The transformed school counselor chapter 8

 A challenge of school counseling is to show how the school counseling program influences the critical data elements, or the school’s report card.. ASCA Standards and the National Model

Accountability and Data-Driven Decision

Making

The Transformed School Counselor

Chapter 8

Accountability: Success, Not Survival

 Everyone in a school setting is accountable for student success.

 A challenge of school counseling is to show how the school counseling program influences the critical data elements, or the school’s report card.

 Sharing accountability for student success with stakeholders

is a driving force for transforming and reframing the work of school counselors.

 A data-driven approach to building your program will help support and secure the school counselor’s position as a

valued player in school improvement

ASCA Standards and the National Model for

Accountability

 The development of national standards for school counseling programs was the first step in engaging school counselors and stakeholders in a national conversation about program effectiveness and accountability.

 The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model was written to guide the design and

implementation of school counseling program models aligned with the mission of schools and to demonstrate the alignment through accountability.

ASCA Standards and the National Model for

Accountability

 The ASCA National Model reinforces the importance of delivering a comprehensive, developmental, and results- based program.

 The model states the importance of having an accountability system and an organizational framework that answers “How are students different as a result of the school counseling program?”

 Accountability, as presented in the ASCA model, links the work of school counselors to student success.

Accountability Defined

Accountability requires schools to pursue the goals established by the people and their representatives through democratic processes, and to achieve these goals to the extent possible by using the most

effective strategies available.

 Until recently, school counselors were not viewed in the accountability role.

 School counseling was seen as a personal relationship in which counselor effectiveness or services could not be measured or evaluated.

Surveys, Time-on-Tasks, and Results Based

Time-on-task data effectively contributes to an understanding of how school counselors spend their time.

 How many classroom guidance lessons were conducted?

 How many students were seen individually?

 How many small groups took place?

 Time-on-task data is incomplete when used as the only method of accountability.

 The school counseling program is built on the great work that has been done in the past with time-on-task and results-based data and moves in the direction of impact data.

Accountability Supports Equity

 School counselors can affect two contributors to the achievement gap:

 1 low expectations, specifically the pervasive belief that socioeconomic status and color determine young people’s

abilities to learn

 2 the sorting and selecting process that acts as a filter

Building a Data-Driven School Counseling Program

 Critical data elements are important to legislators, school board members, superintendents, administrators, and

parents.

 The transformed school counselor uses data to support students, remove barriers, and develop a program around critical data elements.

Critical Data Elements

 Examining critical data elements that identify the needs of your students is the first step to inform and guide the development of an accountable school counseling program.

 By using data on the entire school population, no students are overlooked.

Indirect Measures of Achievement

 Enrollment in honors, AP, IB,

or college level courses

 Enrollment in general, remedial courses

 Exceptional Student screening and placement

 Gifted screening and placement

 Alternative school enrollment

Critical Data Elements or Report Card Data

Critical data elements include:

Other Informative Critical Data Elements

 Demographics of the internal and external community

 Entry and withdrawal information

Disaggregated Data

–Data separated out by ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status,

or teacher assignment makes it possible to determine how policy and practices affect issues of equity as counselors work toward closing the gap in student opportunities and

achievement.

Steps for analyzing data:

 Start with simple statistics, e.g., averages or percentages

 Disaggregate that piece of data into different units

 Look for data as it relates to time

 Cross-tabulate the data by comparing two sets of disaggregated data

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

 MEASURE stands for M ission, E lements,

A nalyze, S takeholders- U nite, R eanalyze, E ducate.

 MEASURE is a six-step accountability process

that helps school counselors demonstrate how their programs impact critical data.

 MEASURE is a way of using information to target critical data elements and to develop strategies to connect school counseling to the accountability agenda of today’s schools.

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

1 Mission

management of the school counseling program to the mission of the school and

to the objectives of the annual school improvement plan.

The Six Steps of Measure

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

2 Elements

of the available data that are important to your school’s mission.

The Six Steps of Measure

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

3 Analyze

what they reveal, to identify problem areas,

to establish your baselines, and to set your goals.

The Six Steps of Measure

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

4 Stakeholders-Unite

team involved in addressing the movement

of the critical data elements.

develop and implement strategies to move critical data elements in a positive direction.

The Six Steps of Measure

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

5 Results

whether you met your targeted results

The Six Steps of Measure

MEASURE: A Six-Step Accountability Process

6 Educate

stakeholders of the changes in the targeted data elements that show the positive impact the school counseling program is having on student success.

The Six Steps of Measure

Systemic Changes and Other Interim Data

you become a systemic change agent impacting policies and procedures that widen opportunities and empower more students to be successful learners.

 Replicating successful programs and interventions

 Identifying barriers that adversely stratify students’

opportunities to be successful learners

 Maximizing the instructional program, enhance the school climate, raise aspirations, etc.