Blog 5

Dollarhide and Saginak’s (2012) description of prescriptive and nonprescriptive delivery models (p. 88-9) was interesting to read about in light of the recent interviews I did with school counselors. I found that, in all three cases, the counselors I interviewed used nonprescriptive models of delivery when planning their curriculum. For instance, Phil Hostetter is one of the counselors at McCaskey East High School and bases his career-planning curriculum on the needs of the students. Their primary need is motivation to graduate high school and go on to higher education. He shared with me that in his school, and in most urban schools that he worked in, the students are often the first in their family to achieve either of the aforementioned goals. This creates a challenge for the school counselor to answer questions like, “If life worked out for my parents, why do I have to do all of this extra school?” The key is to target specific grades and cliques of particularly troubled students to show them that the counselors, the school, and colleges care about their future.

                In this same vein, Phil’s experience relates to Schwallie-Giddis, et al.’s (2003) article about the development of ASCA. Phil shared that, although he and his colleagues rarely find themselves asking “What would ASCA do?” when planning their curriculum they find that it is in line with ASCA standards. Primarily they advocate for students who have families that are too busy to play a role in their student’s academic or extracurricular activities.

It seems that most of us are finding that the ASCA National Model is not understood and/or implemented in a realistic school environment, so I think the idea of a leadership summit, outlined by Schwallie-Giddis, et al. (2003) is a non-threatening way to empower professional school counselors (p. 172). By showing the counselors that they are not in trouble—they are already planning their program in the proper ASCA fashion—school counselors will most likely continue to align their program to ASCA standards. I’m still not completely sold on how I would bring ASCA to my school, but this article gave me hope that the process will not consist of “rocking the boat.”

Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs (2nd Ed.). New York:   Pearson, Inc.

Schwallie-Giddis, P., ter Maat, M., & Pak, M. (2003). Initiating leadership by introducing and implementing the ASCA National Model. Professional School Counseling, 6(3), 170-173.