I believe that every student can achieve anything they set their mind to. I believe that every student can achieve excellence regardless of their socioeconomic status or cultural identity. I believe that every student can become problem-solvers and overcome challenges. I believe that every student can learn skills to cope with the ever-changing world we live in.

The School Counselors' Role in Advocacy

I believe that a school counselor’s role is to keep the well-being of every student in mind regardless of the situation. It is the role of the school counselor to advocate on behalf of the student to administrators, community members, and guardians. It is the role of the school counselor to keep the school's achievement in mind and advocate for the most support possible for every student. An example of advocacy on behalf of the school counselor includes collaborating with colleagues on an Individualized Education Plan for student while also communicating the importance of keeping the student's health and well-being in mind while accomplishing the requirements necessary. It is also the role of the school counselor to communicate and keep up to date with stakeholders and administrators to ensure the best school counseling program possible for the well-being of all students.

The American School Counselor Association (2019) curated the Ethical Standards for school counselors to serve as a rulebook to ensure the safety of all students and counselors. Ethical standards guide a school counselor’s work to keep the counselor safe from harm by students or self. The ethical standards also serve as a guide to keep the client safe from harm due to many actions including confidentiality, appropriate collaborations, advocacy, managing boundaries, foreseeable damage, bullying, abuse, and evaluations and assessments (ASCA, 2022). One example of how meaningful the ethical standards for school counselors are shone through in ASCA ethical standards (2019), A.1.a. Have a primary obligation to the students, who are to be treated with dignity and respect as unique individuals. This ethical standard is the basis for all work that school counselors do regardless of audience. This ethical standard comes into practice every day as the school counselor works with students in real life.

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

American School Counselor Association. (ASCA). (2022). ASCA ethical standards for school counselors. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. 

When breaking down my scores into assessment categories, I found that the lowest rated area was in Professional Foundation Behaviors, 9, Create systemic change through the implementation of a comprehensive school counseling program (ASCA, 2019). When comparing scores among sections, this score surprised me the most. I consider myself a highly professional person for the stage I am at in life, however, finding that my score was lowest of all sections in a professional behavior area is baffling. When breaking down my area of weakness, using data to identify how school, district, and state educational policies, procedures, and practices support and/or impede student success, B-PF.9.c. (ASCA, 2019) is rating very low. I believe the reason for this is because of my low comfortability level with data. I am improving slowly with the use of data and have improved since the start of this quarter, however, there is a lot of room for growth in taking and analyzing data to benefit a school counseling program for me. 

One area in particular scored a 100%. That category was Planning & Assessment Behaviors, 6, Use time appropriately according to national recommendation and student/school data (ASCA, 2019). When evaluating my assessment results, this score comes as no surprise to me. I am a planner and scheduler at heart. Thus, this area is no challenge for me as I am always willing to prioritize my schedule and advocate on behalf of my time and for our students' time. Although this area is scored the highest, there is always room for improvement here and in other categories. For me, I recognize that there is a lull in scores that relate to data or cultural education. I have recognized that I have a lack of experience taking and analyzing data, thus as I work with data more and do my research, I will become more comfortable with these categories. My cultural education, on the other hand, will always be growing. I believe that there is always something to learn about other cultures, thus as I continue to gain experience as a school counselor, I will always try to grow my knowledge in other cultures. I don't believe that my score for these topics will ever increase as there is always something our there that I will try to grow my knowledge in for the betterment of my students. 

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

The selection of this article came from the relation to my personal community and work with the stakeholders for my future as a school counselor. I work closely with the school district and their students for the betterment of student well-being, thus my personal drive for my work is honored by the work done with our children’s well-being and safety in mind. When coming across this article, the idea of using classroom intervention with a basis of self-efficacy delivered by a school counseling program is what appealed most to me. Self-efficacy focuses on the child’s ability to judge themselves on a task at hand. Thus, the development of self-efficacy is important to increase confidence and improve education in children. If school counseling programs are unable to help deliver classroom lessons based on social/emotional health, then students suffer from the lack of support. 

 

This research article explains the effectiveness of a school counseling program delivering classroom intervention based on increasing self-efficacy among first graders. Using the pretest-posttest design, this research randomly assigned 5 first-grade classrooms to a set of 12 lessons based on self-efficacy or just core curriculum. Using the Self-Efficacy Teach Report Scale (SETRS), it was found that students who received classroom lessons on self-efficacy improved their overall self-efficacy from the pretest to the post-test. Most importantly, this research sought to prove that students benefit from a school counseling program delivering lessons to classrooms. Based on the results of this study, it has been found that students benefit overall from receiving lessons in the classroom delivered through a school counseling program (Bardoshi, Duncan, & Erford, 2018). 

 

In comparison to the work that I have done with and for school counselors, I have found that the implementation of social/emotional classroom lessons has overall benefited the children receiving the lesson. School counselors can often find themselves questioning whether they have been benefiting the students they work with. With this study and the work that I have seen from past and current school counselors in rural Wyoming, I have seen the benefits pay off for our children. Based on these results, first-graders take in the information and pay out later through confidence and educational achievement, these are the same results found in my community based on the use of confidence boosting curriculum used. 

 

Bardhoshi, G., Duncan, K., Erford, B. (2018). Effect of a specialized classroom counseling intervention on increasing self-efficacy among first-grade rural students. Professional School Counseling, 21 (1), 12-25. https://www.doi.org/10.5330/1096-2409-21.1.12

            Based on my results from the Weapons IAT, I found myself moderately surprised by my results. I have previously recognized my biases toward Black Americans and their associations with weapons and know that I do have a bias based on my past experiences. Being raised in a traditional White household, I have come to terms with the biases I have been raised upon. Although because of these, I have also found myself continually seeking opportunities to do better and learn from these biases. I am thankful for being able to take these tests to bring to light the specifics of my implicit associations with Black Americans. 

            Although like many I am sure, I found myself thinking that I would rate lower on this test. Since reading through my results, I found that I rate with the highest percentage rating of web respondents for this test specifically. From this, I have gathered that even though I would like to think that I do not have any automatic association for weapons with Black Americans, I still do show a moderate automatic association. Because of this, I will continually work to stay aware of this bias and recognize that I can do better. 

            I appreciate that I do not have a strong automatic response, however, I do wish that my automatic response was lower. I love the opportunity to take these tests and see just where our biases stand when it comes to important topics, however, I do find myself questioning how the simple memorization test can prove our personal biases. I would be interested to see the schematics of this test and how memorization of keys correlates to biases. 

            Based on my results from the Disabled IAT, I found myself surprised by my results. I have had little experience with disabled people in the past and recognize that this may be where my personal bias originates from. Living in a small community, much of the population is able-bodied. Thus, the lack of personal experience interacting with the disabled can hinder my biases toward them. Since taking this test, I recognize that although I scored high in my preferences, I am not in the wrong. There is simply work to be done and the first step was recognizing it. 

            I found myself thinking that I would rate lower on this test. Since reading through my results, I found that I do not rate with the highest percentage rating of web respondents for this test specifically. From my results, I have gathered that I present an automatic preference for Able-bodied people and would like to lower that preference to be neutral between able-bodied individuals and disabled individuals. I have found myself wanting to work towards this more and am appreciative of this opportunity. 

            I appreciate that I do not have a strong automatic preference, however, I do wish that my automatic preference was lower. I love the opportunity to take these tests and see just where our biases stand when it comes to important topics, however, I do find myself questioning how the simple memorization test can prove our personal biases. I would be interested to see the schematics of this test and how memorization of keys correlates to biases.