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Deliver - Classroom Guidance Lesson Plan 

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Deliver - Classroom Guidance Lesson Plan 

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Career Aptitude Inventory Lesson Plan BRIDGE Bill

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Deliver - Results of Implicit Bias Tests and Reflection

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Deliver - Results of Implicit Bias Tests and Reflection

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I decided to take the Race IAT and the Religion IAT (Project Implicit, 2011).

The results of my Race IAT were, "your responses suggested a slight automatic preference for African Americans over European Americans."

This did surprise me, as I considered myself neutral when it comes to race. I think the knowledge acquired during my studies while earning my Master of Social Work degree may have affected these results. My knowledge of the barriers to success that Black people face from a young age has led to the belief that they must work harder to reach the same success points as White people. This knowledge also makes it difficult to interact with the more conservative White people that make up the majority of the population where I am from, which has left a negative impression. Moving forward, I may need to watch how my bias towards White people affects the assumptions I make about their understanding of racial injustice in our country.

The results of my Religion IAT were, "your responses suggested no automatic preference between Islam and Christianity."

This result surprised me because my past experiences with outwardly identifying Christians and Christian churches have been mostly negative. I experienced profound sexism and racism in a Christian church for years before I was an adult and find most of the openly Christian people I know to be judgmental and uninformed. I don't know much about Islam at all, so to be neutral on these two is interesting to me. I expected a negative bias toward Christians to be identified, which I do have concerns about considering the predominantly Christian population that I work with. I do my best to correct these biased automatic thoughts when they pop up with students, so I wonder if I did the same while taking the test.

References

Project Implicit. (2011). Take a test. Retrieved from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

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Manage - School Counselor Competency and Reflection

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Manage - School Counselor Competency and Reflection

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My self-rated results of the School Counselor Competency Assessment (ASCA, 2019) indicated a distinguished rating under the professional beliefs category. I think many of these mindsets are fundamental to those interested in working as a School Counselor. Without these mindsets, it would be difficult to understand what a school counselor's motivation would be for working in the field. Under Behaviors: Professional Foundation, I rated myself a 3-5 in all but, "2. Demonstrates understanding of educational systems, legal issues, policies, research and educational trends" (ASCA, 2019). To address this, I plan to take the Ethics and Legal Issues course in the Fall 2023 quarter. Under Behavior: Planning and Assessment, I rated myself a 3-5 in all but, "6. Uses time appropriately according to national recommendations and student/school data" (ASCA, 2019).  I find that I spend more than 20% of my time in program planning and school support activities, as we are responsible for 2 hours of lunch duty once or twice a week and are also responsible for creating students' schedules. This takes a significant amount of time because we are also over the 250:1 student-to-school counselor ratio that the ASCA recommends. I'm aware that my supervisor is trying to have some of these duties assigned to the assistant principals and has successfully transferred responsibility for the master schedule and special education scheduling for individual students to one of the assistant principals. We are, unfortunately, still responsible for the rest of the scheduling duties.

My strongest areas included "1. Demonstrates a working knowledge of developmental, learning, counseling, and education theories" and "6. Demonstrates understanding of the impact of cultural, social, and environmental influences on student success and opportunities" (ASCA, 2019). I believe I was able to rate myself so high in these categories because of my educational and professional background in clinical social work.

I'm fortunate to be part of an established team of school counselors, which is what I give credit for most of my satisfactory+ scores. I'm grateful to be learning on the job!

References

American School Counselor Association (2019). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association

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Define - Core Beliefs and Personal Philosophy of School Counseling

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Define - Core Beliefs and Personal Philosophy of School Counseling

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One of the core beliefs at the forefront of my practice as a school counselor is that a student's abilities can not be accurately assessed until they've been provided equity in the learning environment from day one of their education. This involves addressing a variety of factors that make equity so difficult in our school systems - systemic racism, poverty, trauma, and access to quality education, among others. In order to advocate for every student, the school counselor must address these inequities in a way that reaches as far as possible, with consideration for the school counselor's professional position in the school system. This is why the ASCA National Model and its application to each school is so crucial to our practice. It is an opportunity to incorporate interventions that will help bring equity to each student's educational experience. The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors guide the work of school counselors by providing specific guidelines for maintaining the highest standard of integrity as leaders and professionals, and assisting school counselors in making decisions that help to protect students and school counselors by providing standardized practice expectations to be followed across the profession (ASCA, 2019).

One way that I can imagine I will utilize these competencies relates specifically to systemic racism in my high school, as I live in a rural southern county, and instances of overt racism can still be witnessed on occasion. I would like to begin by defining the term "covert racism" and examples of acts that an individual may engage in that could be encompassed by this term. I would need to conduct research on the topic and utilize peer-reviewed sources to focus my own assessment of its prevalence in my school. Next, I would engage in assessing the prevalence of covert racism, both in our teachers and administration, as well as in our student population. I would begin by pulling reports related to disproportionate discipline, student achievement, and any other areas where systemic racism can be seen in the school environment in which pre-existing reports are available and assessing these to identify any areas where inequities are statistically significant. Additionally, I'd use surveys specific to both groups to gather a pre-intervention prevalence rate. If results indicate that there is a need for intervention regarding racism in the school, I would engage in further peer-reviewed research to determine what interventions have been successfully utilized in schools similar to my own in the past. After delivering these interventions, I would exam the same reports pulled previously and have the same two groups (teachers and admins/students) take a post-intervention survey to see if the intervention was successful at the high school. Continuous assessment would be needed over time to see how frequently the intervention should be delivered, if it proved to be successful.

Vision Statement:

The vision of Tatum High School's Comprehensive School Counseling Program is for all students to receive the equitable educational experience necessary to maximize the academic, career, and social/emotional development needed to achieve career and college readiness by graduation.

References

American School Counselor Association (2019). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association

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Assess - Researching the Effectiveness of School Counseling Programs

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Assess - Researching the Effectiveness of School Counseling Programs

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Article Reflection

As a first-generation college student, myself, I selected this article because I was particularly interested in its findings. I serve the rural area of Jesup, GA. According to results of the 2020 Census, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, only 19.5% of those over the age of 25 in Jesup, GA have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher (2021). This means that a majority of the college-bound high school students that I will work with will be first-generation college students (FGS). I thought the information included in this article could prove helpful to developing my philosophy of school counseling.

Interestingly, Brookover et al. (2022) identified three broad themes in their research regarding how college-hopeful FGS experienced comprehensive school counseling services: received school counselors’ emotional, motivational, and tailored support, increased social capital through accessing school counselors’ knowledge and skills, and benefited from varied modalities of structured support. In each category, Brookover et al. found that proactive school counselor-led efforts supported the participants’ persistence, motivation, and confidence while they prepared for a college education.

For the students who discussed receiving school counselors’ emotional, motivational, and tailored support, having their school counselor show individualized interest in them positively impacted their college preparation experience (Brookover et al., 2022). Examples of this include a counselor that sent a student links to scholarships for which he was qualified, individual sessions focusing on another student’s future plans and the steps necessary to reach those goals, and a shared experience for all participants in which their respective school counselors provided support with applying to college and searching for scholarships – which Brookover et al. (2022) note was assistance that would be otherwise attainable at home. Additionally, participants of Brookover et al.'s study discussed that the emotional support provided by their respective school counselors made a difference in their decision to not give up. They noted that prompt responses, being available for individual social/emotional support sessions, and assisting in the development of coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety increased confidence (Brookover et al., 2022).

Additionally, the participants’ ability to utilize school counselors’ social capital helped them to overcome multiple barriers that were unique to FGS in their pursuit of a college education (Brookover et al., 2022). Brookover et al. (2022) pointed out that these barriers included financial concern, lack of personal knowledge, and their families’ confusion around the process. Examples of this include school counselors who contacted financial aid representatives outside of the school system to address financial barriers and school counselors who contacted personal and professional contacts to assist with issues with a participant completing the FAFSA (Brookover et al., 2022). One participant stated that they wouldn’t have been able to attend college without the help that their school counselor provided (Brookover et al., 2022). Another participant discussed that their school counselor helped them to access free college applications, which opened up a number of opportunities for his education that he wasn’t expecting to access (Brookover et al., 2022). Participants noted that the school counselor kept their families involved and informed, which helped to address the hesitations they had about their child going to college – further extending the students’ social capital to their families (Brookover et al., 2022).

Finally, the Brookover et al. (2022) discussed how participants benefited from a variety of modalities of structured support provided by their school counselors. Both direct and indirect school counseling services played a part. These services included: open door policies for individual counseling, college application essay reviews, high school course planning in preparation for college courses, small group interventions catered toward FGS, access to physical and online scholarship centers, and availability of an outside financial aid organization representative (Brookover et al., 2022).

There were a few highlights from the information obtained in this study that I took away after reading and analyzing it. The preference for proactive personalized support and service vs. student-initiated services stood out to me. With the often-overwhelming number of students on any school counselors’ caseload, this can be a difficult service to provide; however, the results of this study made the importance of school counselor-initiated services clear. The identification of the parents of FGS as a vital support system also left an impression on me. After all, the parents and families of FGS will be the support system that they continue to have access to as they progress in their college education.

Unfortunately, the only interaction I had with a school counselor in high school was to initiate the transfer of records to another high school at the end of my junior year. I don’t recall any large-group interventions provided by our school counselor, either. I attribute this to the fact that there was one school counselor for a school of almost 2,000 students. I never had issues that would’ve stood out in a population that large to identify me as a student in need of intervention, either.  Until I was told I’d need to contact my school counselor about transferring my records, I wasn’t aware that schools had school counselors. In the time since I was in secondary education, school counseling has come a long way in being a support for students.

References

Brookover, D. L., Boulden, R., Hanley, E. M., & Johnson, K. F. (2022). “she went above and beyond”: How comprehensive school counseling programs benefit first-generation college students through personalized support. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 95(4), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2022.2080632

U.S. Census Bureau quickfacts: Jesup, Georgia. United States Census Bureau. (2021, April 26). Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/jesupcitygeorgia/EDU685221#EDU685221

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She Went Above and Beyond How Comprehensive School Counseling Programs Benefit First Generation College Students through Personalized Support