Leave No Counselor Behind:

1. Leave No Counselor Behind: Developing a Data-Driven and Equity- Focused School Counseling Program Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D. cholcom1@jhu.edu

2. My Goals Today • To remind us of our (school counselors) mission in today’s schools through my favorite quotes and narratives! • To share ideas about how to to use data as an “equity” tool • To stimulate your thoughts regarding the transformation of your programs to be more social justice and equity focused.

3. What is Equity?

4. Four of My Favorite Quotes

5. There can be huge changes in a lifetime, but PEOPLE have to be given a chance! And the smallest changes can contribute to that chance!”-Stephen Raudenbush Sociologist and Educator, Univ. of Chicago

6. Wayne

7. The G.A.T.E Philosophy of CounselingGiving StudentsAccessTo Excel

8. G.A.T.E

9. Giving Access To…. • Resources/Information • Relationships • Respect • “Real and Relevant” Instruction • Rigorous Courses

10. Blocking Access is Socially Unjust…NO WALLS

11. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.-Martin Luther King, Jr.

12. How successful is Baltimore City in moving students successfully through the education pipeline?

13. Are there inequities in achievement in Baltimore City?

14. Are there inequities in achievement in Baltimore City?

15. Are there inequities in achievement in Baltimore City?

16. Are there inequities in achievement in Baltimore City?

17. Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity. -Henry Harman

18. Advanced Math Would Advance Equity • College Access: Students whose parents did not go to college can more than double their own chances of doing so by taking advanced math. • College Success: Taking advanced math has a greater influence on whether students graduate from college than other factor— including race and family background. • Economic Opportunity: Inequities in advanced math courses account for one-quarter of the income gap between students from low-income and middle-class families ten years after graduation from high school.

19. The Problem Is Lack of Opportunity, Not Lack of Ambition • Students-of-color express just as much interest in taking advanced math courses—and minority girls express the most. • Yet they are far less likely to say that advanced math courses are available to them. • The problem is not peer pressure, either. Students-of-color are less likely to say their friends discourage them from taking advanced math and twice as likely to say their TEACHERS do.

20. Advanced Math: Big Inequities by Race and Ethnicity Source:National Center for Education Statistics. (2007, June). High School Coursetaking: Findings from The Condition of Education 2007. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. (p. 24, Table SA-8).

21. Advanced Math: Even Bigger Inequities by Family Wealth Percent of 2004 Graduates Completing Math Beyond Algebra II

22. The missing link between good intentions and effective actions is the ability to align subconscious beliefs with conscious goals.--Robert Williams

23. Developing a Social Justice and Equity Focused School Counseling Program

24. Developing Your Equity-Focused Program… • Assess Your Beliefs about schools, students, access, equity, student achievement, and social justice • Assess Your Skills: 3 levels of mastery (identification, basic, and teaching) • Assess Your Students’ Needs, Intervene, and Evaluate by examining and critically analyzing data • Create a Vision for your program

25. Beliefs Determine Actions • Do you believe that all students can achieve? What does student success mean to you? • Why do you believe there is an achievement gap? What is your responsibility in closing the gap? • What are your cultural biases and prejudiced beliefs about different groups of students (e.g., poor students, African American students, Asian students, girls)

26. What Do We Believe About Our Profession? • Do you agree or disagree… • I believe that school counseling as a profession should be more social justice and equity-focused? • I believe school counselors are partly responsible for the disparity in opportunities and access experienced by low-income and minority students.”

27. Assess Your Skills….

28. Assess Your Skills…. • Identification Mastery: You are able to identify the skill or strategy through observation. • Basic Mastery: You are able to engage in the skill or strategy. You can use the skill or strategy with students, teachers, parents, etc. • Teaching Mastery: You can teach others to implement this skill or strategy

29. Assess Student’s Needs, Intervene, and Evaluate • Utilize the SOARING Model (Gilchrist, 2006) • S---Standards • O—Objectives (measurable) • A---Assessment (how will I determine if I met my objectives?) • R---Results (gathering and calculating results) • I----Impact (describes results and how the intervention impacted students • N---Network (telling others) • G---Guide (review of results and decisions about next steps)

30. SOARING

31. Vision Includes….. • Main goals for students • Current student inequities and disproportionalities • Proposed value-added by school counseling interventions/practices • Describe strategies/activities focused on teachers • Describe strategies/activities focused on students • Describe strategies focused on parents and communities

32. I want my school to become a place where ___________________(fill in the blank)

33. I want my school to become a place where students will (or can) ___________________(fill in the blank)

34. I want my school to become a place where parents will (or can) ___________________(fill in the blank)

35. Good luck On Your Journey!