Standards-Based Counseling in the Middle School

Gotham Books

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© 2024 Mary Ellen Davis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by Gotham Books (June 22, 2024)

ISBN: 979-8-3302-4623-6 (H)

ISBN: 979-8-3302-4621-2 (P)

ISBN: 979-8-3302-4622-9 (E)

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To the middle and high school students

who touched my life

during mu thirty-seven years of

teaching and counseling.

To LeNorris and Tarik

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following people for their encouragement and assistance:

The Principal of West Middle School, the counseling department staff, the faculty, support service providers, and the PTSA. I especially thank the head counselor for always making herself available to ask the critical questions, give feedback and offer assistance.

Dr. Patricia Nellor Wickwire, Editor of the California Association for Counseling and Development Journal, thank you for inviting me to attend your Writing Workshop. Thank you for encouraging me to write my first article for the Journal, and for your guidance and critical editing.

Dr. Marcellet Henry, [Retired] State Department of Education Sacramento, and one of the founding members of the California Association for Multicultural Counseling (CAMC), a division of CACD, for encouraging and assisting me to write the history of CAMC.

Mary Ellen Rudden, former English teacher, for reading the draft of the manuscript and transforming it into a document worthy of publication.

Dr. Paul De Sena, Professor of Counselor Education, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, for reading the manuscript, asking questions, making statements, and giving pointers, and encouraging me to finish it.

Dr. Elizabeth Van Dalsem, Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University, for reading the manuscript, asking clarifying questions, making suggestions and corrections, and encouraging remarks.

Preface

During a discussion with the counseling staff about counseling programs, we took a serious look at our school counseling program. We realized that while we were working diligently performing our counseling duties, and supporting parents, teachers, and other support service providers, we needed to define our program in a way that explained what we do and how we do it to meet the needs of students. We began to close the gap by holding two all-day Saturday meetings to discuss the National Counseling Standards and determine how we could incorporate them into our counseling practices to improve student development in the academic, career, and personal/social areas.

We invited the principal to meet with us to share his input about our current counseling activities, and informed him of our plans. Next, we designed and showed a power point presentation to the faculty. We asked for their input as we shared and explained our counseling plans. Lastly, we showed the power point presentation to the school Parent, Teacher, and Student Association (PTSA) members and sought input from them. Both the faculty and the PTSA showed interest and offered support. Our presentations were well received.

We enhanced our counseling program by incorporating Standard A of each of the three developmental areas—Academic, Career, and Personal/Social.

Chapter I

The mere imparting of information is not education.

Above all things, the effort must result in making a

person think and do for himself.

– Carter G. Woodson

Overview of the National Standards for School Counseling Programs

In the past, school counseling often received marginal support and limited recognition from site administrators, district administrators, and members of the community. Regardless of the scant notice paid to the profession, its importance is obvious. School counselors, like teachers, are providers to our most important resource our nation’s children.

Recent national and state legislation support the profession. In the past few years, more attention has been given to developing strong, consistent school counseling programs. The American School Counselor Association’s creation of the national counseling standards provide guidance and direction for delivering effective counseling services.

The American School Counselor Association, in its publications Sharing