Utah Effective School Counselor Performance Standards
Effective school counselors are leaders in systemic education reform. The effective school counselor focuses on students longterm academic, college and career, citizenship, and personal/social development; an effective school counselor demonstrates the basic skills and dispositions to promote students autonomy, literacy, responsibility to self and others, and lifelong learning.
Align with USBE goals Features of the Utah Effective School Counselor Standards Are based on the school counselor standards adopted by American School Counselor Association Align with similar documents being adopted in neighboring states Describe effective school counselor practice Are based on national research and the work of National Office of School Counselor Advocacy Align with strategies needed for successful implementation of the Utah Core Serve as a basis for an educator evaluation system (R277-531)
School counselor performance standards align with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model and the Utah College and Career Readiness Comprehensive School Counseling Program Model and contain basic standards of practice expected from counselors. The seven standards shift the focus from a traditional service-provider model to a data-driven and standards-based model. School counselors use their skills in the areas of leadership, advocacy and collaboration to support school districts in their mission. These school counselor standards accurately reflect the unique training of school counselors. The standards are an important tool in the school counselor s own self-assessment and professional advocacy, and will help focus personal and professional growth plans.
Utah Effective School Counselor Standards and Performance Expectations Standard 1: Collaboration, Leadership and Advocacy Standard 2: School Guidance Curriculum and Instructional Skills Standard 3: Plan for College and Career Readiness Process Standard 4: Responsive Services and Dropout Prevention Standard 5: Data-Driven Accountability and Program Evaluation Standard 6: Program Management and System Support Standard 7: Professional and Ethical Behavior
ASCA School Counselor Competencies III-B-2d. Reviews school data, school counseling program assessment and school counseling program goals with the advisory council III-B-3. Accesses or collects relevant data, including process, perception and outcome data, to monitor and improve student behavior and achievement III-B-3a. Reviews and disaggregates student achievement, attendance and behavior data to identify and implement interventions as needed III-B-3c. Uses student data to demonstrate a need for systemic change in areas such as course enrollment patterns; equity and access; and achievement, opportunity and/or information gaps III-B-3d. Understands and uses data to establish goals and activities to close the achievement, opportunity and/or information gap III-B-3e. Knows how to use data to identify gaps between and among different groups of students III-B-3f. Uses school data to identify and assist individual students who do not perform at grade level and do not have opportunities and resources to be successful in school
III-B-6a. Uses appropriate academic and behavioral data to develop school counseling core curriculum, small-group and closing-the-gap action plans and determines appropriate students for the target group or interventions V-B-1. Analyzes data from school data profile and results reports to evaluate student outcomes and program effectiveness and to determine program needs V-B-1d. Uses student data to support decision-making in designing effective school counseling programs and interventions V-B-1e. Measures and analyzes results attained from school counseling core curriculum, small group and closing-the-gap activities V-B-1g. Analyzes and interprets process, perception and outcome data V-B-1k. Uses data to demonstrate the value the school counseling program adds to student achievement V-B-1l. Uses results obtained for program improvement V-B-2b. Identifies how school counseling activities fit within categories of a performance appraisal instrument V-C-3. School counselors should use quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate their school counseling program and to demonstrate program results
PROCESS DATA TOOLS: Process Data Sheets Calendars Counseling Activity Logs Portfolios PERCEPTION DATA TOOLS: Needs Assessments Pre-Post Tests Surveys/Rating Scales (students, teachers, parents) RESULTS/OUTCOME DATA TOOLS: Results Reports Results Report: Impact over time Action Plans Closing the Gap Action Plans
Student Learning Objectives for School Counselors
Each SLO assessment uses a specific tool to measure how well students are achieving SLO s. This tool can be an essay, test, student performance, survey, or other indicator of student achievement. The counselor chooses the most appropriate tool and, if necessary develop a rubric or other measurement instrument which can be consistently applied, as well as a system for applying the measure with a high level of accuracy; for example, if they use a rubric, multiple raters might score the different criteria, in which case these scores would be compared to ensure their reliability.
Average number of students failing during the 12-13 school year was 28.89%. First quarter of this school year, 41.8% were failing before all interventions were implemented.
School counselors need to engage in leadership in the movement for college and career readiness.
http://utahstudentsuccess.weebly.com/counselor-performance-standards.html Standards and SLOs
Lillian Tsosie-Jensen USOE Educational Specialist lillian.tsosie-jensen@schools.utah.gov