(Delivery Methods) Elementary School Middle /Junior High School High School Guidance Curriculum 35 to 45% 25 to 35% 15 to 25% Individual Planning 5 to 10% 15 to 25% 25 to 35% Responsive Services 30 to 40% 30 to 40%2 5 to 35%
System Support and
Integration 10 to 15% 10 to 15% 15 to 20%
Student Advocacy not included as separate content
not included as separate content
not included as separate content
Student Outcomes and Program Goals
At this step, you will also want to agree on the set of student standards and outcomes the program will address. This may involve simply adopting the state’s requirements described in the overview of the Content Framework. However, many districts define their standards and student competencies by starting with the state standards and expanding on them based upon the district’s goals and community needs. Many Oregon school districts have used the American School Counselor Association National
Standards or the National Career Development Guidelines (revised 2004) to refine the content and organization for school district defined competencies (See Appendix B for the text of both of these standards). The student standards and outcomes you agree upon at this step will be the basis for program design.
Program goals should emerge from this work. The goals represent concrete objectives toward achieving your program mission. They should be meaningful, measurable, realistic, and agreed to by all stakeholders. They should also be complementary to each other, all contributing to achieving the program mission.
The program goals should be prioritized so that you can focus your efforts incrementally. The program audit, student data, needs assessments, and time and task analysis will reveal the current program’s strengths and weaknesses. Priorities can be set to deal with the most critical needs first.
In summary, the elements of Step 2 include:
1. Evaluate current program status, looking at its impact for EACH student (See Program Audit in Appendix C-2).
2. Examine current data on student progress; create a baseline for evaluation. 3. Assess student needs; seek student, parent, and teacher input.
4. Conduct guidance and counseling staff time and task analysis (See Appendix C- 3 for sample).
5. Identify desired student outcomes to address state and district standards (See Related Student Competencies in Appendix B).
6. Develop program goals based upon mission and philosophy; review with stakeholders.
7. Establish priorities for the program goals based upon 1 through 5.
Step 3: Design
The next step in the implementation process involves identifying the interventions and services that can accomplish the program goals and address the desired student outcomes. In this step, the district is developing the scope and sequence to support student academic achievement and to address the career-related learning standards and other diploma requirements in the four developmental domains.
You will first want to think about the big picture - how will all of the components of your program work together to support the program mission, goals, and student outcomes? How are you going to communicate the program to administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community in a way that they can understand and support? How does your program link to the state’s requirements? Schools districts in Oregon have
approached overall program design in many different ways. The primary focus may be on specific student outcomes (see Medford School District’s “8 Keys to Employability”), the common curriculum goals (see Hillsboro School District’s “K-12 Comprehensive Counseling and Career Development”), or the extended application and career-related learning (see North Clackamas School District’s “Focused Program of Study”), to name a few. Connecting the elements in a cohesive way will help you simplify the job of developing the program activities and services.
See Appendix C-4, Design Considerations, for an analysis of the relationship of the diploma requirements to the five content components (Guidance Curriculum, Individual Planning, Responsive Services, System Support and Integration, and Student Advocacy) of the Oregon framework.
Once you have decided on your overall approach, you will need to develop the specific activities. Often in the past, guidance programs have offered many well- intentioned activities and services to address vaguely stated or non-existent program goals. It is not surprising that these programs are unable to evaluate the impact of their services. Careful attention to connecting guidance and counseling services to program goals and student development needs allows a program to maximize its impact. By doing so, you will be able to focus valuable and limited resources on prioritized and predetermined goals that are designed for each and every student.
One process for designing program delivery involves linking the desired student outcomes to program activities and services, both existing and planned. This process allows you to report upon what you are already doing and develop new interventions to address the student development outcomes not covered. You might use a cross-walking tool to connect activities to outcome. Below are examples of two different methods reflected in comprehensive guidance and counseling program support materials around the country. The first column is where you start your design work - either by recording your desired student outcomes and matching existing activities to these (Student
Competency Based) or by listing all of your existing activities and services and matching desired student outcomes to them (Activity/Service Based).