Final Blog - Listen to the Voices

Final Blog - Listen to the Voices

This article has come at a time when we are wrapping up the semester and I am thinking about practicum.  I have been wondering if I should go for primary or secondary or both.  I made a list of some of my favorite parts of school counseling are here were my top 5:  1. Helping students with personal issues 2. Career planning 3.  Teaching social skills 4.  Removing barriers/ advocacy 5.  Utilizing multiple intelligences.  So when I read this article and I read the emerging priorities of middle school and high school counselors I felt most in line with middle school counselors followed by high school counselors. 

I sincerely had an ah-ha moment when I realized that naturally preferred.  The authors state, “The results suggest that the middle school counselors were significantly more strongly involved than the elementary and high school counselors on student-related tasks” (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009, p.8).   Speficially there are more involved in social/ personal tasks.  Middle school students need more support making decisions as they experiment with moral reasoning and independence. 

I am also drawn to career planning.  I love personality tests, skill assessments, helping people discover their identity, set goals, and forge a path is all very exciting to me.   The authors state, “Career and Postsecondary Development subscale, the highest mean scores came from the high school counselors” (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009, p.9).  A secondary certification would probably lead me to more opportunities to focus on career development.  Academics and career planning run hand in hand at the secondary level. 

I could also integrate my appreciation of multiple intelligences when helping middle school and high school student acquire academic resources.  The authors state, “data revealed that middle school counselors placed a stronger emphasis on helping students acquire skills related to improving grades than did the elementary, K-12, and high school counselors” (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009, p.10).  Again I am really drawn to the academic side of school counseling.  On a personal note when I began this journey I use to be a really successful sales-lady but I felt empty pushing a product I didn’t believe in so I took a job at the University of Phoenix so I could get more school and try to figure out what I wanted.  As an academic counselor I helped students navigate their degree program and slowly I began to build relationships with them.  I began to care and I wanted to help them make it to graduation. I made up career tools and personality tools never really knowing there was a science to it.  I realized that education changes lives and education was a product I could sell and really feel proud of it.  I think when I read this article and reflect back upon the reasons that drew me to school counseling I would feel most at home as a middle school or high school counselor. 

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192. doi:10.5330/PSC.n.2010-12.182

Week 14

            As one might expect, it will take many years to fully implement the changed model for school counseling as outlined in the ASCA National Model.  It is not surprising to see that many counselors still practice in a way that is reflective of the profession when they were originally trained.  This does point out the need for continued professional development for all counselors.  But equally, this points out the need for entire school systems to be aware of the changes in the profession and to make adjustments to its counselor expectations in line with those changes.  Even more so when the recognition and alignment comes from the state as a whole, schools and counselors will not only be encouraged but required to make changes to align with new models of counseling programs such as the ASCA model.

            I am left wondering why the high school counselors in the study (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009) were the least aligned with the ASCA national model.  Could that be because in some sense high school counselors feel they have less time to be proactive leaders in setting the agenda for a school counseling program.  Perhaps unlike the other levels their schedules are more dictated by the calendar:  class scheduling time, college application time, graduation time, etc.  Perhaps elementary and middle school counselors are given more latitude to design a program and plan which activities they will initiate. 

            As I contemplate the fact that the ASCA model is new for many practicing counselors who were trained before its inception, I wonder what new models will appear as we are in practice.  I would not assume that the current ASCA model will  forever serve as the guide and gold standard for the understanding of the school counseling profession.  What model will be developed in 10 or 20 years from now?  And will we be able to adapt and be conscientious about developing the skills we might be asked to have in the future in order to align ourselves with any emerging models?  Most fields are ever evolving, and therefore we will need to also be ever evolving. 

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192. doi:10.5330/PSC.n.2010-12.182

Professional Development Needs for Counselors

In reading this weeks journal article, I was not surprised at the limited amount of professional developments available for school counselors, but it is something worth discussing. Without professional developments, it makes the ideas of collaboration not just between colleges but also between districts and states more difficult. It will be important for school counselors (with or without the mandate) to have access to professional developments to further enhance our experiences and the experiences that we provide to others. “Awareness and understanding is power and motivates school counselors' desire to align beliefs with behaviors for the benefit of improving student achievement and school success” (Stone & Dahir, 2006). What a powerful statement. This mentality should be at the crux of all school based counseling and interventions. 

 

During my time at Millersville we had professional developments for the graduate assistants and other professional staff members about once a month. The student staff of resident assistants combined with the graduate assistants had professional trainings twice a semester. In contrast with the studies I have read about the amount school counselors receive, it appears I've had more professional development opportunities while being in a less important spot. This seems to be amiss as the role of a school counselor (as we all know) is incredibly important, and opportunities for us as counselors to hone our skills or collaborate with fellow counselors is of the utmost importance. I guess I just do not follow the logic, school boards meet more frequently than we as counselors have opportunities to develop ourselves further as professional members of the school climate. 

 

The take away message from this article, as well as from this class is that there are many aspects to our job that may not be “dead give away's” that they are very important. Thus our role as counselors must incorporate a piece where we educate others in understanding the significant importance of things like, professional developments, and mental health awareness and education (Gestalt, Rogers, Ellis etc)  to not only increase the positive nature that counseling can have on an individual client, but ideally to increase peer relationships so that there is a more positive experience to be had by all in the school. Unfortunately, if I've learned anything, it is that there is just a lot of educating to be done. This will only be accomplished when incorporating sensitivity and understanding. No two person's experiences will be the same and with that we must be willing to meet others where they are and still provide assistance and support. 

Dahir, C., Burnham, J., and Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: school counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192. 

Blog 14 - Nakia Eckert

I found this article to be extremely interesting and a great wrap-up to our semester. At the beginning of this semester, I have to admit that I was not a “believer” in the ASCA National Model and thought that School Counselors just did what their Administrators told them to do. Going through this class and building a Comprehensive School Counseling Program with my group has taught me that learning this model and learning how to implement it are essential to the development of our profession both for us and for the future of School Counseling.

It was nice to read about how the ASCA National Model has had an unprecedented influence on the profession of School Counseling. We are lucky that others have done the hard work of building these programs in the schools, but there is much left to be done and we have our work cut out for us in both the implementation of CSCP’s in schools that do not already have one and in upholding the hard work of others in schools that already have an established program. Therefore, it is extremely important that we, as future School Counselors, establish the foundation of our attitudes and belief systems before entering into a school district. This is something we started this semester in our CSCP projects, but is also something I believe we have to work more on before we can say that we have fully refined our belief systems. 

The article states that, “despite the profound influence and impact of the ASCA National Model on professional school counselors, our review of the literature has not revealed research on school counselor readiness to embrace and implement this new way of work” (Dahir et al., 2009, p. 3). Despite the survey given to the counselors that did show an increase in priorities, there is still much work to be done so that counselors feel that they are supported in all that they do. The article also stated that if changes are to be implemented, the people that should be the ones to drive those changes are the School Counselors. They are the ones with their ears to the ground with the students and school district policies as a whole and should be the primary voices for change. This is something I look forward to and School Counselor rights and needs are something I will advocate for so that everyone can benefit.

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192. doi:10.5330/PSC.n.2010-12.182

Blog # 14

           After attending the PSCA Conference over this past weekend, I saw firsthand how professional development can propel school counselors to the next level. One of the sessions I was privileged to go to was about advocacy and getting all stake holders on board with your program, mission and goals. I really got to see how systemically advocacy works at all levels. Much of the knowledge I gained from the session, I had knowledge on, but not the level of knowledge I know have and things I can do within a school myself when I become a school counselor at any level.

          Professional development is so important to becoming a more knowledgeable, and skillful school counselor. There is always room for improvement; creative ideas and lessons to teach, collaboration and consultation that can be used to increase effectiveness of programs. School counselors as well as all stake holders need to be held accountable for the programs implemented in the school setting. As the article by Burnham, Dahir & Stone (2009), points out, process skills, managing resources to motivate students to be successful, and using data driven evidence and outcome research is extremely important to having quality programs and skilled school counselors.

          In looking at the research in the article, I was not surprised to see that middle school counselors scored highest on readiness to implement programs in the personal/social domain; however I was surprised that elementary school counselors did not rate higher considering I would think they would need to be able to develop student's personal and social skills. The article noted that there were differences on school levels across elementary, middle & high school, but that is something that would be common based on the fact that at each one of the school levels, the students have different needs that are of most importance. School counselors that receive the correct trainings in delivering needs assessments and deciding what students at each level need, one can see why there are differences among grade levels. I do not necessarily think that is a bad thing but I do believe that the differences should not be so big that counselors are not being effective in all the areas of a comprehensive school counseling program.

        I personally feel better prepared to go out into the world and become a school counselor and implement programs into a school. Professional development is something that is always ongoing and I feel as though no one person could say that they do not need to learn anything else throughout their counseling career.


Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Blog 14

The article by Dahir and Stone was interesting and it continued the idea that school counselors will need to use data to address equity within the school environment.  The article also talked about the ASCA National Model and why it is important along with a comprehensive school-counseling program.  They went on to discuss the first state to adopt the ASCA National Model, which was Alabama, which to me was surprising that they were so ahead of the game in this area.

            The Alabama Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance State Model was referred to as the “State Plan” (Dahir & Stone, 2009).  The State Plan resides on three zones: school counseling and guidance programs are based on specific student knowledge and skill content; school counseling and guidance programs are outcome-based; and school counseling and guidance programs are developmental and comprehensive in scope and sequence (Dahir & Stone, 2009).

            The first part of the “State Plan” seems to be academic in nature and a school counselor can collect data from students and staff to make sure this part of their plan is continuing to grow that will also show effectiveness.  The school counseling and guidance programs seem to be classroom education and also data driven, because the program is outcome-based, what is the end result of what you as the school counselor are doing or what is the research of the program you developed and how is it working.  Lastly, this plan wants measurable data that transfers from building to building and longitudinally so that the effectiveness of this “State Plan” can be seen, measured and proven as per the ASCA National Model.

            We as school counselors have heard about collecting data before, and some of us really don’t like it, however, if it is between collecting data to prove that you are doing your job and a good job and losing your job you should collect the data if you love and are passionate about your job.  I love my job that I have right now, and I often have to collect data on behaviors along with keeping short-handed notes for progress reports.  The data shows whether or not the client is meeting their goals and how often with percentages.  This is valuable for my employer because this determines the clients hours for their next evaluation or if medications need to be changed.  Children are constantly changing and so are their family structures.

            Other states and school districts should be looking at this type of research so they can benefit from it.  Not just because there will be a lot more people in the world with school counseling degrees that are looking for a job but because the work of a school counselor is important and life changing for some of the children, parents, teachers, and community who they come into contact with. 

Reference

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192. doi:10.5330/PSC.n.2010-12.182

Last blog ever

Before starting this course, I admit that I wasn’t entirely convinced that the ASCA National Model should be the prescriptive model for school counseling programs. After learning much more about it and having the opportunity to actually participate in creating a template for such a program, I am entirely convinced of it’s value. Although I didn’t really need any further confirmation, this week’s reading certainly reinforced this belief for me, although I did find it interesting to read about some of the differences among counselors at various levels. According to the results of a survey of school counselors implementing the ASCA National Model in Alabama, middle school counselors were more likely to be involved in student-related tasks, such as helping students use interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to develop and manage relationships. I was not surprised to read this, as this seems to be the target age group for when problems in this area start to present themselves. I was also not surprised that the high school counselors placed greater emphasis on addressing academic and career planning, although I think that the career planning component in high school should be part of a comprehensive program that builds on specific goals and activities for each grade level and begins in elementary school. Middle school counselors were also more likely to be involved in academic development, which I found somewhat surprising, as I thought high school counselors may have similar influence in this domain. I also enjoyed reading about the professional development needs of counselors at various levels. Since career and academic development were not identified as priorities for elementary counselors, it makes sense that these topics were identified as a training need. Hopefully as these counselors feel more comfortable with their knowledge in these areas, they will place an emphasis on delivering high-quality programming in these areas. Middle School counselors seemed to be most competent in addressing all domains, while high school counselors identified a need for professional development related to creating a broader vision of beliefs and priorities about the importance of comprehensive programs, as well as issues related to classroom guidance, group counseling, and personal/social competencies. I am happy that we have already participated in a number of courses focusing on these issues in this program, so I definitely don’t identify these areas as deficits for my future work in a high school. However, some areas of potential focus for my professional development may include such issues as social justice skill development and strategies for collaboration with teachers and other school and community members (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009). Dahir, C., Burnham, J., and Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: school counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Blog #14

            I found the “Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs” article extremely interesting.  I have spent the last few years trying to figure out what grade level I would like to work with.  I have finally come to the realization that I won’t know the answer to that question until I actually go out and do the job.  As a result, I am anxiously awaiting my practicum experience next fall.

As we come to the end of this Guidance Program Development class, I can truly say that I feel prepared enough to work in a school as a counselor.  As I take a moment to reflect, I can say that my interests have definitely changed over the past few years.  When I first started in the program at Millersville, my interests were focused around career development for students.  However, as time went on, I slowly recognized that I am equally interested in investing my time to help children grow personally and socially.  This is why I have become highly interested in learning more about the middle school experience.  The article states, “The results suggest that the middle school counselors were significantly more strongly involved than the elementary and high school counselors on student-related tasks (e.g., helping students acquire the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to develop and manage relationships, making decisions, preventing problems)” (Dahir, Burnham, and Stone, 2009).  When I read results like that in a study, it does make me that much more interested about the world of middle school.

This Guidance Program Development course was challenging to me on many levels.  First of all, it was filled with a pretty heavy course load.  Taking this course along with two other grad courses and working full time was probably not the best idea (live and learn).  Secondly, it provided me with the realization of what it is going to take for me to be an effective counselor within a school.  It also put things in perspective and showed me that a school counselor job is not going to be easy.  It takes hard work, dedication, compassion, and a special kind of human being to be able to thrive and survive in this career.  Third, I have learned from this class that it can be super easy to focus on the negative aspects of the school counseling career.  I will challenge myself to stay positive and continue to focus on the real reasons why I chose this career path.  Focusing on the small victories and continuing to smile will always get me through the tough times.

Dahir, C.A., Burnham, J. J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12 (3), 182-192.

Post #14

I had mixed feelings about some of the findings and suggestions in the article we read this week.  Dahir, Burnham, and Stone (2009) found that high school counselors were the lowest ranking of all levels on School Counseling Priorities, School Setting Perceptions, Personal-Social Development, and Program Management, while achieving the highest scale scores on the Career and Postsecondary Development subscale.  They suggest that based on these findings, “high school counselors would benefit from a stronger understanding of the value of classroom guidance, group counseling, and work with students around issues embedded in the personal-social development standards” (Dahir et al., 2009, p. 191).  I would tend to disagree with the first two suggestions, while agreeing with the third.  Based on my shadowing and interviewing experience with high school counselors, I believe that high school counselors are aware of the benefits of classroom guidance and group counseling, but high school teachers may not be.  The high school counselor I interviewed explicitly said, “It is very difficult to get into classrooms to teach guidance lessons [in the high school].  Teachers are very hesitant to share their instructional time due to all of the standards and time constraints they are dealing with.”  She suggested that one way around this issue is to collaborate with teachers and co-teach lessons that address both guidance needs and the core curriculum.  The high school schedule and teachers’ hesitation to release students from class also makes planning small group meetings a difficult task.  For instance, the students who might participate in a grief group would most likely be assigned to different lunch periods and flex periods.  Those times are essentially the only part of the day when students are not involved in direct instruction, so finding a way to accommodate the students who might benefit from participating in a group during the school day becomes an especially arduous (although not completely impossible) task.

As for the third suggestion that high school counselors would benefit from working with students around issues embedded in the personal-social development standards, I would say that I had similar findings when evaluating the curriculum of 3 high school guidance programs for our CSCP project.  As I researched, it quickly became evident to me that if high school guidance programs covered personal-social development issues at all, most of them did so within the first two years of high school.  After those first two years, nearly all of the curriculum is focused on academic and career development.  However, I would argue that when preparing students to transition out of high school and into the great big world of college and careers, the school’s role is about much more than simply academics.  Students need to be prepared to think independently and rationally when making decisions.  They need to feel confident on their own two feet.  They need to know that friendship transition can and will happen.  They need to learn how to navigate relationships with complete strangers in a shared-room situation.  Perhaps these are things that high school guidance programs believe are adequately addressed in the first two years of the high school curriculum, or perhaps high schools rely on colleges to take over in educating students on such topics during freshmen orientation, or perhaps they believe that life experience will be the best teacher.  Whatever the case may be, if I am a high school counselor someday, I would find it beneficial to distribute needs assessments to upperclassmen which would cover topics in the personal-social domain.  I may also be interested in polling former students through web-based surveys to determine if they found any areas of their high school’s guidance program to be lacking as they look back on their experience in high school and transition into the world of work or college.

Reference

Dahir, C.A., Burnham, J. J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12 (3), 182-192.

Blog 14

There have been numerous times throughout this semester that I seriously questioned myself as to why I wanted to become a school counselor.  Yes, I knew that I wanted to in some way or another work with children, and I definitely enjoyed being in a school environment. This article definitely gave me the push that I am pursuing a career I had always dreamed of having.  In addition, many individuals in my school counseling cohort, also known as friends, have motivated me to stay in the program because they see the potential I have to be a school counselor.

                Reading over in section in the article (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009) also served as a confirmation that becoming a school counselor was the profession I had always dreamed of becoming.  Many of the sections definitely hit on past experiences that I can apply to becoming an effective school counselor.  One of the biggest topics that was brought up in the article multiple times was that school counselors must be able to collect, analyze, and present data.  It made me know that the education I received at the graduate school I attended previously would not go to waste.

                At my old graduate school, a whole academic year was devoted to learning how to collect and analyze data.  Projects ranged from learning how to use SPSS to learning the concept of syntax and implementing programmatic codes in SAS to analyze data.  I also learned that computing statistics was not where the data stopped, I had to be able to understand the results of the data I analyzed.  I also gained experience being a teaching assistant and laboratory manager.  My responsibilities ranged anywhere from training students in experiment protocol  and guidance on pursuing a graduate education to teaching students about research and statistical methods.  Working with undergraduate students definitely emphasized the fact that I wanted to work with students in some manner.

                In addition to working with undergraduates, I also was able to work as an advocate for LGBT graduate students on campus at my prior graduate school.  I was able to successfully present the need for an LGBT resource on campus for graduate students to the graduate student union and it was approved.  On top of having Prism recognized on campus as an LGBT graduate group, I was also able to successfully have funds allocated to the group by the university.

Dahir, C.A., Burnham, J.J., & Stone, C. (2009) Listen to the voices: School counselors and               comprehensive school counseling programs.  Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Final blog

The results of the ASCNPD Survey in this week's article, Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (Dahir, Burnham, and Stone, 2009) came as no huge surprise.  First, school counselors held similar priorities and beliefs about their role as school counselors and their impact on the schools was similar across the board. I would hope that, no matter what level a school counselor works in, he/she would still strive to achieve the highest standards for their students.  It was also no surprise that high school counselors placed a higher emphasis on career awareness than did middle and elementary level counselors.  This is a time when students are directly faced with the decision on what to do after high school, so career is a significant part of a CSCP at this level (Dahir, Burnham, and Stone, 2009).  

I was somewhat surprised at some of the findings of the study.  Looking at the personal/social sub scale, it is a slight surprise that middle school counselors were more involved in student-related tasks than elementary and high school counselors; I would have guessed that elementary would have had the highest score, because counselors at this level seem to be more focused on students' personal/social well-being. However, Middle School is typically the area of greatest need when it comes to student personal/social issues, so I think this finding is a positive one.  I am also slightly surprised that middle school counselors place a stronger emphasis on improving grades.  While middle school is a significant time of academic transition, if I were to guess I would think that high school counselors place more emphasis on this due to the fact that grades during these years "count" the most for college and post-secondary program admittance.  Apparently I am not the only one who is slightly surprised by these findings.  In this study, "the middle school counselors attained the highest mean scores in all of the areas an appeared to be the most closely aligned to the principles of the State Plan and the ASCA National Model," and this finding contradicts previous studies that suggest that elementary school counselors are "most closely aligned in beliefs, priorities, and practices to the ASCA National Model" (Dahir, Burnham, and Stone, 2009).  

I have learned a lot about the ASCA National Model throughout this semester.  I must admit that I am nervous and a bit overwhelmed to think about implementing a CSCP, especially if I am hired in a district that does not already have one in place.  It is a very large undertaking that I would think that, in reality, takes years to implement effectively.  I am glad to have had this experience so that I am more well-equipped to take on this job some day. 

Reference:

Dahir, C.A., Burnham, J.J., & Stone, C. (2009, February)  Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs.  Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.