary skills for their future.

  1. What is the importance of the Personal Counselor(s) Mission Statement?

The importance of developing a personal counselor mission statement is to communicate your goals as a counselor to administrators, faculty, and other stakeholders so they are clear about your role. The personal counselor mission statement should reflect the district’s mission statement, the state department of education, and the ASCA National Model (2012).

  1. List (by letter, number and title, e.g. A5a Appropriate Referrals) of the ASCA standard[s] that pertain to this section

A.1 Responsibilities to Students

A.3 Counseling Plans

C.1 Professional Relationships

D.1 Responsibilities to the School

D.2 Responsibility to the Community

Part II: Understanding the Importance of CDGP Components

1. Why is the Needs Assessment Summary important? In your response, use your own needs assessment as an example.

The results from a Needs Assessment Summary help identify strengths and weaknesses within a program allowing improvements to be made. School counselors will then use the data to show that each lesson or activity implemented into the program relates to the needs of the students.

2. Name and describe the usefulness of four instruments or methods of assessment

  1. Process data to use as evidence of how students were affected by counseling lessons
  2. Standards and Competency Related Data for career
  3. Student Achievement Data for academic progress
  4. Achievement Related Data to track attendance, student involvement, and discipline

3. Provide four reasons that using the Guidance Curriculum to address needsis important.

  1. Assessed through pre- and post-test or activity completion
  2. Include classroom instruction, small group discussions, and assemblies
  3. Skills and attitudes are taught through various activities and materials
  4. Promotes knowledge, attitudes, and skills through instruction in the areas of academic, career, and personal/social growth.

4. Provide four reasons that Responsive Servicesare important to this process.

  1. Consultation
  2. Individual and Small Group Counseling
  3. Crisis Counseling
  4. Peer Facilitation

5.Provide four components of Individual Planning

  1. Help students plan, monitor, and manage their own learning
  2. Assist students in establishing their personal goals and future plans
  3. Help students meet competencies in the areas of social, career, and personal/social development
  4. Provide support for transitioning students

6.Provide four reasons thatProgram Supportis important to this process.

  1. Counselors must contribute to the school through consultation, partnering, collaborating, and teaming
  2. Program management and operations such as management activities, data analysis, and fair share responsibilities to benefit the entire school
  3. Counseling programs must maintain and enhance the total school counseling program
  4. Counselors need to stay involved in professional development and contribute to the knowledge base with other professionals

7. List (by letter, number and title, e.g. A5a Appropriate Referrals) the ASCA standard[s] that pertain to this section:

A.1. Responsibilities to Students

A.2. Confidentiality

A.3. Counseling Plans

A.5. Appropriate Referrals

A.6. Group Work

A.7. Danger to Self or Others

C.1. Professional Relationships

Part III: Goal Setting

Your first goal has been started for you. Complete points a-d for this goal.

  1. Goal I: To create and maintain a learning environment that recognizes and supports a diverse population

a) Discuss the importance of the Action Plan with rationale and programs to be used to address the following program indicators and intended effect (e.g., academics, attendance, behavior):

Counselors must be “culturally responsive” to support and recognize a diverse population and develop and action plan to build a school culture that is supportive and inclusive to all students. Action plans also serve as important information in the design of the calendar used to communicate what the counselor is doing for all stakeholders to see (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012). To promote a positive learning environment, school staff must respect different cultures and races, and acknowledge different perspectives. Programs used to support and address academics, attendance, and behavior will consist of guidance curriculum and closing the gap activities to benefit a diverse student population.

b) Program indicators

  • Low income and minority students will be encouraged to participate in GT or advanced placement courses/programs.
  • There will be an increase in student achievement and test scores for subpopulations
  • Student suspensions and expulsions will decrease significantly each year.
  • Students will engage in appropriate behavior and social skills resulting in decreased discipline referrals.
  • Multiple coordinated support systems will exist to ensure students’ academic, social, emotional, and physical well-being.

c) Student competencies

1. Students will acquire interpersonal skills and establish academic, career, and personal/social goals and seek information from faculty, staff, and peers.

2. Students will acquire self-knowledge skills and take responsibilities for their own choices and actions.

d) Program evaluation

1. List the measurement instrument(s) for assessment

-Results Data

-Perception Data

-Achievement-related Data

-Student-achievement Data

2. List the baseline, follow-up information and evaluation plan

-Data over time (Immediate, Intermediate, and Long Range)

-Monitor student progress

-Meet with advisory committee to review, evaluate, and revise counseling program

3. List (by letter, number and title, e.g. A5a Appropriate Referrals) the ASCA standard[s] that pertain to this section:

A.1. Responsibilities to Students

A.3. Counseling Plans

B.1. Parent Rights and Responsibilities

E.2. Multicultural and Social Justice Advocacy and Leadership

Part IV: Goal Setting

Goal II: To provide students with a CSCP that includes a strong emphasis on secondary education and career goals.

  1. a) Importance of theAction Plan :

Counselors should work with individuals on a regular basis to help students succeed in post-secondary education or their future career to explore options and identify their personal skills and interests. Career and technology classes will introduce students’ to education and career opportunities for them to further explore. Setting goals, planning, and making decisions are all important skills needed to prepare for their life after school.

b) Program indicators

  • Learn about the variety of traditional and non-traditional occupations
  • Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations
  • Learn how to interact and work cooperatively in teams
  • Develop skills to locate, evaluate, and interpret career information
  • Learn how to make decisions
  • Learn how to write a resume
  • Understand the importance of planning
  • Learn how to set goals
  • Understand the importance of responsibility, dependability, punctuality, integrity, and effort in the workplace
  • Apply job readiness skills to seek employment opportunities

c) Student competencies

1. Students will develop career awareness through career counseling.

2. Students will develop employment readiness by being placed in a CATE class.

d) Program evaluation

1. List the measurement instrument(s) for assessment

  • Standards and competency-related data will include:

1)Percentage of students with four-year plans on file

2)Percentage of students who have set an attained academic goals

3)Percentage of students who have participated in job shadowing

4)Percentage of students who apply conflict resolution skills

2. List the baseline, follow-up information and evaluation plan

  • The school counselor will manage data.
  • The advisory committee will review and evaluate the data related to student career planning and employment readiness.
  • Appropriate revisions will be made by administration, counselors, and CATE faculty to improve individual student planning related to careers.

3. List (by letter, number and title, e.g. A5a Appropriate Referrals) the ASCA standard[s] that pertain to this section:

A.1. Responsibilities to Students

A.3. Counseling Plans

Part V: Sharing Results

  1. Discuss the importance of disseminating your results from the year to stakeholders. How might you do this?

Results reports help answer the question, “How are students different as a result of the program?” (ASCA, 2012). By collecting data to evaluate the counseling program and the student progress each year, the program can be analyzed for effectiveness and tweaked for improvement. Counselors should share results each year with stakeholders to avoid scrutiny and show their desire to always have a positive impact on the program by constantly improving it. Reports and visuals showing student improvement each year related to student-achievement data, standards-and competency-related data, process data, and results data will show evidence of the programs strengths and weaknesses. Revised action plans can then be used to improve the results for the following year.

  1. List (by letter, number and title, e.g. A5a Appropriate Referrals) the ASCA standard[s] that pertain to this section:

A.9. Evaluation, Assessment and Interpretation

B.1. Parents Rights and Responsibilities

C. Responsibilities to Colleagues and Professional Associates

D. Responsibilities to School, Communities and Families

F.1. Professionalism

Part VI: Reflection

This course made significant contributions to my learning base as a future professional school counselor.Through our text, I learned the importance of being a leader and some of the necessary skills required to achieve this role, which consist of being creative, flexible, courageous, passionate, assertive, cooperative, decisiveness, dependable, energetic, confident, organized, and responsible to list a few (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012). I know I posses most of these qualities already, butcan now begin to work on areas of future growth through this class. In order for me to serve as a leader, I will need to advocate, consult, and collaborate with stakeholders. This can be done by collaborating and teaming to reach out to the community and across disciplines to improve the sharing of resources (McMahon, Mason, & Paisley, 2009). My confidence as a leader has grown and I feel much more prepared to guide a comprehensive school counseling program. My understanding of guidance development and personal traits will be used to encourage, motivate, listen, and show compassion towards students as I help them reach their goals to be successful. I realize that I must always acknowledge and respect my culture and the cultures of my future students to make sure my students and their families feel valued and welcomed by me.

In order to be effective, I realize the importance of continuing my education and being involved in professional development to stay informed with relevant issues to address them as needed. I plan on being a life-long learner, especially when it comes to ever-changing technology to attain information and reach out to others. As a new counselor, I look forward to being mentored and eventually mentoring others in the profession. The ASCA National Model is a framework for counseling programs and an approach to program foundation, delivery, management, and accountability that I will use as my base and implement.

I foresee multiple challenges implementing a comprehensive school counseling program. Preparing oneself for possible scrutiny and criticism can be combatted with informational statistics and useful data. Meeting the needs of ALL students will always be challenging, but possible. Serving a large amount of students will also present challenges of getting to know everyone and determining who needs individual and group counseling. Selecting topics that represent the majority of students for the guidance curriculum may also be difficult.

When presented with a new CDGP, some administration and faculty members may not support the program and disapprove of needed changes. In order to gain their support and help, a program audit could be used to assess the school counseling program to compare it with the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2012). This would communicate the programs strengths and weaknesses in order for others to understand why changes are necessary and the goals of the CDGP.

References:

American School Counseling Association (2012). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs, Third Edition. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Dollarhide, C. T. & Saginak, K. A. (2012).Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McMahon, H., Mason, E.M., & Paisley, P.O. (2009). School counselor educators as educational leaders promoting systemic change.Professional School Counseling, 13(2), 116-124.