Fourth Edition

Counseling In Schools

Essential Services and Comprehensive Programs

John Schmidt

•     Intro-School counselors have moved from an emphasis on one-to-one services toward programs that advocate group processes in conjunction with individual counseling.  

•      Counseling-In helping students, parents, and teachers collect information, explore options, and make appropriate decisions, school counselors use a process commonly referred to as counseling, a helping process.

•      Individual Counseling-Counseling is confidential, ongoing processes that consist of specific phases.  The counselee seeks assistance to clarify a particular concern, explore options to resolve this issue, choose a plan or strategy, and be successful in remedying the situation.  Usually involves verbal communications, may involve non-verbal with play therapy and modeling techniques.  Usually last 20-hour.  Time intensive.  Not realistic in large schools.

•       Group Counseling-use in both counseling and guidance. Counselors use groups to address a wide array of preventive, developmental, and remedial issues.  Resistance from teachers stem from scheduling vs. class time. 
  Student Counseling- Students are challenged by critical uses affecting their personal, social, educational and career development so they are the target group.

•      Parent and Teacher Counseling-Sometimes counselors are approached by parents and teachers who seek counseling for themselves.  Counselors need to ask themselves, “should I be providing this service in the counseling program?”  You may listen briefly and decide what services may be needed and where referrals should be made.  

•      Consulting-Consulting can take place with students, parents, teachers and student services specialists, administrators, and community agency professionals.  Consulting is a relationships in which two or more people identify a purpose, establish a goal, plan strategies to meet that goal, and assign responsibilities to carry out these strategies.  The consulting relationship is an informational conference or consultation. 

•     Information Services-School counselors often act as resources for information.  They locate and dispense information to help students make choices about educational, career, and personal goals.

• Community and School Resource-The counselor is available to help parents and teachers locate information in the school system and community to assist with children’s total development.  They make every effort to learn about community resources.

• Career Opportunities-School counselors are trained in career theory and development and are concerned with linking career decisions to educational progress.  Counselors provide information about the world of work and career opportunities to help with early career exploration.  

• Educational Opportunities-Locating education services, programs and opportunities that complement and support student’s overall development.  

• Financial Assistance-School counselors are frequent providers of information regarding financial resources.  Consulting with parents and guardians about where to seek financial assistance is essential for optimal student learning to take place.  

• Instructional Services

• Classroom Guidance-Teachers and counselors collaborate to plan effective educational goals and objectives and create guidance activities for daily instruction.  The major difference between guidance and counseling may simply be the aspect of confidentiality and privacy.

• Parent Education-Parent education programs may be single session, presentations to PTA, or can occur in a series of meetings that focus on parental and family needs.  Counselors may take the role of “expert consultant” or just “facilitator”.  

• Teacher in-Service-Counselor participates in teacher in-services.  They may plan or present workshops on particular topics or skill development.  This opportunity allows teachers see how the school counselor contributes to the overall school mission.  

•  Problem-Solving Services-Counselors attempt to address conflicts that can disable schools if not addressed openly and with genuine regard for all parties.  These consulting relationships, counselors use effective communication skills, support all sides involved in the conflict, and attempt to negotiate reasonable solutions.

• Parent Teacher Conferences-A Teacher may ask the counselor to lead the conference, mediate differences, and facilitate decision making to assist parents and teachers in reaching an agreeable solution.

• Administrative Conferences-Effective school counselors meet with their principals on a regular basis to report the progress of their counseling program and inform the principal about significant events that affect the school.

• Student Services Team Conferences-A team approach.  Generally these teams include the school counselor, a psychologist, a social work, a nurse, an administrator, and teachers.  The main purpose of the student services teams is to follow cases of children and adolescents who are experiencing particular learning and behavioral difficulties.

• Other School Services

• Guidance and Curriculum-Counselors consult with teachers to share guidance objectives and offer suggestions of activities to use in classroom instruction.  

• Individual Student Planning-School counselors help meet individual student needs and assist all students in selecting goals and strategies that will satisfy their aspirations.  Individual education plans are developed for exceptional students. 

• School Climate-School counselors advocate for healthy school climates.  Counselors have a responsibility to see that schools are designed, organized, and governed with the welfare of students in mind.  

• Special Events and Projects-Require a higher degree of coordination but illustrate their commitment to the school and student development.

·         Coordinating

• Data Collection and Sharing

• Test Administration-Several types of tests and assessments; aptitude, achievement and individual tests.  School counselors have the responsibility for ensuring the proper administration of test in accordance with standardized instructions.  Test administration may interfere with the other functions of a school counseling program.  Larger schools may want to consider hiring a Testing Coordinator.  

• Test Results-Counselors assists administrators in understand the schoolwide results and accurately reporting these outcomes to the school system and local media.  The most important role counselors have in coordinating test reports is the use of these data with students, parents, and teachers.  

• Students’ Records-The Buckley Amendment, gives parents of minor students the right to review all school records about their children.  Counselors are aware who has legal access to students folders, get waivers regarding letters of recommendations written on behalf of students and ensure signatures are obtained before releasing records to outside agencies.  

• Referrals and Follow-up- School counselors are the logical choice among school staff to coordinate referrals and follow up in cases of student and families who are being served by outside agencies.  

• Community Agencies- School counselors, as coordinator of referrals for their school, attempt to gather current information about these resources so that students, parents and teachers can make the best decisions about services outside the school.  

• Private Practitioners-Clients may be referred to private practitioners such as private residential treatment centers and hospitals, psychiatrist, counselors, clinical social works, private learning center, etc….

• Schoolwide Events

• Student Recognition Activities-Counselors assist with recognition process by helping teachers to design events and activities for a broad range of objectives related to students’ development.  

• Career Awareness Programs-Students achieve career awareness as a result of learning activities that are cooperatively planned by teachers and counselors.  Counselor may coordinate job fairs, college days, and similar e events to help students survey the range of occupational opportunities available and review the educational requirement of various tracks.  

• Teacher Advisee Programs-To assist with advising students, counselors train teachers in basic communication skills, and assign them students as advisees.  They advise about educational planning and assist with school progress.  

• Peer Helper Programs-Students are selected and trained to perform various helping functions, such as assisting teachers with classroom guidance activities, tutoring, showing new students around and listening to peers who have concerns.  Peer helpers form a communication network to help counselors receive referrals of students who have serious concerns or have difficulty overcoming barriers to learning.  

·         Appraising

• Student Evaluation

• Tests-Standardized test, discussed previously.

• Inventories-assist students with their educational and career decisions.  

• Observations and Interviews-a counselor gathers data by using direct observations and interviews.  Counselors may recommend teachers and parents complete behavior rating scales.  Counselors also interview parents and teachers as part of their evaluation process as well a reviewing student records.  

• Group Assessment-Criterion-referenced tests measure student’s performance in relation to identified criteria or dimensions.  Norm-referenced exams generate scores that compare students and rank them against one another by using scores derived from sample reference groups.  

Environmental Evaluation

• Assessment of School Climate-noted earlier. May utilize a survey to get further information.

• Assessment of Families-By assessing home environments and family functioning, counselors determine the level of support a child or adolescent is receiving from his or her family structure and use this information to see appropriate community services.  

• Peer Group Assessment- The assessment of social peer groups 

Websites

National Child Protection Clearinghouse- www.aifs.org.au/nch/nch_menu.html

National School Safety Center-  www.nssc1.org

Federal Student Aid Online-  www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Peer Helping Annotated Bibliography-  www.peer.ca/Biblio1.html#Intro

Peer Resources- www.peer.ca/peerprograms.html

National Parent Information Network (NPIN)-  www.npin.org/

Chapter 5  Developing a Program

Chapter 5 offers some practical aspects of putting together a comprehensive program of counseling, consulting, and coordinating services in school.

Four phases are utilized; planning, organizing, implementing, and evaluating. 

Planning

·         Assessing the Current Program

• Assess the current program and establish a plan for moving forward.

• Seek assistance from the Principal and teachers through surveys.

·         Seeking Input and Support for Change

• Involve the principal, teachers, parents and students.  

• Establish an advisory committee. 

• Develop a needs assessment instrument and assessment procedures.

Assessing Students’, Parents’, and Teachers’ Needs

• Counselors investigate the needs of the populations to be served.

• Population consists of students, parents, and teachers.

• Variability will depend upon SES, cultural diversity, size, community attitudes, …

• Full spectrum counseling program: preventative, developmental, and remedial services.

• Collecting needs assessments through surveys from parents, teachers and students.

• Use needs assessment to set goals.  

Determining Resources: To create programs that maintain a realistic vision, counselors assess school needs, interpret these data accurately, and determine what resources are available to provide the most effective and efficient services.

• Comprehensive school programs cannot operate in isolation.

• Successful school counselors are adept at soliciting support from other personnel.

• Successful counselors learn about the services and resources in their communities/states.

• Comprehensive programs consist of adequate materials, equipment, and space to do the job.  

Organizing

• Setting Goals

• Summarize data from surveys, interviews, observations, and other assessment processes and present results to advisory committee.

• Determine major goals and objectives for the year.

• Learning-Related Goals

• Service-Related Goals

• Assigning Responsibilities

• The advisory committee can assign responsibilities and motivate and engage.

• Developmental Guidance is the primary responsibility of the teachers.

• Plan strategies for the upcoming year.

• The counselor and advisory committee market the counseling program.

·         Marketing the Program

• Educate people about services abailable to students, parents, and teachers through a comprehensive school counseling program.

• Promote the school counseling profession by counselors being visable in the school and committees.

• Brochures, Newsletter, Column,, Web Site, Speaking Engagements and class presentations.

• Designing a schedule for the counseling program is the initial step of implementing services.

Implementing

• Scheduling Services and Setting Priorities

• Depends on the needs of the school, goals and objectives, and class schedules.  

• Hierarchy of services.

• Time Management

• Posting your schedule

·         Balancing Time

• Focus Group-High Priority for individual and group counseling.

• Schedule must be flexible.

·         Counseling

• Brief counseling—Referrals if need more.

• Establishing Groups

• Needs assessment

• Group Guidance or Group Counseling?

• Informing Administration

• Persuading the faculty

• Research on students’ self concept and beliefs about themselves as learners demonstrates a connection with school achievement.

• Introducing Groups and Selecting Students

• Teachers, parents and students are the referral sources.

• Compatibility of group members considered.

• Counselors want to accept referrals from others, assess situations properly and make informed, responsible decisions about what services to provide for whom.  

• Scheduling Groups

• Frequency and length of time is considered.

• Large group guidance can occur in the classroom in collaboration with the teacher.

• Involving Parents

• Parents should be informed about participation but not asked.

• Consulting

• Parent education and teacher in-service activities.

• Counselors learn about resources In the community for referring students.

• Coordinating

• A significant amount of school counselors time is utilized by coordinating activities and events.

• Appraising

• Assessing the situation, appraising the student, and choosing appropriate services are required.

Evaluating

• Adequate evaluation is essential in determining the value of the services that counselors render.

• A successful school counseling program is one that gets results!

• Evaluation is an ongoing process of collecting data from students, parents and teachers to assess service sand activities.  

• It is an annual process of gathering reactions and opinions as a whole.

• Keep it simple

Web Sites

Strengthening K-12 School Programs- www.therapeuticsource.com

Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Program- www.cnw.com/~deets/guidance.htm

Chapter 10  

Attempts to define and describe the role of school counselors have included an urgency to demonstrate effective practices. 

Some counselors are reluctant toward accountability.  Some explanations might be:

1. The lack of time counselors has to plan and assess their programs.
2. Resistance to measuring what counselors do in helping relationships.
3. confusion about the difference between research and accountability and
4. Fear of what the outcomes might be should counselors gather data to assess their effectiveness.

Or, counseling is such a personal relationship and counselors do so many interrelated activities that it is impossible to measure a counselor’s effectiveness or evaluate a program of service. 

Such avoidance of program evaluation and professional accountability continues as a major barrier to public recognition and acceptance of school counselors as essential contributors to effective education programs.

The focus on testing of students as a primary reform initiative frequently distracts counselors from efforts to design, deliver, and evaluate comprehensive programs.

Program evaluation can include needs assessment, activity evaluations, surveys of students, parents, and teachers, self-rating scales, and performance appraisal processes.

 It is important to have a comprehensive process to evaluate a school counseling program and assess the counselor’s effectiveness in delivering services. 

It is important to train counselors to evaluate programs and counselor effectiveness.  The purpose of the training is threefold:

1. to help counselors gather data with which to plan their own professional development;
2. to enable counselors to make a case of their value and worth for the decision makers who plan school program and services; and
3. to invite counselors to participate in research efforts that lend credibility and validity to accepted practices and the future development of their profession.

Process evaluation-indicates whether the services and strategies planned for the program were carried out and answers questions such as: How many people were served, etc.

Outcome evaluation-as the name implies, in an assessment of the outcomes of the services that counselors provide in comprehensive programs. 

A comprehensive school program assists students in their educational, social, personal, and career development. 

Goal Attainment- Learning-Related goals and Service-Related goals

Student Outcomes-Evaluation on predetermined or prearranged standards.  Compare students in a specific program with ones who have not yet participated.  Ask students about their reactions and involvement in a particular service and use a pre-test/post-test comparison. 

Consumer Satisfaction-In evaluating school counseling services, programs can use empirical measures or perceptual measures. 

Expert Assessment-By using outside experts to gather information, counselors and supervisors increase the objectivity of the evaluation process and thereby ensure more reliable results. 

School Counselor Evaluation-

What Will Be Evaluated? 

How Will Evaluation Be Done?

Observation (systematic and incidental), Audio and Videotaping, Interview, Simulations, Self-Assessments and Portfolios, Products, Consumer Feedback, Schedules and Records, Personnel Memos.

Who Will Evaluate?

Evaluations enable supervisors of counseling services, school principals and counselors to make decisions about which services to expand and which to deemphasize. 

Links

CAREI Research and Evaluation-http:// www.education.umn.edu/carei/Programs

Competencies in Assessment and Evaluation for School Counselors-http:// www.aac.uc.edu/aac/resources/documants.atsc_cmptncy.htm

Research and Assessment Corporation for Counseling, Inc.- http:// www.racc-research.org/