Standards, of course, are not a new idea to good teachers. The idea of setting academic goals for the year, teaching to those goals, and periodically assessing students' progress toward them is the essence of effective teaching. Writing these standards down is important, though. Schools must be held accountable for teaching to them, and students must be assured that similar content is covered elsewhere should they transfer.

Over the past decade, states, districts, and national groups have been writing and releasing academic standards in all disciplines. And they're rarely without controversy. The voluntary history standards, released by the National Center for History in the Schools in 1994, were lambasted for being too politically correct. And California's math and science standards were criticized for de-emphasizing basic skills like computation and overemphasizing discovery-based learning.

The states, districts, and sometimes even individual schools that go through the process of writing curricular standards say the arduous task is well worth it. Schools and communities are forced to articulate their expectations for their public schools, thinking through curricular issues thoroughly. For standards to be successfully developed and implemented, the community as a whole needs to understand why standards are important, what the standards are, and how, as community members, they can support them.

Community groups like local education funds have recognized that setting standards is a powerful means to promote equity and excellence for all students. They work closely with school districts to read and analyze statewide or national standards then adapt them to their community. Local groups are also champions for standards' longevity. The public's attention span can be short; there must be stakeholders involved who recognize that standards must continually be updated and who will be willing to hold educators accountable for children's education long after the standards have been written and public attention has ceased.

The PEN initiative to involve communities in standards-based reform is designed to support the efforts of LEFs to promote community-based models of standards to raise the achievement levels of all children. The initiative, which goes from the beginning of 1998 the end of 2000, builds on the work of LEFs that are actively engaged in standards-based school reform and will enable them to intensify and showcase their efforts. It will also extend to LEFs not currently involved in the standards movement an opportunity to begin this work in their communities and to learn from LEFs that have had more extensive involvement in this effort.

During this first year and a half, grantees will review the standards (national, state, and local) affecting the children in their community; analyze student achievement in relation to those standards; publicize the results of the analysis; and develop a local action plan with a range of stakeholders to address gaps in performance among groups of students. Grantees will participate in a national public awareness campaign focusing on the role of community-based organizations in promoting standards-based reform.

Pick up any national newspaper today and you'll most likely find an article about students' dismal scores on a new statewide test. Because curriculum standards, in place in most states for the past decade, have raised expectations, students now face much more difficult tests of what they know and are able to do.

States are still developing and refining standardized tests to reflect these higher expectations. Without such tests, policymakers argue, high standards are an empty promise.

But educators are increasingly chafing under the amount of time preparing for and taking these tests consume. And states where students have recently taken the more difficult exams—like Virginia in 1999 and Colorado in 1998—face the difficult public-relations task of explaining failing grades to an angry and bewildered public. How can students possibly fail, they wonder, given the amount of money each state spends on education? In Massachusetts, students themselves have boycotted that state's test, asserting that test-taking has diverted them from other, more valuable, curriculum. At this pivotal point down the road of standards and assessments, schools are in danger of facing a public backlash against high standards and assessments.

Community groups like local education funds, that have for over a decade pressed districts to raise the quality of education for all children, have a real investment in seeing that state assessments gain acceptance by parents and the public. Through their work with districts, LEFs have come to see high standards for all children as one means—arguably the best means—to promote equity and excellence in public education. Keeping all parties informed—especially as students bring home scores on statewide assessments—will be critical for public buy-in of continuing to aim for higher standards.

LEFs play a valuable role in articulating higher standards and their consequences to parents and the general public. LEFs can take an active part in developing assessments and ensuring that the tests are written with pedagogical, not political, goals in mind. They can push for the use of portfolios or other creative and equitable means of testing students aside from standardized tests. They can hold public forums to ensure that people's concerns and questions about statewide tests receive answers.

LEF Initiatives

PEN's members have adopted the implementation of high standards and assessments as the key strategy for ensuring a quality public education for every child. But for standards to be successfully implemented and supported, the community must take ownership of them.

Through its Standards Initiative, PEN is working with LEFs to promote community-based models of standards implementation. LEFs participating in the Standards Initiative are reviewing the standards in their communities and analyzing for the public how students are meeting the standards. They are developing action plans to involve stakeholders in filling the gaps in student performance. And they are planning to launch a national public awareness campaign that focuses on the roles of individuals and local groups in developing and promoting standards-based reform.

To effectively reach students and classrooms, public educators and reformers must constantly adapt to a changing population. For example, teachers must be trained to educate the increasing number of students that come from homes where the primary language is not English. Also, policymakers must function in a political climate where fewer voters than ever before have school-age children.

Given these transformations, the pivotal task facing educational leaders today is convincing community members, local organizations, and businesses of their integral role in public education.

Schools must build partnerships within their communities in a collaborative effort to perform all the functions involved in educating a child. Community collaboration engages support systems that extend far beyond the reach of a single classroom and family. A direct link between communities and schools must exist in order for communication and problem-solving to take place.

Public engagement does not solely involve crisis management. Instead, effective public engagement requires preventative measures, for instance, including the public in every stage of public education development. Public engagement necessarily determines expectations, cultivates support, and creates methods of reform within public education systems.

We believe that communities care about all of their children and students. We believe that the efforts of community collaboration serve to ground their concerns in real, tangible systems of support.

LEF Initiatives

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Education Foundation conducts an annual Community Assessment that reflects the attitudes, perceptions, and expectations of the community regarding public education. Survey results help the Foundation to re-establish priorities for the next year.

The foundation begins by hosting a series of focus groups that includes parents, teachers, and principals. The focus groups cover a wide range of topics including community long-range planning, student achievement, and family participation. In addition, telephone surveys of registered voters supplement the focus group data. This two-pronged approach gives Charlotte- Mecklenburg the detailed responses and quantitative data needed for scientific study.

Improving the quality of teachers and teacher training has emerged as the most central issue to school reform. If teachers don't accept or understand reforms, the thinking goes, any innovative reform will be useless. Although there are a few poor teachers just as surely as there are a few bad doctors, incompetent teachers are not the problem. Instead, communication and learning among teachers and reformers is the key to more effective professional development, and thus improved student learning.

Teachers are rarely consulted about how to improve conditions in the classroom and reforms accepted by district leaders are often not communicated to the very professionals responsible for implementing them.

Efforts to continue the development of teachers are erratic and inconsistent across the nation and across the span of a teacher's career. Typical "in-service" sessions, offered to teachers a few times a year on topics sometimes wholly unrelated to their disciplines, simply are not adequate to keep pace with the many changes in the classroom and teaching. Teachers must be central to their own professional development. All development should be research-based and incorporated into a teacher's day in the classroom so as to involve the real challenges that a teacher faces.

School and university partnerships have emerged as a promising alternative to improving professional development. In addition, businesses have offered up their own management-training techniques and technical expertise for adaptation in the classroom. Perhaps most exciting, though, are the emerging programs that allow teachers to train teachers. Mentoring programs give veteran teachers a chance to work with newcomers to the profession, guiding them in classroom techniques and training. And peer review—teachers evaluating fellow teachers—is another way for teachers to learn and improve from the expertise of their colleagues.

Community groups take an active role in teachers' professional development in various ways. They can serve as neutral conveners for teachers and officials to discuss their expectations for professional development. They can actively seek out promising practices in other communities for strengthening professional development. And they can help evaluate the progress of professional development efforts while keeping in mind the goal of better outcomes for students.

LEF Initiatives

The Los Angeles Educational Partnership's Los Angeles Teacher Networks provide peer support, exchange of teaching ideas and information, and innovation for more than 3,000 teachers. The networks provide access to experienced teacher practitioners who serve as coaches or mentors for other teachers. They include online sharing of ideas and materials as well as teacher-led professional development workshops, conferences, and specialized training (such as in the use of technology).

The networks serve teachers in five areas, including technology, science, and humanities. Grants and stipends may be given in support of innovative instructional activities. The networks promote teacher innovation and leadership, encourage risk taking, provide collegial support for teachers, and support the free exchange of ideas and information.

Technology in the classroom--connecting to the Internet, teaching computer basics, using CD-ROMs in lieu of textbooks--has the potential to open the world to students. They can take virtual field trips to anywhere in the universe, make their world maps come alive, or exponentially improve their library holdings simply by knowing which keys to press and which Web sites to visit.

However, researchers are quick to point out that students need far more than a computer in the classroom to improve learning. Once the computers are purchased, teachers must receive training on using the computer, for instance. And maintaining computers has proved to be beyond the technical capacity of many districts.

Money spent on technology is money not spent on other pedagogical priorities such as decreasing class sizes, offering more professional development for teachers, or taking field trips. Before district officials work toward technologically equipping their schools, they need to work with parents and the community to define expectations for technology and set budget priorities.

But the potential for technology is undisputed. Technology can and has ignited learning in just a few short years. In that time, though, educators have learned to be more savvy about how they spend money on technology and the most effective ways to target their resources. This effort, though, takes time and familiarity with the latest research.

Local education funds have an obvious grant-giving role to help put more computers in schools. But their leverage can be much greater than simply giving computers away. Because they work outside the district administration, LEFs can play a vital role to ensure that technological resources are distributed evenly throughout the district or region. And they can provide the district with research that helps determine how best to focus their resources within the large realm of education technology.

Past experience has shown that education technology cannot be viewed as a one-time capital expense. Budget officers might be tempted to phase out a technology budget after the computers are purchased. But computers need constant upkeep and updating; teachers need ongoing professional development to make best use of the computers they have in the classroom. Community groups, then, can work to guarantee that districts spend their money equitably and wisely. And they can ensure that resources are allocated to ensure computers' long-term usefulness.

LEF Initiatives

To address the shortage of technology in schools, New Visions for Public Schools launched Project FIRST in 1994. Project FIRST recruits and trains AmeriCorps National Service Members to serve as school-based technology coordinators. The members repair and upgrade computers and provide training to students, teachers, librarians and the community in computers, software and on-line services. As a result of the technology coordinators' work, schools have formed computer clubs, teachers have integrated technology into curricula and students have used desktop publishing to produce school newsletters and Web sites.

This year parents also serve as AmeriCorps members. Given the high levels of unemployment that often characterize the neighborhoods of Project FIRST schools, this option serves the dual purpose of providing parents with a marketable skill while they work for two years to improve their school and community. Further, by developing technological expertise at the local level, the community can continually build on the foundations that Project FIRST works to establish.

More than sixty schools have participated in Project FIRST since 1994, building a lasting legacy of increased technological know-how and a spirit of involvement and volunteerism that engages and empowers school communities.

Counseling and Educational Excellence: A Response to "A Nation at Risk". In Brief: An Information Digest from ERIC/CAPS.

A review of the reports on excellence in education would suggest that the student is frequently viewed as a non-person, and that his/her motivation, needs and interests are insignificant in improving the quality of learning. Recommendations consistently refer to what should be done to and about students. Only rarely are students' attitudes and feelings discussed, or the effect of these on student involvement in and response to schooling.

Student excellence will, in the long run, depend on the attitudes, values and decisions of individual students. We can legislate the length of the school year, extend the school day, and provide more rigor in the school curriculum. However successful these changes may seem to be, their ultimate effect on educational excellence will depend on how students respond to them, and on whether they personally value the proposed changes and see them as meaningful in their own lives.

It is absolutely essential that we pay attention to the persons for whom change is intended. More than anyone in the school, the counselor is in a position to interpret the student to educational decision-makers and to emphasize the importance of understanding and working with students. Conversely, counselors have a unique role to play in helping students understand their options and make wise and informed educational choices.

Choice by the learner is and always will be an important aspect of American education. The way to improve education is not to take the choice away from those who will be most affected by choices, but to improve their ability to make their own decisions.

NEW IMPERATIVES FOR COUNSELORS

Our current crisis in education, like all crises, confronts us not only with serious problems and challenges, but also with new opportunities. The opportunities for counselors to contribute to educational excellence can be described in the following set of imperatives.

Provide an Increased Emphasis on Learning and Cognition

The orientation of the counselor is to view students as whole persons, not to separate a problem or concern from those who are experiencing it. Yet to help students master present and future challenges, counselors need to assist them in analyzing and improving their learning efficiency. Through assessment of basic learning style, use of time, learning/study habits, attitudes, and decision-making skills, counselors can identify areas for student improvement. How a student manages his/her learning is as important as how the curriculum is constructed. To focus solely on the curriculum and ignore the learner will negate much of what is desired.

Diffuse Guidance and Counseling Throughout the Curriculum

To be most effective, guidance and counseling need to be thought of as integral parts of the curriculum. They are not special services or curricular add-ons, but a vital force within the school environment. Frequently designated as comprehensive guidance, this approach establishes specific goals and objectives for guidance at each grade level and utilizes a wide variety of techniques and approaches to achieve them. Comprehensive guidance programs call for a high degree of flexibility and resourcefulness on the part of counselors. It is the counselor's responsiblity to help all students through a variety of learning modes and activities, to gain greater insights into themselves, and to make the plans and undertake the actions which will enable them to achieve their potential as effective learners and contributing citizens.

Incorporate Life-Career Planning in Counseling

Students perform best when they see that their learning leads to a high-priority personal goal. Establishing and working toward important life goals is a powerful motivator for students to undertake difficult learning tasks. A continuously reviewed and upgraded life career plan for each student can become the focus of his/her educational effort--it can become the glue that binds together many disparate educational activities and experiences.

Plan for Professional Renewal

The ability of counselors to contribute to the excellence of the school and the attainments of individual students is strongly influenced by counselors' own level and recency of knowledge. Counseling is not a craft to be practiced as it was by one's predecessors. A continually changing society requires that the counselor know the culture and be able to communicate with students about it. In particular, counselors need to understand the major changes that technology is bringing to all spheres of our information society.

They can profit by their own renewal, as well as by their capacity to facilitate the learning of others in the judicious use of computers and other high technology. They need to be consumers of technology and, more importantly, program designers--persons who take the lead in describing which technology can be nd what content can be presented appropriately through technology. Counselors who are neither given the opportunity for nor reinforced in continuing their professional growth will serve as poor role models for others; they will also be unable to untilize the resources which would most likely help students achieve their goals.

Assess Personal and Program Effectiveness

Positive change in programs and services depends upon having a systematic procedure for establishing objectives and assessing outcomes. An important responsibility for the counselor is to insure a regular and systematic assessment of individual and program effectiveness. Exotic and complicated research designs are not needed as much as commitment to the systematic collection of data about what is offered to students in the way of assistance and counseling, and what kinds of outcomes or changes are the result of what has been provided. The emphasis here is the commitment to continually examining and re-examining programs and practices and to using the insights gained from that analysis to make changes and refinements in the program.

Students "competently guided" to acquire the capacity for making mature and informed judgments, for securing gainful employment, and for managing their lives so that they are personally rewarding--it is to these ends that counseling is directed. Counselors who see this as their role and bring their many talents and skills to the task can contribute enormously to a "renaissance" in guidance and in the schools. The consequences of such an emphasis are not totally discernible, but are likely to produce individuals who have both the know-how and the vision to master the tasks that confront us as we approach the twenty-first century.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

French, Michael P. THE COUNSELOR'S ROLE IN THE SECONDARY READING PROGRAM: SELECTED ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS. Paper presented at the annual meeting fo the Wisconsin State Reading Association Spring Conference, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, March 18-20, 1982. ED 216 341.

Griggs, Shirley A. COUNSELING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES. Jamaica, NY: St. John's University, 1983. ED 237 879.

Herr, Edwin L., Jean A. Thompson, and Garry R. Walz. THE ROLE OF COUNSELING IN ACHIEVING EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE. Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse, 1984. ED 251 785.

Krick, Robert L., and Earl J. Moore. THE LIFE CAREER ASSESSMENT: A STRUCTURED INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE FOR COUNSELORS AND ADVISORS. GEORGIA COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE SERIES. Columbia, MO: Missouri University, Department of Counseling and Personnel Services, 1980. ED 222 849.

Lawrence, William W. HOW TO DEVELOP A BETTER GUIDANCE PROGRAM. Paper presented at the National School Boards Association Convention, San Francisco, California, April 23-26, 1983. ED 241 889.

McLaughlin, Betty L., and others. STATE OF MAINE COMPREHENSIVE LIFE-LONG GUIDANCE PLAN. Augusta, ME: Maine Personnel and Guidance Association; Maine State Department of Educational and Cultural Services, 1981. ED 230 845.

Owens, Clinton R., and William C. Berryman. HOW TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE PROGRAM: LEADERSHIP MANUAL. PROFESSIONAL RENEWAL OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING PERSONNEL. Project Renew 77. Montgomery, AL: Alabama State Department of Edcucation, 1980. ED 201 810.

Walz, Garry R., and Libby Benjamin. SHAPING COUNSELOR EDUCATON PROGRAMS IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS: AN EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE FOR THE COUNSELOR OF TOMORROW. Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse, 1983. ED 237 867.

This Digest was prepared for the ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services, 1984.

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This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under OERI contract. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or the Department of Education.

ERIC Identifier: ED357317
Publication Date: 1993-00-00
Author: Bleuer, Jeanne C. - Walz, Garry R.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services Ann Arbor MI.

Striving for Excellence: Counselor Strategies for Contributing to the National Education Goals. ERIC Digest.

Achievement of the six National Education Goals adopted by President Bush and the nation's governors will require changes in our present educational system, change in how our communities respond to education, and especially change on how education is visualized. More than anything else it requires a new level of collaboration by significant individuals and groups and a full commitment by the community. What is needed is "...an education revolution," a basic change in how education is envisaged and the manner in which it is delivered.

Counselors have always played important roles in ushering in new educational goals and priorities. Whether helping students at risk to acquire the insights and skills supportive to their staying in school or assisting all students to make appropriate career choices and plans which are important to both the students' and the country's future, counselors have played a significant role in providing support for educational priorities. To participate in the achievement of the six National Education Goals, counselors are shifting their efforts to focus on student learning and achievement to a higher degree than ever before.

CONTRIBUTIVE PROGRAM STRATEGIES

1. Adopt a "comprehensive guidance" program model. This model provides for the systematic delivery of guidance as a curriculum organized around a sound theoretical framework, rather than a set of loosely related services. Features of the model that are particularly relevant to the National Goals include: (a) a focus on student behavior outcomes; (b) delivery of coordinated guidance services K-12; (c) attention to all students' developmental guidance needs; and (d) program evaluation and accountability.

2. Reach out to the community to involve parents and other community members in both the determination of guidance priorities and the delivery of counseling and guidance services. Meeting the guidance needs of all students in a school cannot be done by two or three counselors. However, counselors who play a "brokering" role by coordinating the many valuable contributions that others can make can significantly extend and enhance the guidance services that students receive.

3. Encourage collaboration and teamwork among the various education specialties. If teachers, counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other education specialists can be freed from a concern about "turf" issues, they can devote more time and energy to a concerted effort to achieving the National Education Goals. @4. Emphasize the mission of a guidance program to be the facilitation of better student adjustment as an intermediate outcome that enables students to achieve better academic performance rather than better student adjustment as an end in itself.

SPECIFIC COUNSELOR INTERVENTIONS

Goal 1. All children in America will start school ready to learn.

Counselors can:

* Assist in the selection of appropriate kindergarten screening instruments.

* Provide staff consultation on the interpretation of test results.

* Coordinate the kindergarten screening process.

* Interpret test results to parents.

* Provide information and support to parents.

* Work with Head Start and other pre-school programs to provide a smooth transition for students entering kindergarten.

Goal 2. The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent.

Counselors can:

* Help each student establish meaningful education and career goals.

* Identify and work with potential dropouts, individually and in small groups, at an early stage.

* Work with teachers, parents, and students to insure that individual students are able to stay at grade level.

* Address student attendance problems at an early stage.

* Interface school and community dropout prevention resources.

* Provide a caring and mentoring environment for students.

* Provide counseling to students whose personal and family problems interfere with their school performance.

* Help students whose parents do not value education to develop an understanding of the importance of a high school diploma in today's competitive job market.

* Assist schools to use alternative approaches to assessment that, through meaningful feedback to students, motivate them to learn.

Goal 3. American students will be competent in the core subjects.

Counselors can:

* Assist students to develop effective study skills and habits.

* Help students to assess and make use of their individual learning styles.

* Establish programs that respect and reward student achievement in the core subjects.

* Provide consultation and/or individualized student assessment to help teachers diagnose specific learning problems of students.

* Work collaboratively with teachers to develop individualized study plans for students experiencing difficulty.

* Collaborate with teachers to undertake action research studies that compare the effectiveness of various education and counseling interventions.

* Help students overcome performance blocks due to test anxiety.

Goal 4. U.S. students will be first in the world in science and mathematics achievement.

Counselors can:

* Emphasize the importance of math and science in the workplace.

* Encourage students to enroll in math and science courses.

* Help students explore career opportunities in math and science.

* Encourage girls and minorities to enroll in math and science courses.

* Help students who have had difficulty in math and science in the past improve their study skills or develop new study strategies specifically for math and science.

* Assist students to examine and discard fears or negative attitudes towards preparation for careers in science and mathematics.

Goal 5. Every adult American will be literate and possess the skills necessary to compete in a world economy.

Counselors can:

* Work with dropouts and potential dropouts to get them involved in adult education programs.

* Provide career guidance that informs students of the basic skills necessary to compete in today's job market.

* Encourage students to view learning as a lifelong process.

Goal 6. Every school will be safe and free of drugs.

Counselors can:

* Help parents and teachers recognize the signs of early drug use by students.

* Work collaboratively with special counselors employed in drug prevention programs.

* Help students learn how to overcome peer pressure.

* Work with administrators and teachers to develop and implement effective group guidance programs for preventing crime and violence in schools.

* Provide counseling to victims of violence.

CONCLUSION

Motivation is a complex psychological state that involves both the affective and cognitive domains. Without personally meaningful goals and objectives, both short and long term, students are not likely to put forth the effort that is needed for them to attain academic achievement. Counselors can help students develop these goals.

"School counselors are often the only mental health professionals to whom students will have access and they are the professionals who bridge the academic and affective domains in students' lives" (American School Counselor Association, 1992). By adopting a clear commitment to helping students achieve educational excellence and using a collaborative, community-based guidance approach, counselors can become a strong force for the attainment of the six National Education Goals.

REFERENCES/RESOURCES

Gysbers, N. C., et al. (1990). Comprehensive guidance programs that work. Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse.

Lester, J. (Ed.) (1992). From pilot to practice: Strengthening career development programs. Washington, DC: NOICC and U.S. DOE Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Available from NOICC Training Support Center, Stillwater, OK (405) 743-5197. (ED 357 306).

"Meeting tomorrow's challenge: A message to Ohio's counseling professionals." (1991). Columbus, OH: Ohio State Department of Education. (ED 347 459)

NOICC. (1989). The National Career Development Guidelines. Local handbooks for elementary schools, middle/junior high schools, high schools, and postsecondary institutions. (ED 317 875 - ED 317 879)

"School Counseling 2000: A packet to guide school counselor presentations." (1992). Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association.

Tomlinson, T. (1992). "Hard work and high expectations: Motivating students to learn." Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

Walz, G. R. (1991). "CounselorQuest: Concise analyses of critical counseling topics." Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse. (ED 330 984)

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Jeanne C. Bleuer, Ph.D., NCC, is Associate Director of the ERIC/CAPS Clearinghouse at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Garry R. Walz, Ph.D., NCC, is Professor of Education and Director of the ERIC/CAPS Clearinghouse at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

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This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education under contract number RI88062011. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of OERI or the Department of Education. ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced.

ERIC Identifier: ED377414
Publication Date: 1994-06-00
Author: Allen, Jackie M.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services Greensboro NC.

School Counselors Collaborating for Student Success. ERIC Digest.

Living and working in a world class society with information age technology at their finger tips, all educators are challenged to improve their communication and collaboration skills. Current trends and issues in education, and specifically in school counseling, indicate the importance of collaborating for student success.

THE ISSUES

From a business and industry perspective Total Quality Management principles are being applied to educational reform. The concept of inclusion of all major publics in school improvement planning has led to the development of strong linkages between internal and external stakeholders. Support networks at the regional and local levels are being formed to foster system improvement and facilitate optimum student learning.

Many educators believe that the school should be a community of both adult and more youthful learners. An essential ingredient in the development of such a community is the quality of interpersonal relationships. Those relationships need to be collegial, cooperative, and interdependent. School improvement requires efforts both from within and from outside the school in order to develop a community of learners. Collaboration for student success is an integral part of educational reform.

School counselors have often been perceived as being apart from, or separate from, the mainstream of education. Over the last 15 years well known national education reports, such as "A Nation At Risk", have had a conspicuous absence of references to school counseling. In the current educational reform literature a specific role for the school counselor has not yet been defined. School counselors themselves must define their part in educational reform.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COLLABORATION

REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION

An organizational structure which encourages collaborative efforts will demonstrate evidence of: administrative support for shared-decision-making; an organizational philosophy which encourages integrated or multi-disciplinary efforts; leaders ready to restructure with enthusiasm for change; recognition of the interdependence of organizations in society; a past history which is collegial; availability of financial support and time for skill training; and opportunities to develop collaborative efforts.

BENEFITS OF COLLABORATION

Integrated services models, in which several providers such as school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers work together, as in the Education Development Center project on "Integrating Pupil Services Personnel into Comprehensive School Health and HIV Prevention" enhance the possibility for student success. In working with the "whole" student through a comprehensive developmental counseling and guidance program it makes sense for the school counselor to coordinate the delivery of school-linked and community-linked services. The school counselor is the site-based professional best positioned and trained to coordinate comprehensive health and career programs for students. Collaborative efforts provide a diversity in services and approaches, a cost effective method of program and service delivery, an integrated approach to the "whole" student in the community of learners, enhanced expertise from a varied bank of resources, and improved programs and services.

THE COLLABORATIVE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR IN

EDUCATIONAL REFORMIn defining the role of the school counselor in educational reform, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) has provided bold and visionary leadership through the development of a pamphlet on "The Professional School Counselor's Role in Educational Reform". During the 1994 National School Counseling Week an ASCA Summit was held in Washington, D.C. During the Summit significant collaborative efforts were initiated with a number of agencies and associations in government, education and business. At that time ASCA proactively announced the school counselor's role as facilitator and change agent in the local school community. Collaborating with the Goals 2000 Panel, ASCA is working to make that change agent role known across the country. It is now the responsibility of each school counselor to adopt the Summit model, implement their role, and begin collaborative efforts in their local school.

A paradigm shift is needed in both school counselor role and school counselor function. To demonstrate their role change, school counselors must move out of the counseling offices into the community. The school counselor is the most appropriate educator to facilitate "a culture of collaboration" in the local school community. As a human relations specialist, a facilitator of team building, a resource broker of services, an information processor, and a promoter of positive student outcomes, the school counselor as change agent develops and nurtures collaborative relationships by facilitating change through programs of prevention and intervention for all students. Developing a culture of collaboration at the local school will unite students, faculty, staff, and the community in a common vision and mission to prepare each student to be successful in school and to acquire the essential skills for successful employment, responsible citizenship, and lifelong learning.

OTHER COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

American School Counselor Association. (1990). The professional school counselor's role in educational reform. Alexandria, VA: ASCA.

Barth, R.S. (1990). Improving schools from within: Teachers, parents, and principals can make the difference. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Shine-Ring, A. (1991). Cohesive factors which promote and enhance interagency collaboration and divisive factors which impede and/or prevent collaboration. Unpublished handout.

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Jackie M. Allen, Ed.D., NCC, NCSC, MFCC is a school counselor and school psychologist in the Fremont Unified School District, Fremont, California and President of the American School Counselor Association, 1993-1994.

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ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated. This publication was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Contract No. RR93002004. Opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions of the U.S. Department of Education, OERI, or ERIC/CASS.