The Role of the School Counselor in Improving Student Achievement

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The Role of the School Counselor in Improving
Student Achievement

• Eric D. Katz MSAC
• School Counselor, Newburgh Free Academy
• This presentation can be downloaded from
  www.highschoolsnotforever.com
• College Board National Forum October 29, 2005

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Creating a Culturally Sensitive Environment with
a Diverse Population
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What Defines our diverse populations?

• Ethnicity/Culture
• Language
• Sexual orientation
• Socioeconomic status
• Children of divorce
• Transience
• Goths and Jocks
• Physical, emotional, and learning disabilities

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Clichés About Student AchievementorHorror
Stories from the Faculty Room
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Assessing the current climate in your
school/district
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Examples
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Perceived Educational Access

• Assesses the degree to which the school provides
  access for students of both sexes and all
  ethnic/racial groups to instruction in which
  girls or minority group students are sometimes
  under-represented.
• For example, are girls and racial/ethnic
  minorities well represented in high-level math
  and science classes, i.e. AP Courses?

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Perceived Educational Access

• Who is taking these courses? (What the data can
  tell us)
• Who is not? (also what we know from the data)
• Why are certain groups of students NOT taking
  these courses? (what we need to know)
• What are there attitudes, beliefs and/or mind
  sets that need changing? (whose)

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How do we Advocate for ALL Students?
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A working Definition for Advocacy
Advocacy is pursuit of influencing outcomes -
including public policy and resource allocation
decisions within political, economic, and social
systems and institutions that directly affect
people's lives.
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Advocacy has purposeful results

• to enable social justice advocates to gain access
  and voice in the decision making of relevant
  institutions
• to change the power relationships between these
  institutions and the people affected by their
  decisions, thereby changing the institutions
  themselves
• to bring a clear improvement in people's lives

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What do ALL Students Deserve?
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To have parents, advocates, and concerned
educators involved in All Decisions Affecting
Their Education
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Children benefit when parents help to set policy
about school staffing, resource allocation, and
curriculum. Along with genuine parent
participation come improved student attendance,
academic achievement, and more positive attitudes
toward schooling
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Safe and Supportive Adults

• Not all students can find these people at home
• Most students do NOT know the characteristics of
  safe and healthy adults
• Students need to learn how to identify and
  connect with these safe adults.
• See handouts from High Schools Not Forever

Handout 2
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College Application Rates
Suburban HS in NY (data 2003-04)
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• Trail Markers
• And
• Trail Blazers

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Finding Ones Way
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The More Who Have Walked the Path in the Past,
the easier it is for those who Follow

• Immediate or extended family
• Ethnic group
• Gender
• Native language
• Immigration status

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The Trail Blazers

• 1st Generation College Students
• Underrepresented populations
• New Immigrants
• Teen Parents
• Adult and Returning Students

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The Trail Markers

• Mentors from the Community
• Current College Students
• Teachers
• School Counselors
• College Bridge and Talent Search Programs

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Different Ways Students Move Along the Path to
College

• Directed by others
• Research, Research, Research!
• Path of least resistance
• The safe and familiar

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Directed by others

• Friends
• Family
• Teacher
• Counselor
• Advertising

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Research, Research, Research

• College Visits
• Consult with family, teachers and School
  Counselor
• The Internet
• College Guide Books
• College Fairs

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Path of least resistance

• Easy Application
• No SAT or ACT
• No Deadlines
• No Essay
• No minimum GPA
• No specific high school courses required for
  admission

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The safe and familiar

• Live at Home
• Not ready to leave friends
• Frightened by the unknown
• Different rate of maturation

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What if NOTHING felt safe or familiar?
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Remembering Our Path

• can reacquaint us with some of the issues facing
  our students
• can reconnect us with the feelings involved
• can remind us to value each students
  individuality

Handout 3
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As our colleagues focus on school improvement,
the question we might be asked is
How do school counselors impact student success?
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Every School Counselor Committed to Helping
Every Student Achieve and Succeed
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Accountability
is driving the education agenda..
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Its part of the ASCA National Model
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Is School Counselor Accountability
Counting tasks? Reporting numbers? Accounting
for time? Needs assessments? Activity Log? What
do you think?
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Why Do We Too Need to Be Accountable?

• School Counselors can
• show that we intentionally and purposely act
  to close the gap
• focus activities on student achievement
• get involved in school improvement
• use our leadership and facilitation skills to
  impact the system

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MEASURE A Six-step Accountability Framework
Mission, Elements, Analyze, Stakeholders-Unite,
Results, and Educate Working with an Example
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MEASURE is an accountability process for
school counselors to identify and positively
impact the critical data elements that are the
important barometers of student success.
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Mission - Connect to the Mission Of School
  
When school counselors focus their efforts on the
mission of school improvement they widen
educational opportunities for every student and
can positively impact student achievement
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Elements - Identify Critical Data Elements
Your school's success is measured by results,
which are those critical data elements that are
important to the internal and external
stakeholders.
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Is the Situation in Your School to Improve
Access to AP Attendance Graduation Rate Promotion
Rate Post Secondary Going Rate Standardized Test
Scores
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Analyze Critical Data Elements
Which critical data elements need to be carefully
discussed and disaggregated?
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AN EXAMPLE Data Element
Seniors and Post Secondary Enrollment
Disaggregated by Ethnicity
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Ethnic Breakdown of Senior Class
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Seniors and Post Secondary Enrollment by Ethnicity
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What Does the Data Tell Us?
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What Needs to Change to Move the Data?

• Attitudes
• (Which ones and whose?)
• Behaviors
• (Which ones and whose?)
• Teaming
• (New or revisited collaborations?)

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Stakeholders-Unite To Take Action
How do we work together to move this data and
improve student achievement?
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Everyone Contributes - Lets Fill in The Blanks
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Results, Reflect, and Revise
Rethinking.refining.. refocusing.reflecting A
re More 1st Generation Students Applying For
College this Year As opposed To Last Year?
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Educate Others As To The Results
School counselors can show the positive impact
the school counseling program has on student
achievement and on the goals of your schools
improvement plan.
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What do ALL Students Deserve?
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Developmentally appropriate and culturally
supportive curriculum and teaching strategies
offered in languages they can understand
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Full access to a common body of knowledge along
with the opportunity to learn higher-order
skills, i.e. AP Courses. 
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Support services that address individual needs.
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Within a standards based, developmental school
counseling program, school counselors help
teachers to design classroom activities that
strengthen students' academic, social, personal,
and career skills. When school counselors
establish strong links with the community, they
can connect students and families with services
not available at school. Counseling staff should
be culturally and linguistically knowledgeable
about their school's population.
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Schools that are safe, attractive, and free from
prejudice
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A school should pride itself on being an
inclusive democratic community of children and
adults. The administration should model
respectful treatment of adults and children, and
expect all members of the school community to be
respectful of each other. Disrespectful
treatment by adults or students should not be
tolerated. There should be clear consequences,
whether perpetrated by students or staff.
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 Instruction by teachers who hold high
expectations for ALL students and who are fully
prepared to meet the challenges of diverse
classrooms
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Breaking down the Barriers
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Cognitive Barriers
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Emotional Barriers
Handout 4
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Taking Action!

• Assess the current climate
• Remember the emotional aspects (yours theirs)
• Help kids learn to connect with safe adults
• Prioritize your goals
• Set obtainable benchmarks
• Utilize data
• Collaborate!

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References

• High Schools Not Forever (Deerfield Beach HCI,
  2005) by Jane Bluestein and Eric D. Katz