School Transition Plan
Students experience a wide variety of transitions related to their academic, career, and personal/social development. School counselors are responsible for assisting students through these transitions and ensuring their success in all developmental areas. Adolescents in high school are dealing with transitions in identity development, brain development, navigating social relationships, and managing their time between academics, school activities, and sometimes work. Within all of these changes, one particularly difficult transition for some students is moving on from high school to college. Unfortunately, some students do not feel adequately supported by their school counselors during this tough transition (Smith & Zang, 2009; Woods & Domina, 2014). One reason for this may be our inappropriately high school-counselor-to-student ratios preventing school counselors from reaching every student and devoting the proper amount of time necessary to help them explore their post-secondary interests (Woods & Domina, 2014). Another possibility is that we may be devoting time to delivering college and career readiness services to our students, but they aren't perceiving a meaningful impact from these services (Smith & Zang, 2014).
So how do we fix this problem of students not perceiving the impacts of our interventions? With DATA! Professional school counselors need to be using data to evaluate the effectiveness of key components of our comprehensive school counseling programs, especially in regards to our students' college and career readiness. Collecting perception data tells us what the students learned, and we get this data by asking the students (Hatch, 2014). In order to help students perceive their school counselors as providing them with support in their high-school-to-college transition, we need to ask them what they believe, know, and are able to do before and after receiving our interventions. Then we can see where students are seeing our impact and where they might need more support. In regards to what we can do to support students through this transition from high school to college, school counselors can work to help all students develop time management, study, and coping skills to deal with all the changes that come about with the added responsibility and independence of being a college student (Smith & Zang, 2009). At Noblesville High School (NHS), we meet with each senior individually for their "Senior Meeting". During this meeting, we go over their transcripts with them to see where they've been, and discuss their post-secondary plans to see where they want to go. These plans can include attending a 4-year or 2-year college, but we also support other options including technical career programs, the military, and apprenticeships/work opportunities. I have attached a sample of the transition checklist that we use for these meetings below. We also promote a college-going culture at NHS throughout the year, but specifically during College GO! Week (you can see my work on this school-wide initiative under My Professional Artifacts). High school counselors should start this process of promoting post-secondary exploration, planning, and skill development early by delivering these services to students in every grade in order to build a solid foundation for these skills for every student.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a conference at Indiana University Kokomo titled College Pathways: Transitions from High School to College. Mr. Zebadiah Hall, Disability Support Coordinator at Valparaiso University, delivered a passionate and interactive presentation on how high school counselors and special education teachers can best assist students with learning, emotional, and physical disabilities through this daunting transition. Although all students have many added responsibilities when they reach college, these responsibilities can be even more challenging for students with disabilities, and many students with learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drop out of college from the pressure of these challenges (Hamblet, 2014). One specific challenge for these students is that they no longer have a student support team (made up of their parents, special education teacher, and school counselor) advocating for them, and now they must learn how to advocate for themselves. As professional school counselors, it is our responsibility to help all students, especially students with disabilities, gain these self-advocacy skills. Check out the links below to access Mr. Hall's presentation, a resource for improving the transition process for students with disabilities, and sample transition planning documents.
The conference also featured a number of table talks hosted by various stakeholders including college professors, disability services representatives, and licensed mental health counselors. Other high school counselors and special education teachers shared their ideas on how to assist students in practicing self-advocacy by understanding their opportunities to receive accommodations and requesting these accommodations in their classes. I also learned about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an innovative approach aiming to give access to EVERYONE - a theme that is right in line with our mission as professional school counselors! The host for this talk equated UDL to the slopes in sidewalk curbs: adding these slopes benefits more people than solely individuals with disabilities; sidewalk slopes provide assistance to people with strollers, skateboards, and anyone who might want to exert less energy stepping up onto a curb! The UDL approach encourages teachers to replace the old-fashioned standardized tests with a variety of assessment tools that reach students of all ability levels and learning styles. As long as students can relay the fact that they understand the content, why does it matter if it comes from a test, an essay, an audio/video recording, or a performance? As professional school counselors, we can assist all students in this transition from high school to college by helping them explore how they learn best and by empowering them to advocate for their needs and their education.
So how do we fix this problem of students not perceiving the impacts of our interventions? With DATA! Professional school counselors need to be using data to evaluate the effectiveness of key components of our comprehensive school counseling programs, especially in regards to our students' college and career readiness. Collecting perception data tells us what the students learned, and we get this data by asking the students (Hatch, 2014). In order to help students perceive their school counselors as providing them with support in their high-school-to-college transition, we need to ask them what they believe, know, and are able to do before and after receiving our interventions. Then we can see where students are seeing our impact and where they might need more support. In regards to what we can do to support students through this transition from high school to college, school counselors can work to help all students develop time management, study, and coping skills to deal with all the changes that come about with the added responsibility and independence of being a college student (Smith & Zang, 2009). At Noblesville High School (NHS), we meet with each senior individually for their "Senior Meeting". During this meeting, we go over their transcripts with them to see where they've been, and discuss their post-secondary plans to see where they want to go. These plans can include attending a 4-year or 2-year college, but we also support other options including technical career programs, the military, and apprenticeships/work opportunities. I have attached a sample of the transition checklist that we use for these meetings below. We also promote a college-going culture at NHS throughout the year, but specifically during College GO! Week (you can see my work on this school-wide initiative under My Professional Artifacts). High school counselors should start this process of promoting post-secondary exploration, planning, and skill development early by delivering these services to students in every grade in order to build a solid foundation for these skills for every student.
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a conference at Indiana University Kokomo titled College Pathways: Transitions from High School to College. Mr. Zebadiah Hall, Disability Support Coordinator at Valparaiso University, delivered a passionate and interactive presentation on how high school counselors and special education teachers can best assist students with learning, emotional, and physical disabilities through this daunting transition. Although all students have many added responsibilities when they reach college, these responsibilities can be even more challenging for students with disabilities, and many students with learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drop out of college from the pressure of these challenges (Hamblet, 2014). One specific challenge for these students is that they no longer have a student support team (made up of their parents, special education teacher, and school counselor) advocating for them, and now they must learn how to advocate for themselves. As professional school counselors, it is our responsibility to help all students, especially students with disabilities, gain these self-advocacy skills. Check out the links below to access Mr. Hall's presentation, a resource for improving the transition process for students with disabilities, and sample transition planning documents.
The conference also featured a number of table talks hosted by various stakeholders including college professors, disability services representatives, and licensed mental health counselors. Other high school counselors and special education teachers shared their ideas on how to assist students in practicing self-advocacy by understanding their opportunities to receive accommodations and requesting these accommodations in their classes. I also learned about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an innovative approach aiming to give access to EVERYONE - a theme that is right in line with our mission as professional school counselors! The host for this talk equated UDL to the slopes in sidewalk curbs: adding these slopes benefits more people than solely individuals with disabilities; sidewalk slopes provide assistance to people with strollers, skateboards, and anyone who might want to exert less energy stepping up onto a curb! The UDL approach encourages teachers to replace the old-fashioned standardized tests with a variety of assessment tools that reach students of all ability levels and learning styles. As long as students can relay the fact that they understand the content, why does it matter if it comes from a test, an essay, an audio/video recording, or a performance? As professional school counselors, we can assist all students in this transition from high school to college by helping them explore how they learn best and by empowering them to advocate for their needs and their education.
References:
Hamblet, E. C. (2014). Nine strategies to improve college transition planning for students with disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 46(3), 53-59.
Hatch, T. (2014). The use of data in school counseling: Hatching results for students, programs, and the profession. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Smith, W. L., & Zhang, P. (2009). Students' perceptions and experiences with key factors during the transition from high school to college. College Student Journal, 43(2), 643-657.
Woods, C. S., & Domina, T. (2014). The school counselor caseload and the high school-to-college pipeline. Teachers College Record, 116(10), 1-30.
Hamblet, E. C. (2014). Nine strategies to improve college transition planning for students with disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 46(3), 53-59.
Hatch, T. (2014). The use of data in school counseling: Hatching results for students, programs, and the profession. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Smith, W. L., & Zhang, P. (2009). Students' perceptions and experiences with key factors during the transition from high school to college. College Student Journal, 43(2), 643-657.
Woods, C. S., & Domina, T. (2014). The school counselor caseload and the high school-to-college pipeline. Teachers College Record, 116(10), 1-30.