1. School Counselors Affect Student Achievement
Principal – Counselor Relationship:
Key to Student Achievement
Linda Brannan
K-12 Student Support Services Consultant
NC Department of Public Instruction

2. School Counselors Affect Student Achievement
“Professional school counselors serve a vital role in maximizing student achievement. By incorporating leadership, advocacy and collaboration, professional school counselors promote equity and access to opportunities and rigorous educational experiences for all students” (ASCA, 2003).

3. Thinking Outside the “Counselor Box”
Advocacy: Being a voice for ALL students/equity for each student
Leadership: Stepping up in support of the academic mission; facilitative leader
Systemic Change: Creating a responsive system for all students and stakeholders/not done in isolation but with collaboration
How do school counselors do this yet remain true to their profession?

4. The Key Question?
How are Students Different as a Result of the school counseling program?

5. Principal-Counselor Relationship
Making Connections:
Key to Unlocking
Student Achievement!

6. Tired of Doing Business the Same Old Way!
Duplication of efforts with students
While it is all good, it is possible to lighten the load with collaboration with the principal and administrative team.
Confusing roles
Students
Parents
Teachers Us
Accountability – Everyone’s concern
(breathing down your neck)
Time ~ never enough

7. What do Roles Have in Common?
BOTH Want …
Students to Learn, Achieve & Graduate
Career & College Ready!
And – Both are leaders in the school

8. Principal-Counselor Relationship ~ A Relationship that Makes a Difference
Communication
Formal and Informal
Collaboration
Scheduled Meetings (Weekly & Monthly)
Respect for each other and roles
Share the job; learn to respect
Shared Vision
Taking the time to talk, listen, and plan together
College Board Survey 2009

9. What we know for sure! Principals and Counselors are:
Responsible for students progressing towards graduation with 21st century skills who are “career and college ready” by addressing:
Attendance issues
Academic issues
Behavioral issues

10. Using MEASURE A Six-Step Accountability Process
Step One: Mission
Step Two: Element/Problem
Step Three: Analyze Data
Step Four: Stakeholders Unite
Step Five: Results
Step Six: Educate
[Stone, C. B, & Dahir, C. A. (2007). School Counselor Accountability: A MEASURE of Student Success. 2nd edition.]

11. MEASURE
Mission: connect the comprehensive K-12 school counseling program to the mission of the school and to the goals of the annual school improvement plan
Academic rigor & Student achievement: the heart of every school’s SIP

12. MEASURE
Elements: identify the critical data elements that are important to the internal and external stakeholders
Attendance
Behavior/Discipline
Academic Achievement

13. MEASURE
Analyze: discuss carefully which elements need to be aggregated or disaggregated and why
What is impeding student achievement?
What are the barriers?

14. MEASURE
Stakeholders - Unite: determine which stakeholders need to be involved in addressing these school-improvement issues and unite to develop strategies

15. MEASURE
Reanalyze/Reflect/Revise: rethink and refine the strategies, refocus efforts as needed, and reflect on success

16. MEASURE
Educate/Publicize: show the positive impact the school counseling program has had on student achievement and on the goals of the school improvement plan.

17. ASCA National Model: Framework for School Counseling Programs
Content: We don’t need to use.
As you view this model, you will notice there are four areas
FOUNDATION
DELIVERY SYSTEM
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
ACCOUNTABILTIY SYSTEM
The visual shows that the foundation leads to both management and delivery and these two components go hand in hand.
Delivery system is the way in which counselors deliver services – the management system ensures that the delivery system is planned, organized, and delivered in a systematic fashion for every student.
Both the delivery and management lead to the Accountability system.
Notice the accountability system leads back to the foundation because the results of our program lead to the program’s improvement which begins once again with the foundation.
Also, note that the outer edge of the model shows leadership, advocacy and systemic change as the driving forces for the model including program development, management, delivery and accountability.
The inside of the diamond is the structure. The outside is the skills needed to implement the structure.
Tips/Hints:
Activities: 17 17

18. EXAMPLES OF DATA TO EXAMINE NEEDS
Test Scores
Achievement
State
National
Enrollment
Honors/AP Classes
College Track
Special Education
LEP
Graduation Rate
By Gender
By Ethnicity
By SES
Attendance
Absences
Tardiness
By Grade Level
Discipline
By Classroom
Types of Problems
Gender
Office referrals
GPA/Class Rank
Retention Rates
By Subject Area
By Gender, Ethnicity
Post Secondary
Plans
Dropout Rate
Grade Levels
Gender, Ethnicity…
Reasons Why
Content:
This slide depicts major areas with subdivisions for cross-tabulation. Take your time on this slide and carefully review each section. Ask participants for additional examples.
The point here is that
Tips/Hints:
This slide can be the “ah-ha” when the participants begin to “see” below the initial layer to ask the deeper questions.
This chart gives people an opportunity to think about the accuracy of data, how it’s gathered. For example, how is graduation rate computed? Is it the number of seniors who don’t receive a diploma or is it the number of 9th graders who receive a diploma? Or when you look at Special Education and see that 80% of the students are African-American males, what is going on?
Activities: 18

20. Remember: The New Question is….
How are students different as
a result of the
school counseling program?
************************************************
(Let’s see an example of a school that used this model successfully)
The following school is an example of this process in action!

21. Cary High School Student Population
Academically Gifted: 549
Free & Reduced Lunch: 781
LEP: 153
Students with Disabilities: 299
Total Students: 2283
Black: 405
Hispanic: 405
Asian: 130
Multi-racial: 116
American Indian: 15
White: 1212

22. 2010-2011 Cary High Performance Composite
Overall Student Performance
Composite: 89.9% per EOC data
School of Distinction – past 5 years
SAT Score Composite
Reading/Math – 1089
Reading/Math/Writing – 1588
68% Participation rate
Graduates:
90% of graduates attend a four-year or a two-year college
10% joining the military, workforce or other

23. The Cary High School Story
Administration-Counselor Teams
Leadership Team/SIP Team Leaders
School Improvement Teams
Professional Learning Teams
Curriculum Alignment/Common Assessments
Student Achievement including Recovery Program
ASCA National Model – RAMP for Counselors

24. How We Did it? Respect - even in times of disagreement
Collaboration – agreed upon/jointly created & facilitated strategies to meet needs:
Purposeful scheduling
Increase course rigor
Develop intervention strategies to:
Improve Attendance rate
Improve academic achievement
Improve 9th grade promotion rate & graduation rate
Prevent suspension and dropouts
Respect - even in times of disagreement
Time – diligent about time to collaborate (PLTs, Admin-Counselor Teams, LT, SIP Teams)
Data - reviewed schoolwide data to assess needs to develop a data-driven program

25. How We Did it?
Information Exchange - Vertical and Parallel ~ Improved Communication
Admin-Counselor Teams – Management Agreements
Leadership Team/SIP Teams/PLT’s – continuous improvement model
Collaboration with Teachers, Students, Parents to create supportive relationships
Shared Respect & Decision-Making
Creating a Community Vision

26. Closing the Achievement Gap Goals
Increase minority enrollment in honors & Advanced Placement courses
Increase 9th grade Promotion Rate
Increase Average Daily Attendance Rate
New Goal – Suspension/Dropout Prevention

27. Increasing course rigor for underrepresented students by enrollment in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
Strategies: Principal-Counselor led initiatives:
AP Potential letters sent to qualified students and parents (based upon PSAT scores)
Small group counseling to targeted students – benefits of enrolling in Honors and AP courses
Facilitated AP/Curriculum Fair for parents to understand expectations, benefits and future opportunities
Collaboration with teachers - Established a task force of counselors and social studies teachers to review performance data & encourage underrepresented students to take more rigorous courses. (10th grade heterogeneously grouped Civics & Econ classes)

28. Evaluate-What will you measure? Types of Outcome/Results Data
Process Data
Perception Data
Goals & Objectives
Results Data
How Many affected & process
Competency-Skill Attainment Data
Behavior Change
Achievement-Related Data
Achievement Data
Guidance Lessons, groups, etc.
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How long?
Attitudes
Skills
Knowledge
Attendance
Discipline
referrals
Parent
Involvement
Homework
Completion
Course
Enrollment
EOG/EOC
SAT/ACT
scores
Graduation
rates
GPA
AP tests
College prep
course
completion
Evaluate the process, change in student’s attitudes, skills and knowledge; behavior change – did it meet our goals & objectives, move to more concrete systemic change data or results/outcomes with achievement related data and then actual achievement data

29. Results/Outcomes: Improving Course Rigor for Minority Students
5% gain in AP Enrollment in
11% gain in AP Enrollment in
16.9% gain in AP Enrollment in
24% gain in AP Enrollment in
*********************************************************************************
45% of minority students who enrolled in AP classes were recommended by both the PSAT/AP Potential software and their Teacher = Formula for Success!
Data driven & Collaboration – A Plan that Works!

30. Other Closing the Gap Results
Promotion/Graduation Rate: 94% of first time 9th graders promoted to 10th grade in (Above 90% in 9th grade for past 4 years)
Attendance: Average Daily Attendance Rate for : Above 90% for all subgroups
New Goal: Suspension/Dropout Prevention - school-wide collaboration to keep students in school

31. Challenges
Role changes-staying “true” to profession – confidentiality/collaboration
Understanding & respect of our individual and collective roles
Shared vision for decision making
Time to communicate
Admin-Counselor Teams
Vertically and across disciplines through
PLT’s, SIP Teams, Leadership Team

32. K-12 Student Support Services Consultant
Contact Information & Resources
“Enhancing the Principal-School Counselor Relationship: Tool Kit” (College Board)
“A Closer Look at the Principal-Counselor Relationship”: A Survey of Principals & Counselors”
Collaborative work by College Board, American School Counseling Association (ASCA) & National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
Linda Brannan
K-12 Student Support Services Consultant
NCDPI