Implementation+Gap

THE ASCA NATIONAL MODEL AT CENTRAL YORK HIGH SCHOOL
Having taken this class and reviewed, as well as listened to discussions about, the various articles about comprehensive school counseling programs and practices, we have developed a greater understanding of our role as counselors and have come to realize the potential that exists for us to make a greater difference in the lives of our students. The evidence supporting comprehensive developmental school counseling programs is very encouraging and inspiring.
 * Introduction **

Central York High School has a great counseling staff, with excellent ratios (less than 300:1), many years of experience, state-of-the-art facilities and adequate resources. For years we have operated believing that individual counseling is the most appropriate way to provide services to students. Through this class, we now find it undeniable that this is not the most effective way to deliver services to all students. It is time that we look at adopting a Comprehensive Developmental School Counseling Program designed to reach more of our students in an effort to prevent rather than react to problems.

Individual and Small Group Counseling
We understand that providing individual counseling to students in crisis will continue to remain a need, but it seems that if our program is instituted properly, this time demand should decrease. We also understand that we may need to redefine what constitutes a "crisis" and that element can be built into our counseling curriculum. In the past we have found it easy to avoid running small groups at the high school, as there has been little insistence that we provide this service. We believe that there are many groups that we SHOULD have run, but we would have to actively carve out the time, battle the logistical hurdles of scheduling, and fight with the teachers to part with instructional time to make this happen; it just didn’t seem worth the effort. Now that we realize the positive impact these groups could have, it sounds like those barriers which prevented us from implementing groups in the past are worth tackling.

Getting the administration on board with our program will be one of the first steps toward achieving our goals. With administrative support, we will be more likely to minimize teacher resistance, to establish professional development time to plan programmatic activities and to be relieved of duties that interfere with effective school counseling practices.

Escaping the Busywork Trap
In the past, multiple clerical duties have been a significant barrier preventing us from meeting with students as frequently as we would like. In part, this is due to the limitations of the computerized scheduling and grading system that we use. We are hoping that the percentage-based grading system that is being newly implemented this school year will work better with our computer system and, therefore, eliminate the time spent by counselors on manual tabulation of grades and related information. The reality of this is yet to be seen. Using EZAnalayze (and eventually training our capable School Counseling Assistant to use it) for recordkeeping should also help considerably with some of the analysis, program planning and advocacy efforts that we must do. Some of the clerical duties that bog us down should ultimately be eliminated or transferred to secretarial staff, which will require considerable advocacy and diplomacy on our part.

Gaining Support for the Program
Implementing a more a preventive delivery system of guidance curriculum will require significant “buy-in” from all of our stakeholders. Administrators, teachers, and parents may resist the time spent on guidance topics, so it will be critical that we thoroughly review the literature and present data-based research to illustrate the impact that our purchased curriculum has had elsewhere. If we are able to gain the support from just a few key teachers and parents, it could go a long way in changing the response from the rest of the faculty and community.

Budgetary and Time Constraints
Finally, preparing to implement a Comprehensive School Counseling Program requires money to purchase materials and time to review research, build a plan for implementation and gain program support. Even if the reasonable costs of the Student Success Skills (SSS) Curriculum and the Passport Program allow for their approval, our budget process would delay their purchase until the 2011/12 school year. The time that we will need to build our Comprehensive School Counseling Program will be extensive, but it is our hope that we can gain administrative support to use professional development time for these efforts.

We look forward to the challenges ahead of us as we strive to advance the opportunities and academic levels of students at Central York High School.