Reflection # 6

A professional school counselor is required to have teaching experience as an instructor and should be able to relate and understand the dynamics of the classroom and school setting before  taking the coursework leading to a school counselor certification.

The profession of school counseling requires continuous professional growth and development and thus the school districts are to provide in-service training for school counselors. A fully certified school counselor is expected to carry out eight basic responsibilities, competently in a professional and accountable manner.

Program Management: Counselors are required to collaboratively plan, implement and evaluate  a comprehensive developmental guidance program. There are four components to this program; guidance curriculum, responsive service, individual panning and system support. The counselors collaborate with all to ensure that a balance is maintained between all the components so as to meet student, community needs, priorities and objectives to effectively support the total educational program.

Guidance: Counselors assist the students to develop and apply skills to maximize their educational, career, personal and social growth during school years and beyond, they do individual planning and provide appropriate activities that will help development.

Counseling: When students have developmental needs, personal concerns, or problems that might affect their continued educational, career, personal or social development, counseling  is provided.

Consultation: Counselors provide professional expertise to faculty, staff, administrators, parents, and their community members to help understand individual behavior and human relationships, this task of the counselors helps in increasing effectiveness of education and promotes student success.

Coordination: One important task of the counselor is to bring people and resources in the home, school, district, and community to support students' optimal academic success, career, personal and social development

Student Assessment: Counselors interpret standardized test results and other data to take decisions to help students' development.

Professional Behavior: Through continuous efforts the counselors are required to maintain professional competence to maintain collaborative inter-professional relationships.

Professional Standards: Counselors are required to adhere to professional standards in all components of comprehensive development guidance and counseling program.

Now as a school administrator, the first step will be to employ adequate, qualified number of counselors, the American School Counselor Association recommends a student to counselor ration of 1:250 and the Texas School Counselor Association recommends 1:350, this is an important factor to ensure the quality and efficiency of the program.  

The  program development cycle in Chapter V provides a clear structure as to, how to effectively develop and implement the program. The main components are organizing, planning, designing, implementing and evaluating.

Organizing: The most important component in the successful implementation program is to commit to action; this should be  made by the administrative and counselor leaders, the vision and goal should be clear to study the need and bring about the required change. After having committed to action, the next step would be to identify the leadership both at the district and school level having representatives from all stake holders, for the successful implementation of the program.

Planning: The process of planning involves studying the program model, including the content areas that specifies the relevant content for the local needs, the Texas Comprehensive, Developmental Guidance and Counseling Program model suggests seven content areas as the foundation for the program. Some of the content areas are in building up self-confidence, motivation to achieve, decision making, goal-setting, planning, communication skills and responsible behavior.

Designing: The next stage in the process is to design the program,  by establishing the desired program design taking into consideration(demographic date, student achievement data and student conduct data), publish the program framework, plan a smooth transition to the desired program and finally develop and implement a master plan for changed implementation.

Implementation: At this stage a closer look at the program is required to see for any improvements and them the priority should be set. The counselors job description should be made clear, provide staff development for counselors, teachers, parents, administrators and all others involved in the process to encourage growth. The performance of the counselors is a crucial factor in the successful implementation of the program.

Evaluation: Like in the implementation of any program, evaluation of the program is critical to the success of the program, evaluation should include the changes made, the program design, the implementation and the professional staff. Evaluation will provide insights to modifications and required changes and also what is working well that does not require change.

The ultimate purpose or goal of a school administrator  is to ensure that all students are  successful, thus one should use all the resources and provisions available, thus I would strongly support the implementation of a  comprehensive, developmental guidance and counseling program and implement it using the model provided above.

Evaluation is a critical component for the success of any program, evaluation brings in effectiveness, productivity and ensures accountability from all involved with the program. The process of evaluation helps in determining the value of the program, its activities and the staff in order to make informed decision and make necessary actions to the future implementation.

Chapter VI provides a process of evaluation that includes eight steps; stating the evaluation question, determining the audiences/uses for the evaluation, gathering data to answer the questions, applying predetermined standards, drawing conclusion and finally considering the context, making recommendation and acting on the recommendations. These steps clearly provides a systematic approach for an effective evaluation of the program.

The process of counseling is to assist the teachers and other staff in the integration of instructional and school  objectives, thus there should be a collaborative effort among all involved in the program to evaluate the success of the program.

The evaluation will help determine the impact of the program on students, faculty, parents and on the overall school climate. The purpose and scope of evaluation can be summarized as follows:

·         Will help know if the program is accomplishing the intended goals

·         Evaluation helps identify what remains to be accomplished

·         Evaluation will help identify effective components and also eliminate or improve less effective components

·         Adapt and refine the guidance and implementation process

·         Evaluation will help in determining professional development and staffing needs

·         critically see if some additional resources are required and also provides accountability information to educator and the community.

The success of any program will depend on the will of the leadership and the consistent, systematic way in which the whole process is organized, planned, designed, implemented and evaluated. As an administrator I strongly believe  that "no stone should be left unturned" everything possible should be done to see that our students are successful as this would decide the future of our country.

Reflection # 5

Before going into whether or not I support the authors' position in serving gifted and talented students, it is important to relate to  what does this mean, well, acceleration is defined as an intervention program that moves students at faster rates by matching the academic level, complexity or pace of curriculum to the ability, readiness and motivation level of the student. This could be achieved by early entrance to school, grade-skipping, moving ahead in one or more subject area or taking Advanced Placement classes.

A "Nation Deceived" has been authored by three people who have collectively spent more than 100 years in education, and over 50 years of research to speak on the topic, they have committed their entire careers in helping the nation's students soar to where their minds and hearts can take them  . I strongly support the need of providing accelerated academic programs to the gifted and talented, because in every state and every school be it in huge cities or small farm communities there are students who are ready for greater challenges than what the schools are able to provide.

These are students who are able to surprise their parents, grandparents and teachers by their unusual ability to read, write and do arithmetic much faster and better than their peers. But when they enter the school system, they are often frustrated and bored as they learn very little from what they have already learned. The schools are not able to provide them the challenge that keeps their spirits high and motivated. The system does not recognize their need for higher learning  and advancement, instead shuts them down with a "no" for most of their inquisitiveness.

Many a times instead of letting them soar high and fly, they are forced to stay tied to their seats and stay where they are in the grade and intellectual level at the cost of a steady erosion of American excellence. If frequently these students are ignored and their challenges are not met, the desire for excellence will lose its vibrancy and will be replaced  with complacence and apathy. As a nation "no" to excellence means lowering our national standards. With the present economic situation the challenge before the nation is not in average, mediocre students, but in those who can stay ahead of the world in all professional spheres to lead by example of providing excellence that can bring back the American pride of being a world leader.

The authors have brought about many myths and the first one states that "Acceleration is not an important issue because most students don't need it" as a teacher and educator it is just like saying " you don't need to know more, just learn what you are taught" the basic  philosophy of education is to meet individual needs and does  challenge educators to provide for that. Acceleration is a legitimate educational need of high ability students and should not be put on the shelves because of inadequate numbers, it might be that one student who could find a solution for "cancer cure".

Another important myth that caught my attention is that "Acceleration is for the wealthy" unfortunately, over the years race, color and wealth has always been projected as a deterrent for many good programs. This has affected the progress of the nation, fortunately talent cuts across all demographics; such as race, color, ethnicity, gender or socio economic backgrounds. The authors brought out a valid point that it is the students from modest homes that will benefit the most, as the wealthy will be able to provide extra opportunities to their children  by moving them to private schools.

TEA's policies does compliment the acceleration program, however there is  contradiction as far as  the goal of  Equity is concerned, the goal states: " The Equity in Gifted and Talented(GT) Education project is to encourage equitable representation of student populations in GT programs throughout the state. The author clearly states that  fortunately the  acceleration program cuts across all demographics and it is incorrect to look for equal representation, all needing the challenge should be provided  the opportunity to reach higher goals, such view that there has to be equity will only create hurdles, a fair selection process that is able to identify the GT students and providing them the appropriate challenge should be the sole aim.