The American School Counseling National Model
So the real question is how do we come up with all of this stuff? Putting together a counseling program for a school is actually pretty complicated. There are lots of steps to follow if you want to do it right. How did we figure it all out? Well, lucky for us the American School Counseling Association, or ASCA, has written a National Model that gave us a step-by-step framework, to help us out.
This has helped us create our school’s program. We also used a piece from Oregon’s Framework for school counseling. (More about Oregon’s own “Framework” a little further down.) Want to know more? Still interested? Fantastic!
We used this set of plans like a blue print for a house, our house being our school counseling program. Using this model we sat down together and came up with an agreed-upon plan. Each piece of our program needed to have certain parts or it would fall down. You wouldn’t want a house without a roof for instance, right?
There are four main parts to the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model. These are:
The Foundation, The Delivery System, The Management System and Accountability
Oregon Framework-From the Oregon Framework we pulled out a unique piece that we really like, called the Student Advocacy piece. The Student Advocacy piece means that at Judson Middle School our counselors will be making sure that all our students get equal access to services (American School Counseling, 2005).
The Basics
Foundation: This is the “what” of our program. Under the Foundation section we talk about important stuff, like what our beliefs and philosophy are & what the mission for our school counseling program is going to be (American School Counselor Association, 2005).
Delivery System: Just like the post office, our counselors will be delivering the program to all students in Judson Middle School. The Delivery System piece of the program talks about how will the counselors (that’s us) actually do the job. This includes things like:
Management Systems: This is a lot of the organizational parts of the counseling program. But they’re important, just like wiring for a house. If you do it wrong, things won’t work in the best case scenario; worst case, they’ll cause a fire.
Accountability: As part of the ASCA National Model Judson Middle School’s counseling program put into our program ways to hold ourselves accountable. This part addresses the question, “How are our students different?” (American School Counseling, 2005). We will be looking at data to make sure programs & services are what they need to be throughout the year. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a buzz word for another standardized test for your kiddo.)
As promised we brought up the Oregon Framework earlier that we used a piece of. Oregon also has created its own set of blueprints to help schools create the best possible school counseling program. However, being as we always want what is best for all kids (and we’re picky) we decided to choose the parts we liked from each of them)
Still want more? Click here to see the entire American School Counseling National Model. Click here to see the entire Oregon Framework.
So the real question is how do we come up with all of this stuff? Putting together a counseling program for a school is actually pretty complicated. There are lots of steps to follow if you want to do it right. How did we figure it all out? Well, lucky for us the American School Counseling Association, or ASCA, has written a National Model that gave us a step-by-step framework, to help us out.
This has helped us create our school’s program. We also used a piece from Oregon’s Framework for school counseling. (More about Oregon’s own “Framework” a little further down.) Want to know more? Still interested? Fantastic!
We used this set of plans like a blue print for a house, our house being our school counseling program. Using this model we sat down together and came up with an agreed-upon plan. Each piece of our program needed to have certain parts or it would fall down. You wouldn’t want a house without a roof for instance, right?
There are four main parts to the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model. These are:
The Foundation, The Delivery System, The Management System and Accountability
Oregon Framework-From the Oregon Framework we pulled out a unique piece that we really like, called the Student Advocacy piece. The Student Advocacy piece means that at Judson Middle School our counselors will be making sure that all our students get equal access to services (American School Counseling, 2005).
The Basics
Foundation: This is the “what” of our program. Under the Foundation section we talk about important stuff, like what our beliefs and philosophy are & what the mission for our school counseling program is going to be (American School Counselor Association, 2005).
Delivery System: Just like the post office, our counselors will be delivering the program to all students in Judson Middle School. The Delivery System piece of the program talks about how will the counselors (that’s us) actually do the job. This includes things like:
- talking to students who need help
- helping students plan their classes &
- plan for their future beyond school
Management Systems: This is a lot of the organizational parts of the counseling program. But they’re important, just like wiring for a house. If you do it wrong, things won’t work in the best case scenario; worst case, they’ll cause a fire.
Accountability: As part of the ASCA National Model Judson Middle School’s counseling program put into our program ways to hold ourselves accountable. This part addresses the question, “How are our students different?” (American School Counseling, 2005). We will be looking at data to make sure programs & services are what they need to be throughout the year. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a buzz word for another standardized test for your kiddo.)
As promised we brought up the Oregon Framework earlier that we used a piece of. Oregon also has created its own set of blueprints to help schools create the best possible school counseling program. However, being as we always want what is best for all kids (and we’re picky) we decided to choose the parts we liked from each of them)
Still want more? Click here to see the entire American School Counseling National Model. Click here to see the entire Oregon Framework.