With the recent emphasis on school grading and school improvement planning professional school counselors are asked to be even more proactive in developing effective programs to increase student academic achievement. However, school counselors are called to provide students with guidance and programming in all of the ASCA domains: academics, college/career, and social/personal (ASCA, 2012). it is not uncommon for there to be significant overlap for students within these categories; oftentimes if a student is struggling emotionally or socially there academic performance will deteriorate. Many factors can contribute to decreases in student achievement and it is the challenging task of the school counselor to determine which areas of concern to target (Dimmitt, Carey, & Hatch, 2007). Once the area of need is determined it is then the task of the school counselor to plan the best course of action for addressing the area of concern. It is important for data to be used throughout the process.
Needs assessments are a simple and effective way for school counselors to gather a great amount of data quickly and efficiently. These surveys can be utilized not only with students, but with other stakeholders; surveys of parents and staff can provide useful data for achievement planning as well. the assessments provide the school counselor with a direction for future interventions. After the school counselor has collected and assessed the data from the surveys, the next step is to develop an action plan for meeting the identified needs. the action plan should focus on the data gaps and demonstrate what programs/interventions the school counselor will implement to address the gaps. The action plan also helps the school counselor to determine types of data to be collected, timelines for delivery, and number of students involved.
Another way for school counselors to track student achievement is a plan to monitor student progress.This type of document tackles a specific student need and uses data to assess the program's effectiveness. I developed a mock plan to monitor for one of my graduate courses, it is listed below. It utilizes action plans, a pre/post test, and three types of data for analyze the effectiveness of a school counselor led intervention. The intervention was a group for high ability students learn strategies for handling academic stress.
Below are links to action plans, my mock plan to monitor, and surveys and needs assessments I have utilized in my practicum and internship:
American School Counselor Association (2012). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd. ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author. Dimmitt, C., Carey, J., & Hatch, T. (2007). Evidence-Based school counseling: Making a difference with data-driven practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.