Term Paper on "Action Plan for Middle School Students"

Term Paper 8 pages (2548 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Middle School Students and High School Admissions Counseling

Action Plan for Middle School Admissions Counseling

Graduating middle school students are faced with some important decisions as they progress through their early academic careers and enter high school, and the decisions they make during this period in their lives may well affect their academic performance and professional careers later in life (Barrow, 2001). High school admissions counselors are in an excellent position to help these young learners make the right choice early on, but because resources are by definition scarce, many public high school admissions counselors are faced with some profound challenges in trying to deliver timely and effective guidance to these students because of the dynamic nature of the workforce and the changing definitions of what constitutes a quality education in the 21st century.

There are also some important federal mandates that must be taken into account during the high school admissions process. For example, in 2005, the Department of Education reported that, by virtue of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, many states must either seek additional funds, particularly for the areas of Standards and Assessments and Technical Assistance, or reallocate existing resources, particularly staff time (Arce, Borjian & Luna, 2005). Given this paucity of available time and resources, the purpose of this study is to provide an action plan for middle school admissions counselors that can serve as a best practices guide to providing timely and effective guidance to middle school students entering high school. To this end, a critical review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature is used to develop the background and insights required to formulate such an action plan, including a rationale in support, a reference point to be used in its implementation, program goals and behavior objectives, the subjects involved in the action plan, an overview of the action plan and a proposed way to evaluate it, followed by a discussion of the reasonable expectations of the action plan if was actually implemented in a public high school today. Some recommended milestones for the action plan are followed by a summary of the research and findings in the conclusion.

Rationale

The importance of the middle school experience is gaining increasing attention as parents become more informed about what education researchers have been explicitly examining in recent years; in particular, achievement scores as an indicator of student success depend on the quality of the educational services being delivered, and the manner in which such courses are serving to prepare their children for life in the 21st century. These trends have alerted parents and students of the disparity of many of the middle school classrooms and the educational services they provide, together with the consequences of these disparities for their children when they enter high school (Goldschmidt & Wang, 2003). There are also some disturbing trends concerning the effectiveness of the high school admissions process in general that must be taken into account. According to Dahir (2004), "Throughout the last half of the 20th century, and continuing into this new millennium, confusion has persisted as to the nature, function, purpose, and role of counseling in schools," and places the blame on counselors, themselves, for "creating and poorly managing piecemeal programs, which were dependent on the interests and priorities of individual counselors" (p. 344).

Furthermore, many young learners enter high school with either unreasonable expectations or misconceptions that can produce an enormous amount of stress in these adolescents that can adversely affecting their ability to navigate the exigencies of their high school experience successfully. According to Parish and Rasid (1998), "Findings from several studies have shown that high anxiety has adverse effects on student learning. High school counselors may be pleased to learn that reductions in state anxiety were attainable through the use of videotaped presentations, wherein students were effectively introduced two different relaxation procedures. This gives them another way to help students, but at very little cost in time" (p. 99).

Moreover, the roles and responsibility of high school counselors are changing in substantive ways and the need for an improved framework in which to provide thoughtful and effective guidance has never been greater. For example, across the country, high school admissions counselors are gaining increasing visibility among the general public, particularly in view of the recent massacre of 30 students at Virginia Tech and shootings at Columbine and other heartland schools. In this regard, Isaacs and Stone (2003) emphasize that, "The high school counselor is cited as a member of a school district who is critical for receiving information about the threat of violence; identifying students who may be potential perpetrators; and educating children, families, and communities about violence prevention" (p. 140). Given these trends, it would be reasonable to posit that high school admissions counselors are going to be playing an increasingly active role both in terms of their responsibilities to their students as well as the communities in which they work.

Deflected is not daunted, though, and by carefully taking into account what these new high school students have received in the way of preparatory educational services, high school admissions counselors can help freshman high school students select the right mix of courses to help them achieve the most beneficial early start in getting them prepared for their remaining high school experience, as well as helping them become better prepared for college or a career. In order to accomplish this level of guidance, everyone involved must take an active part. In this regard, Henderson and Swann (1998) emphasize that, "Good admissions decisions are made through an amalgam of the responsible efforts of admissions professionals, secondary school counselors, and students who understand the admissions process. Indeed, from the institution's perspective, admissions work is often seen as marketing, sorting, and matching" (p. 58). As these authors and empirical observations caution, though, there is much more to the admissions process that merely pigeonholing students into one combination of classes over another. Because there is no room for false starts, an effective action plan for high school admissions counselors requires some benchmark to help them help new high school students make the right choices and these issues are discussed further below.

Reference Point

It would be tempting to simply use the results of a standardized test such as the Iowa series to evaluate and place entering high school students; however, this approach would ignore the broad range of variables that come into play in determining what young learners already know and how best to help them select the right courses to overcome any existing deficiencies and build on their strengths to succeed. For example, according to two educators with experience in the field, "To evaluate what students know, one must consider their learning opportunity (e.g., what students have been exposed to and how they have been exposed to it) when trying to interpret test results" (Goldschmidt & Wang, 2003, p. 3). On the one hand, there are also some important cultural and gender issues involved in this analysis (Lemus, 1999), as well as the increasing incidence of students with learning disabilities, students with profound physical disabilities, those with substance abuse problems and the teenage pregnancies that high school admissions counselors routinely encounter today (Ling, 2002).

On the other hand, there are those students who enter high school fully prepared to take on any challenges and these students would likewise require special attention to help them achieve their full potential (Hebert & Neumeister, 2001). As these authors emphasize, "Counselors and teachers of gifted students seek strategies appropriate for addressing important social and emotional issues affecting the lives of the young people with whom they work" (Hebert & Neumeister, 2001, p. 224). For this purpose, the authors propose guided viewing of film as a counseling strategy through which middle and high school counselors and educators may assist gifted students in gaining helpful insights to deal with the problems they routinely face during their unique high school experience (Hebert & Neumeister, 2001).

This is a tall order, of course, but the importance of these decisions on the students and ultimately American society cannot be overstated and the challenge is great; nevertheless, high school admissions counselors are in an excellent position to identify these weaknesses and strengths because they have access to a broader range of information than their counterparts in other parts of the school system. According to Henderson and Swann (1998), "In their official capacities, admissions officers and high school counselors routinely deal with confidential information (e.g., transcripts, recommendations, interview notes, financial data)" (p. 58). Therefore, the action plan envisioned herein would seek to provide each entering high school student with an individualized plan for both their high school experience as well as providing them with a "career ladder" of coursework they would require for a given career field. Special attention would be assigned to students identified as being at-risk of dropping out or failing to achieve their full potential because of learning or physical disabilities. This individualized, comprehensive plan would be based on all of… READ MORE

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