Achievement Plan
As a part of a comprehensive school counseling program designed according to the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) National Model, professional school counselors implement plans and interventions to support students' development of specific knowledge, attitudes, and skills in each of three, interrelated domains: academic, career, and personal/social (ASCA, 2012). School counselors should cover all the student standards in each of these areas, but due to high student-to-school counselor ratios and limited resources, they must prioritize which areas to address first based on school and student needs. School counselors start the process of developing an achievement plan by identifying the areas of highest need through a needs assessment (Hatch, 2014). It is important to be systemic in this process by gathering input from all key stakeholders, not only students, but also parents, teachers, administrators, and other school staff (Erford, 2015). Needs assessments can be simple or complex based on the population being surveyed. While adults and older students may be able to use a rating scale, younger students may need a more developmentally appropriate format such as pictures and smiley faces. School counselors must also be multiculturally sensitive in the creation and distribution of these surveys (e.g., providing copies in Spanish and other languages to non-English speaking families and mailing hard copies home to families who do not have Internet access). I have attached some sample needs assessments below. Hatch (2014) makes an critical point for school counselors when developing needs assessments:
- A very important clarification to make prior to reviewing the sample survey is to ensure school counselors are not asking teachers, 'What should I teach?' Instead, school counselors, who are professionals in their field, determine which lesson content is appropriate to consider and then ask for feedback on what priority teachers give different topics. In this way, school counselors include teachers and garner their mutual investment, but are not looking to them for direction - a very important difference. (p. 116)
After collecting survey responses, professional school counselors must analyze this data in order to choose specific, evidence-based interventions to include in the larger achievement plan. In addition, school counselors are responsible for evaluating this plan and adjusting to fit the changing needs of students over time.
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References:
American School Counselor Association (2012). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author.
Erford, B. T. (2015). Transforming the school counseling profession (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hatch, T. (2014). The use of data in school counseling: Hatching results for students, programs, and the profession. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
American School Counselor Association (2012). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author.
Erford, B. T. (2015). Transforming the school counseling profession (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hatch, T. (2014). The use of data in school counseling: Hatching results for students, programs, and the profession. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.