When I started reading Chapter 6, the delivery model that I
was immediately drawn to was The Results-Based Program Delivery Model. It
hooked me with the statement, “A nonprescriptive delivery model, results-based
school counseling focuses on all
students achieving identified educational, career, and personal/social
competencies to be successful in school and beyond high school” (Dollarhide
& Saginak, 2012, p. 95). The focus on the word “all” made me really happy
to see because I believe that the large chunk of middle-level students is the
ones that most frequently get left behind. Being middle-level is the story of
my life. I was an average student, average athlete, not a discipline problem,
secretary of Honor Society (never President), etc. and it has taken me my
entire adult life to carve out a niche for myself and learn my own strengths. I
would have highly benefited from a Results-Based Delivery Model that instituted
the philosophy that “…we must focus on efforts to ensure that school counselors
have the data and knowledge they need to lead schools’ efforts at increasing
academic achievement for all students and closing the gap between groups”
(Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p. 95).
I was
also drawn to the idea that this type of model is both proactive and preventative,
while providing developmentally appropriate solutions for students. This is
something that I want to focus on for my CSCP project because I think that
developmental guidance is much needed in the school system. Students can be
super “book” smart, but lack the fundamental knowledge to be able to make it in
college and beyond. However, these sorts of life skills need to be taught
different ways for different age groups. In addition, after coming off of
almost a year of intense scrutiny by the Middle States Association at work, I
have been living and breathing assessment and have come to understand its
importance in programming. “Within a results-based program, counselors use
assessment and evaluation data of student needs to select, design, and
implement results-driven programs that achieve results” (Dollarhide &
Saginak, 2012, p. 95). If you cannot back up your work with concrete data, this
will prevent you from advocating for more time, resources, etc. within your
program.
I also
am still thinking about our class discussion last night surrounding the idea of
things we think school counselors should not be doing. I think when we are
fully entrenched in our new positions as counselors we will probably be doing things
that we are not “supposed” to be doing. I think it is really important for us
to learn to advocate for ourselves and our professions now, instead of waiting
until we are in the moment to do so. I know in my current position at work that
I am asked to do a lot of things that fall outside of my job description and
while we joke that these things are part of that elusive “other duties as
assigned” category, it is important for me to learn how to advocate for myself
and for what I should be doing (which is what I was hired to do). I think we
can all find areas of our lives now that we can start “practicing” this
advocacy to make our jobs just a little
bit easier when we get there.
Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs (2nd
Ed.). New York: Pearson
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