Standard 3 Scenario

Based on the school counselor scenario below, determine the most appropriate rating for standard 3. If the rating is less than distinguished, when you click the correct rating, you will see suggestions for improvement.

Ms. Casey is on the rotation with art, music and physical education to provide classroom guidance. She found a book of classroom guidance lessons she liked that she uses each week. She spends about 65% of her time in the rotation conducting classroom guidance. She has recently started trying to integrate topics that teachers are covering in their content areas into her guidance lessons. She is also thinking about how she might find more effective ways to incorporate the North Carolina Guidance Essential Standards into her lessons. She has designated 45 minutes on Tuesdays and on Thursdays for individual counseling that is usually from teacher referrals.

The following are a few ways Ms. Casey could strengthen her school counseling program: The guidance schedule and lessons and other school counseling services should be based on identified student needs; meet with the school administrator to advocate for less time in the rotation schedule so that she has more time for other services (outcome data and explanation of what the other services would be and how they address School Improvement Plan goals helps with this); continue to build on the idea of integrating Guidance Essential Standards and other content areas including helping teachers with how they can also do this; expand on time for individual and small group counseling and school-wide initiatives that are based on student data.