Evaluating Your School Partnership Patrick O’Connor, Ph.D. Roeper School MCAN Conference, April

Counselors are important allies in the college going culture ► They know the school’s curriculum. ► They know more about most students (and their families) than you think. ► They’ll be the ones college call for follow-up questions. ► They are the ones who handle transcript disputes. ► They are “uniquely poised in schools to make a difference” in the college decisions of students (NACAC)

If they know so much, why aren’t they helping more students go to college?

It’s a numbers game ► Michigan has 643 students for every school counselor (US Dept of Ed) ► That’s 3 minutes and 22 seconds of quality counseling time per week… ► …to do personal counseling, career advising, crisis counseling, graduation reviews, AND college counseling…

…not to mention the STDs of counseling ► Scheduling– when academic advising becomes logistics management ► Testing– we can interpret tests; why do we have to put pencils in groups of 20? ► Discipline– “You’ve just been suspended for three days. How do you feel about that?”

This creates barriers to strong relationships with students and with community members.

A strong LCAN-counselor relationship combines the best of all resources.

1. Write down the name of every school district your LCAN covers

2. List every counselor that works in each of those buildings, and the date you last visited them at school.

3. Create a needs assessment that aligns schools and LCANs. ► What does one do that the other doesn’t do? ► What’s missing? ► Is there overlap? ► Is that overlap important?

4. Create a strategic plan that combines school and LCAN needs. ► Assess community needs ► Assess school resources ► Assess LCAN resources ► Determine seamless transitions between programs ► Develop benchmarks for program evaluation

5. Review School Counseling Advisory Committee ► Mission is to support all facets of school counseling program (personal, vocational, academic, college, etc.) ► Different make-up than LCAN (teachers, athletic director, parents, clergy, business community, administrators)

Duties of CAC ► Create needs analysis for all entire school counseling program ► Develop and implement strategic plan ► Provide resources for implementation of plan ► Evaluate counseling services

Sound familiar? ► Similar to roles of the LCAN ► Overlaps with duties and membership ► LCAN representation on CAC is beneficial

6. Review counselor presence on LCAN ► Members of LCAN? ► Represented by a counselor on LCAN? ► Represented by a building principal on LCAN? ► Represented by a superintendent on LCAN?

Direct representation is preferred ► Provides a voice that has direct contact with students ► Provides a voice that has direct contact with colleges ► Brings institutional history of college counseling efforts ► Brings cultural history of college counseling efforts

Check your assumptions ► Doesn’t have to be department chair or counseling coordinator ► Doesn’t have to be high school counselor ► Can contribute a strong voice to the success of the LCAN-school partnership

7. LCAN visits each school in region ► An opportunity to talk with counselors, teachers and students about college needs ► An opportunity to determine where/how LCAN can provide additional/overlap services ► An opportunity to reinforce value of school counselors in the college selection process

8. Counselors visit LCAN ► Site tour, program tour, board meeting, or any combination ► Increases counselor understanding of LCAN resources ► Helps counselors refine school services to dovetail with LCAN ► Engages counselor as an advocate of LCAN services

9. Joint community presence ► Links to each other’s Web pages? ► Promotion of each other’s activities? ► Joint applicants for grants? ► Joint presenters at conferences? ► More?

10. Regular evaluation of partnership ► Part of LCAN plan ► Part of school counseling plan ► Joint evaluation and analysis ► Results serves as basis of next set of goals