Each day, school counselors are constantly challenged to define their roles and responsibilities and the pandemic has exasperated this problem. Across the nation, school counselors were tapped to support students in a variety of ways that heavily focused their work on providing social-emotional support, rather than postsecondary advising. While social/emotional learning must be addressed, school counselors must also push forward to ensure that students are pursuing postsecondary opportunities. School counselors serve a critical role in student achievement through the direct services they provide both inside and outside of the classroom.
As a school counselor, I always sought to motivate students to embrace a dream of becoming more than their current circumstance. My efforts included helping students overcome social-emotional challenges, while also preparing to reach their career and college aspirations. School counselors must frame their work around a both/and vision, such that students hold onto their dreams and avoid embracing life challenges that impede postsecondary opportunities. Providing essential services to students, means creating interventions that direct future aspirations toward a MORE THAN WHAT I AM NOW expectation. School counselors must embrace the idea that every student acquires a 2-or 4-year degree, or an industry certification. If students are going to position themselves to achieve success in the twenty-first century workforce, school counselors must design programs and interventions that include helping students and families understand how to explore, plan, prepare and pay for a credential beyond a high school diploma.
As student advocates, this is the role counselors must undertake.
School counselors are educators who design and deliver school counseling interventions that are comprehensive in scope, preventive in design, developmental in nature, and promote student achievement for ALL students, across three domains: academic, college and career and social-emotional.
Counselors must take consistent steps to communicate the expectation of postsecondary education for all students and work to create a college going culture across the school environment.
A college-going culture celebrates postsecondary education regularly and gives students the information and skills needed to succeed; therefore, school counselors must create school traditions and regular practices that encourage aspirations and highlight the college application process. Two important areas of school counselor college and career readiness work is helping students complete a FAFSA and at least three college applications. Research informs us that students who complete a FAFSA and multiple college applications are more likely to attend a postsecondary institution. These two important steps must begin, across the K12 spectrum, but at the latest during the middle grades and during high school entry, so that plans can be fully implemented during grade 12.
It is a fact that school counselors have large caseloads and technology has been presented as a tool to help school counselors address the student needs. Technology is helpful, but I will always argue that a personal touch is most effective when trying to reach the students who need our help the most.
Words matter and words of encouragement and support from school counselors, following the pandemic, can help students formulate and hold onto their dreams and aspirations. Counselors must transmit a belief that demonstrates evidence of high expectations for every student on their caseload. Students need you and your expertise. Successful life outcomes are increased when students obtain additional education beyond a high school diploma.
Despite all that our roles have been through during the pandemic, we must continue to show up as student advocates and make sure that learning loss does not hinder student dreams. Data is key to knowing and understanding student needs. I would encourage every counselor to set a goal of reaching all students and engage every student in a one-to-one conversation about their future aspirations.
Please see below an interview tool that may be helpful to understand the dreams of students, so that you can design interventions to support their dreams and aspirations.
GRADES AND ATTENDANCE DISCUSSION TOOL
Grades and attendance are critical factors for future college and career opportunities. Each grading quarter uses the following tool and commits to delivering a grade and attendance discussion with every student on your caseload, in order to measure their understanding of how to use their ability to achieve high quality results and outcomes.
Question
What is a grade point average?
How are grades recorded on a transcript?
How do grades affect career and college options?
Identify one college that matches my GPA.
