2008 TSC Academy
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Presentations From Concurrent Sessions
| 9:00am - 12:00pm |
Pre-Conference Learning Institute: Using Data-Driven PK-12 School Counseling to Ensure College and Career Success Participants will learn not only how to use achievement and related data to design school counseling program activities but also to help teachers and administrators discover and change policies and practices that inhibit academic achievement. The session offers a step-by-step process and an “action planning” tool to help school counselors prioritize and design program activities for their schools. Find answers to the question: How are school counseling activities helping to increase academic achievement? |
| 4:00pm - 5:30pm |
Keynote Address: College and Work Readiness for All Students: A Major Goal of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs This presentation focuses on how school counselors, working within the framework of comprehensive school counseling programs, can help all students find purpose and direction in their education, take challenging coursework, and make a successful transition to work or postsecondary education. Find out how comprehensive school counseling programs can provide counselors with the structure and organization to help all students gain the knowledge and skills to understand themselves, feel connected to school, plan for the future, and reckon with possible barriers to learning. |
| 9:00am - 10:00am |
Keynote Address: Leadership from the School Counselor’s Office: Collaborating With Students, Parents, and School Leaders for Effective Results In our efforts to create school cultures where students focus on preparing for college or careers, school counselors must embrace the power of their unique position. The perspective of the school counselor—which evolves as students learn, plan, change, and grow—can deeply affect the opportunities of the students they serve. Jennifer Smith, a former teacher, principal, and central office administrator, makes the case that school counselors are especially well suited to shape and lead conversations to advance the agenda of college and career readiness for all. |
| 9:00am - 10:00am |
The 7th Inning Stretch Is Over: It’s Time to Step Up to the Plate and Win the Game! For 13 years, private foundations and organizations, professional counseling associations, school districts, universities, states, and school counselors have embraced the goals of the Transforming School Counseling movement. Although much has been accomplished at all levels, the pace has slowed. To regain momentum, it is important to look at the challenges we face. What are the current issues in education as seen through the eyes of school counselors, administrators, teachers, legislators, and state education officials? What do stakeholders suggest the profession needs to focus on? |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 1: College-Going Rates in High-Minority, High-Poverty Schools: Preliminary Results of a Mixed-Method Study This session includes an overview of a cutting-edge research project that examines the influence of school counseling activities, programs, and school counselor behaviors on the college preparation of urban high school students. Preliminary results of the study will be presented along with implications for practice and future research. Participants will discuss in small and large groups the influence of student and counselor perceptions and behaviors on the college-going culture of urban schools. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 2: University-School District Partnerships That Ensure College Readiness San Diego State University has developed partnership agreements with two area school districts to guarantee admission to students graduating college ready. This session will share the program’s method for ensuring that all students are aware of and working toward the college-admission-eligible high school diploma, California’s A-G. Participants will receive handouts that contain academic data created to promote faculty awareness, classroom guidance lessons, intentional guidance (closing the gap activities), pretests and post-tests, and more. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 3: Using Data to Improve Guidance: The CAPE Network Data Collection System The Career and Postsecondary Encouragement (CAPE) Network’s online middle and high school assessments report student-submitted information about academic and career interests, financial needs, goals, barriers, experiences, and interest in various career-guidance services and activities. Participants will learn about this free network, its assessments, and resulting individual student reports. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 4: Developing the Capacity for "Taking on the Challenge": Teaching and Assessing Advocacy Competencies in School Counselors To “Take on the Challenge of College and Career Readiness for All Students,” school counselors must become competent advocates at the individual and system levels. This session will use a case study to demonstrate specific advocacy competencies. Participants will receive tools to help assess school counselors’ progress in acquiring advocacy competencies and sample assignments that offer ways to help K-12 students become ready for college and careers. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 5: Access to Success: We Are on Our Way! Twenty state university systems have pledged to halve by 2015 the existing gaps in college-going and college graduation rates between low-income and minority students and others. Find out what makes the Access to Success initiative stand out from similar efforts and the role of The Education Trust in advancing this agenda. Learn about the tools available to counselors, students, and parents for achieving college success. Presenter: |
| 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Session 10: In Their Own Words: First-Generation Urban Students' Perceptions of Their Preparation for College This presentation highlights the results of a recent qualitative study that explored the perceptions and attitudes of first-generation college students who attended urban schools regarding their preparation for postsecondary education. The presentation focuses on the factors students said influenced their decision to pursue postsecondary education and the experiences that contributed to their success. Presenters will offer school counselors and other education professionals specific recommendations to ensure that first-generation students are prepared for college. |
| 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Session 6: College and Career Readiness: From Research to Policy to Reality The evidence is clear: Far too few young people are graduating from high school ready for college, careers, and citizenship. Learn about the latest research into the need for better prepared high school graduates and about current state and federal policies aimed at ensuring the value of the high school diploma. Then join in a discussion of the school counselor’s integral role in making this college and career ready agenda a reality for all students. Presenter: |
| 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Session 7: Building Model School Counseling Programs Twenty-two school districts in Pennsylvania are in the process of building school counseling program models. This ambitious project reflects the state education department’s keen interest in bolstering the role of school counselors. The 22 districts are regionally and demographically diverse and reflect a cross-section of the state’s districts. The model training programs respond to the question, “What does a transformed school counseling program look like?” A summary of the project that reveals its successes and struggles will be presented. |
| 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Session 8: School Counselors Using Data to Increase College Readiness Using a few simple data calculations, high school counselors can identify students who need help preparing for college. Students may then receive individual or group attention. This session will show participants how to use technology to publicize information and track school counselor effectiveness. Participants will learn about proven strategies for use in their high schools. Presenter: |
| 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Session 9: A Statewide Assessment of Post-Graduate Professional Development: What Do Working School Counselors Want and Need? A statewide survey hopes to assess the professional development needs of school counselors in Oregon. The online survey is a partnership with the state school counselor organization, training programs, and school districts. It is a critical time for school counselors as they prepare students for college and careers, even as their own licensure requirements are being restructured. Presenters will discuss the issues, procedures, and results of the survey, including preferences and professional development ideas that emerge. |
| 3:15pm - 4:45pm |
Session 11: Teacher Quality Matters Evidence is clear: Effective teaching is a critical factor in increasing student learning to close the achievement gap. But national and local data show us that low-income and minority students do not receive their fair share of effective teachers. What can school counselors do to address this problem? In this session, learn more about the latest data on the impact of teachers and discuss case studies that show how to ensure poor and minority students have access to high-quality teachers. |
| 3:15pm - 4:45pm |
Session 12: Individual Planning Within the Comprehensive School Counseling Program: Ensuring College and Career Readiness for All Students This presentation will provide an overview of a comprehensive school counseling program and share data demonstrating the relationship between fully implemented programs and student achievement. Discussion will focus on the individual planning component of the comprehensive program and examine data related to overall academic achievement. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the meaning of “full implementation” and of the elements that constitute a strong individual planning process. |
| 3:15pm - 4:45pm |
Session 13: Using the Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC) This session will present the findings of a 2007 survey of 119 California school counselors who evaluated the use of the SPARC in sharing student results. The information includes a brief overview of the SPARC and the findings, which reveal effective strategies for sharing results of data analyses with school officials, community representatives, and stakeholders inside and outside the schools. |
| 3:15pm - 4:45pm |
Session 14: Doing it for Real: Preparing TSCI-Trained School Counselors to Implement Training into Practice This presentation will feature a study that investigated the transition experience of TSCI-trained school counselors from graduate training to professional practice. The study examined factors that contribute to and act as barriers to implementation of TSCI principles. Participants will learn about the study’s implications for improved school counselor training. Presenter: |
| 3:15pm - 4:45pm |
Session 15: Opening the Doors to Higher Education for First-Generation Latino Students This session will examine the challenges facing first generation Latino students in the college application and selection process. Find out about successful strategies implemented in an urban charter high school in Los Angeles that helped students consider college as an option. Data describing the results of such efforts will be presented. |
| 9:00am - 10:00am |
Plenary Keynote: College and Career Readiness for All Students: What's School Counseling Got to Do with It? This keynote presentation focuses on ways to help school counselors use data to develop programs geared toward fostering change in schools to better meet the needs of students. Examples will illustrate ways school counselors can lead the process of creating system-focused programs that align with the academic mission and achievement goals of schools so that all students are ready for college or a career. Speaker: |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 16: Redefining High Schools: Ensuring College and Career Success for Every Student, One School at a Time This session will share the data and best practices from an urban alternative high school in Indianapolis. Participants will learn about the Ben Davis University High School program, which incorporates small learning communities within a high school environment, and the improvements in student achievement and attendance among at-risk students. Additional data will be presented on grades, social skills, and leadership development. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 17: Navigation 101: Guidance Curriculum and Individual Planning for All Students Too many students don’t manage to graduate from high school. Of those who do, many have no clear plans for what’s next. The Navigation program, based on the ASCA National Model, is a career and life-planning program for all students in grades 6-12 now in use in more than 220 Washington schools. This session will introduce the five key elements of Navigation. Presenters will share successful practices, the Navigation curriculum, and multimedia resources. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 18: What You Know For Sure In North Carolina, the Wake County schools’ Department of Counseling and Student Services (CASS) successfully advocated for systemic changes in mathematics placements. For many students, tracking patterns had affected access to advanced placement and honors courses. These inequitable policies and practices affected college access mostly for students of color. Presenters: |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 19: Successful Academic Transition for All Students A college-going culture does not automatically occur within a school. School counselors must foster development of such a culture with faculty and students. Developing successful transition programs for all students can increase the likelihood that a school or district will make the transition. This session will give participants a plan to advance the process and help students succeed in a rigorous curriculum. |
| 10:15am - 11:45am |
Session 20: Strategies to Prepare All Students to Be College Ready, Work Ready This presentation will feature the efforts of several school districts in supporting a college and career-ready curriculum for all students. Discussion will focus on the Arizona State Board of Education’s requirement for all students to have an “education and career action plan” and the collaboration with county Joint Technological Education Districts. Presenters will incorporate the philosophy of Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) in examining the changing role of school counselors. |
| 1:15pm - 2:45pm |
Session 21: Analyzing Artifacts That Lead to High School Reform With an increasing number of states and districts moving toward a college and career-ready curriculum for all students, The Education Trust has designed a high school reform “tool kit” to aid schools and districts through the transition. Find out how data from transcripts, master schedules, assignments, academic interventions, and human-resource practices can be used in developing a plan for reform. Presenter: |
| 1:15pm - 2:45pm |
Session 22: Counseling Strategies to Ensure "College Is Possible" for All Urban Students Freshman year is important to high school success, and research supports the value of establishing school connections to ensure postsecondary success. School counselors in the Chicago Public Schools have implemented several data-driven strategies to support the transition of 31,500 eighth-grade students into high school. Participants will leave the session with a calendar of pre-high-school events, including a four-week summer transition program, designed to ensure that all students graduate prepared to succeed in their choice of postsecondary options. |
| 1:15pm - 2:45pm |
Session 23: Using Change-Management Models and Scorecards as Tools to Raise Educators' Expectations for All Students Change-management models have been used in business and organizational consulting for several years. This presentation will show how these change models may be applied in the realm of school counseling. Participants will learn how to use scorecards as tools to raise educator expectations of all students. Presenters: |
| 1:15pm - 2:45pm |
Session 24: Training School Counselors to Champion Career Readiness for Diverse Populations: A Cooperative Model This session focuses on the development and implementation of a collaborative, consultative model between university counselor educators and high school counselors that aims to address career and college readiness for diverse student populations. Facilitators will discuss their experiences, student outcomes, and processes for replication. The presentation will provide opportunities to discuss how school counselors can meet federal accountability mandates to close the achievement gap. In addition, relevant literature will be presented and discussed. |
| 1:15pm - 2:45pm |
Session 25: School Counselors Practice With the Brain in Mind A large suburban school district has taken a comprehensive approach to college access, readiness, and planning. Beginning in middle school, students and parents are coached through the eight components of college-readiness counseling through a series of presentations, individual advisement sessions, family sessions, written materials, and a transition program partnership through the local community college that works with underrepresented populations on raising college aspirations. |
| 3:00pm - 4:30pm |
Session 26: And Justice for All: Preparing School Counselors to Serve Students With High-Incidence Disabilities School counselors often overlook the academic, career, and personal/social needs of students with disabilities. For such students to receive fair and equitable access to an education that best meets their needs, school counselors must find ways to become more effective advocates for students with high-incidence disabilities. This session will focus on specific strategies and techniques that students with high incidence disabilities must employ to succeed during high school and beyond. |
| 3:00pm - 4:30pm |
Session 27: Helping Students Plan for Success This session will present the Personal Education Plans (PEP) used in the Valdez, Alaska, school district. The plans help students focus on readiness for future success, whether in college, work, or another pathway that can lead to a productive, fulfilling, and financially secure life. The plans give students information in such critical areas as knowledge acquisition, skill development, and attitudes and behaviors that contribute to success. |
| 3:00pm - 4:30pm |
Session 28: Where to Begin? The Education Trust's NCTSC New K-12 School Counseling Program Review Process “Where do we begin?” is often the question asked as school districts consider revising or transforming their school counseling programs. In response, The Education Trust’s NCTSC and the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association developed a school counseling program-review process that incorporates transforming school counseling principles. It has been introduced to school districts involved in Pennsylvania’s education-reform initiatives and piloted in Georgia as well. |
| 3:00pm - 4:30pm |
Session 29: Transforming High Schools and Districts: Comprehensive Tools for Sustainable Change The Education Trust-West has developed The Educational Opportunity Audit and Blueprint Design, a comprehensive tool kit for deep analysis, planning, and implementation of systemic change that enables building and district-level administrators and school counselors transform their schools to better serve all students. |
