Nicole Willoughby

COMPREHENSIVE,

DEVELOPMENTAL SCHOOL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING PROGRAM

 

Program Structure includes four components:

• Guidance Curriculum

• Responsive Services

• Individual Planning

• System Support

 

Guidance Curriculum

The purpose of the guidance curriculum component is to help all students develop basic life skills. It is the foundation of a developmental guidance program. In Texas, seven areas have been identified for the guidance curriculum:

• Self-confidence Development

• Motivation to Achieve

• Decision-making, Goal-setting, Planning, and Problem-solving Skills

• Interpersonal Effectiveness

• Communication Skills

• Cross-cultural Effectiveness

• Responsible Behavior

The developmental guidance curriculum has a scope and sequence for student competency development. The curriculum is taught in units with planned lessons for small or classroom-sized groups of students. The curriculum is designed for the use of materials and other resources, and requires evaluation strategies.

 

Responsive Services

The purpose of the responsive services component is to intervene on behalf of those students whose immediate personal concerns or problems put their continued personal-social, career, and/or educational development at risk. Although counselors respond to any concerns presented by students, some topics have been identified as having high priority and/or relevance within the school setting. Topics of priority in Texas include:

• academic success

• adolescent and child suicide

• child abuse and neglect

• school drop-outs

• severe stress

• substance abuse

• school-age pregnancy

• gang pressures/involvement

• harassment issues

 

In addition to the topics identified at the state level, school districts have identified some recurrent topics:

• school attitudes and behaviors

• attendance

• peer relationships

• study skills

• being new to a school

• emergent issues in intervention or postvention of a traumatic

• violence on campus

• school safety

• career indecision

• financial aid

• college choice

• death of familty member or friend

• family divorce

• family abuse

• harassment issues

• suicide prevention

  •  

     

Individual Planning System

The purpose of the individual planning system is to guide all students as they plan, monitor, and manage their own educational, career, and personal-social development. Schools can systematically use a variety of resources-staff, information, and activities-and to focus resources toward the students and to assist individual students to develop and implement personalized plans. Through the individual planning system, students can:

• Set challenging educational, career, and personal-social goals that are based on self-knowledge and information about school, the world of work, and their society;

• Make plans for achieving short-, intermediate-, and long-term goals;

• Analyze how their strengths and weaknesses enhance or hinder the achievement of their goals;

• Assess their current progress toward their goals; and

• Make decisions that reflect their plans. As part of the developmental guidance program, the individual planning system includes:

• age-appropriate, objective-based activities;

• relevant, accurate, and unbiased information; and

• coordinated advisement procedures to facilitate appropriate placement decisions by students and their parents.

 

System Support

Whereas the three components previously described serve students directly, the system support component describes services and management activities which indirectly benefit students. The services include:

• consultation with teachers;

• support for the parent education program and community relations efforts;

• participation in the campus-based school improvement plans and goals;

• implementation of the state and local standardized testing program;

• cooperation with relevant research projects; and

• provision of input from the students’ perspective to policy-makers and instructional/curriculum planners.

 

Management activities are required to assure the delivery of a high quality guidance program. These activities include:

• program development and management;

• counselor staff development;

• community outreach; and

• development of appropriate written policies, procedures, and guidelines

 

References:

 

Texas Education Agency. (2004). A model comprehensive, developmental guidance & counseling program for Texas public schools (4th ed.). Austin, TX: Texas Education Agency. Retrieved from www.tea.state.tx.us/counseling_guidebook.html