Term Paper on "Teachers' Perceptions"

Term Paper 15 pages (4963 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of the School Guidance Program Prior to and Following the Implementation of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model in a K-12 School District

Relevance

The need for effective school counseling programs has never been greater. Policymakers at all levels have recognized that change is needed but continue to struggle to identify effective approaches to effect substantive reform. The good news is that there is a viable approach available in the form of the American School Counselor Association's National Standards for School Counseling Programs. The bad news, though, is that this model continues to be either misunderstood or underutilized in many school districts across the country. School counseling programs represent a team approach to assist students, parents, teachers, administrators as well as the larger community overcome many of the issues and problems that confront these stakeholders today. In order to be effective, though, school counseling programs must become an integral part of students' daily educational environment, and school counselors must assume a fundamental role as team members in facilitating academic outcomes for their students. In many cases, though, school counseling programs have lacked a consistent identity from state to state, district to district and in some cases, even among individual schools themselves. This paucity of uniformity among school districts across the country has created some profound constraints concerning the role that should be played by school counselors and what they are capable of contributing to schools and student achievement. Consequently, many school counseling programs are frequently regarded as ancillary programs rather than an essential element in the educational regimen to the detriment of counselors and students alike (the ASCA National Model 2003). In addition, in many cases, teachers and school administrators are unaware of the benefits that school counselors can provide to them, their students, as well as parents and other stakeholders (Delisio 2008). Furthermore, no recent model has been advanced that incorporates the mission and national movement of the school counseling profession as proposed by the ASCA National Model for school counseling programs (Wood and Rayle 2006).

Background and Overview

By the end of the twentieth century, federal policymakers recognized that the American school system was in crisis and was badly in need of some type of reform. As a result, a mish-mash of legislation and unfunded mandates were handed down that have done little to effect substantive change in many cases. Increasingly, national attention has been focused on connecting the role of the school counselor with the current school reform movement to help overcome these constraints (Perusse and Goodnough 2005). In this regard, Ravitch (2004), characterizes the twentieth century as a period of revolving door school reforms that were intended to maximize limited resources for the optimal benefit of student learners, yet the same ineffective and inefficient reforms were recycled over and over again. Federal policymakers made yet another attempt to introduce effective reform initiatives as the twentieth century gave way to the twenty-first century, and President Bush introduced and signed into legislation the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Although it has become as controversial as the reforms that preceded it, the purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act was to ensure that all students are provided with equal opportunities to learn and succeed academically. According to Clark and Horton-Parker, school counselors have traditionally been omitted from the school reform movement, but these demands are forcing a reevaluation of the role the school counseling profession is taking concerning its status as a profession regarding educational reform and the counseling profession's potential contributions to student achievement.

Parents, for their part, are confronted with a new reality that was not characteristic of preceding generations, that of both parents needing to work a full-time job in order to support their families and provide for basic needs. The effects of this phenomenon with respect to children's stress and coping skills have been significant. At the same time, the dispersion of extended family through geographic relocation has had similarly profound effects on the American family and also has implications for children, their social relationships and activities, and their education. Quite simply, because parents are increasingly absent from the home and other family members who traditionally served as after school caregivers no longer live in the same community, more children are using their free time after school unproductively and are increasingly distanced from important adult figures in their lives, who may well care about the children deeply but who are unable to have the same level of contact and communication that previous generations enjoyed (Ravitch, 2004). Thus, young people today face increased stressors and simultaneously have fewer adult figures present with whom they can discuss these stressors or who might notice the effects of peer pressure and other stresses and intervene accordingly.

While the No Child Left Behind Act did not address these changing social and familial realities directly, the Act's mandates were explicit in the identification and articulation of the varied resources that schools were to seek and provide students in an effort to optimize the learning environment. First, the curricula for the nation's schools became standardized and outcomes-based. Students across the nation would learn the same information and skills and their acquisition of information would be determined by the administration of standardized tests. In addition, the financial support that schools receive from the government would be tied to students' academic outcomes, as indicated by the standardized tests. Those schools that did not fulfill annual goals for objective fulfillment would be identified as schools in need of progress, and if the failure to achieve goals became a consistent pattern, schools would receive reduced funding.

Beyond the foregoing constraints, schools were to use the resources they received to purchase equipment, materials, and services that would optimize the learning environment for every student, regardless of ability. Students with physical and learning disabilities would be required to receive additional support beyond that provided in the mainstream classroom, but all students would need to be assessed individually to determine what learning needs existed and what resources were needed to address those needs.

American School Counselor Association

Following the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was considered a landmark piece of education reform legislation, the American School Counselor Association began to devise a plan for revitalizing the presence and role of school counselors in the new standards-based era of public education (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2006). As the ASCA explained, the ASCA National Model represented a significant paradigm shift in the practice and delivery of school counseling in the United States (ASCA, 2006). Prior to the No Child Left Behind Act, school counselors typically provided service-centered support to students on an as-needed or as-requested basis (ASCA, 2006). For instance, if a teacher noticed a student was experiencing difficulty concentrating or was frequently tearful, the teacher might refer the child to the counselor for psychosocial evaluation and support. If a student demonstrated particular academic ability, he or she might be referred to the counselor so that a plan for academic success could be devised that would facilitate the student's future college enrollment prospects. Most students, however, would never see a counselor or benefit from his/her services.

As noted above, during the era before the No Child Left Behind Act, school counseling was considered by most stakeholders, including counselors themselves, as an adjunct service available to students if needed. Furthermore, the roles of counselors and the degree to which they were integrated into the setting and activities of a school varied dramatically from one school to another. The roles and uses of counselors were not standardized or utilized effectively, according to the American School Counselor Association (2006). As the ASCA (2006) observed, counselors saw "high achievers" and students deemed at "high risk," but the majority of the student population missed the opportunity to benefit from counseling services.

The ASCA National Model, however, introduced a novel approach to school counseling, one in which counseling is structured as a "program-centered [service] for every student" (ASCA, 2006, p. 1). The model positions the counselor as a full partner in the provision of academic services (ASCA, 2006). As the Executive Summary of the National Model articulated, "School counseling programs should be an integral part of students' daily educational environment, and school counselors should be partners in student achievement" (ASCA 2006: 2). Although neither schools nor individual counselors are mandated to utilize the ASCA's framework, recent scholarly literature reflects a trend that an increasing number of schools are adopting the ASCA National Model because it supports the accountability and standards-based mandates articulated by the No Child Left Behind benchmarks (Chata & Loesch 2007). By collaborating with students, teachers, parents, and administrators, counselors "help students focus on academic, personal/social and career development so they achieve success in school and are prepared to lead fulfilling lives as responsible members of society" (ASCA 2006: 3).

Statement of the Problem

Despite the widespread adoption of the ACSA National Model, little research has been conducted to date to… READ MORE

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