Counseling Program Assessment
Counseling Program Assessment
Alliance Renee and Meyer Luskin Academy
Counseling Program Assessment
Running Head: LUSKIN ACADEMY COUNSELING PROGRAM ASSESSMENT
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LUSKIN ACADEMY COUNSELING PROGRAM ASSESSMENT
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Counseling Program Assessment
Introduction
Alliance Renee and Meyer Luskin Academy, also called Luskin Academy, is a public independent charter school in Los Angeles, California. Luskin Academy is a high school serving 542 students who are 9th through 12th graders in a low-income neighborhood. The high school has room for 600 students, so it is not filled. Of the 542 students, 83 percent are Hispanic, 15.9 percent are African-American, .4 percent White, .4 percent Pacific Islander, and .2 percent Asian (CDE, 2018). The surrounding neighborhood has a similar percentage among the residents. Although parents of the students work full-time jobs, parental involvement in the school is prevalent because they understand how important it is to be involved in their children’s education.
Luskin Academy has three full-time counselors working on the school site. The caseload for Ms. Caudillo is 255 students which consist of 11th and 12th grade students. Mr. Blake is the 10th grade counselor and has approximately 140 students. Ms. Gutierrez is the 9th grade counselor and has about 142 students. Ms. Caudillo has served as a lead counselor for the past eight years. The other two counselors on site have worked at Luskin for one year. Ms. Caudillo was the first counselor hired and has been at the school site for ten years. She has worked with various counselors at the school site, who have since left, and have been replaced with two new counselors.
Alignment with ASCA
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model are school counseling programs which are collaborative efforts that benefit the students, teachers, administrators, and the community (“ASCA National Model,” 2012). One-way Luskin Academy aligns with the ASCA National Model is by following the student to counselor ratio recommended in the ASCA National Model Framework. According to the ASCA (2012), “To achieve maximum program effectiveness, the American School Counselor Association recommends a school counselor to student ratio of 1:250 and that school counselors spend 80 percent or more of their time in direct and indirect services to students” (p. 10). The counselors at Luskin Academy have a counselor to student ratio of 1:255. This is beneficial because it allows counselors to provide their students with the time they need to ensure their needs are met.
A second way Luskin Academy aligns with the ASCA National Model Framework are the systems in place to ensure the students, and various stakeholders benefit from the school counseling program. Ms. Caudillo states the school counseling system is comprehensive because it focuses on career, social, and college/academics. The ASCA framework says an effective school counseling program is one that is comprehensive and ensures students receive equitable access to both opportunities and a rigorous curriculum that allows students full participation in the educational process (“ASCA,” 2012). Ms. Caudillo believes that the school’s comprehensive counseling program is providing students with equitable assess, which is crucial for students who attend school in a low-income area.
Luskin Academy calls for a comprehensive counseling program providing equitable access by working closely with all students to meet their academic, career, and social needs. This is evident in the school’s high graduation rate. According to Ms. Caudillo, the school’s high school graduation rate is at 91.5 percent, and of those students, 70 percent go on to receive a college education. The school’s graduation rate is well above the state average high school graduation rate, which is at 83.5 percent, and the LAUSD district average of 77 percent (Gordon, 2017). The percentage of students going on to either a two or four-year college is also well above the LAUSD district average of 70 percent.
Recommendations for Improvement
Based on the assessment of the Laskin Academy school counseling program, led by Ms. Caudillo, recommendations for improvement can be made to ensure the school continues to provide students with a comprehensive counseling program. These recommendations are based on the barriers Ms. Caudillo revealed during her interview. During the interview, Ms. Caudillo stated one of the most significant problems she is running into is the lack of a Mental Health Worker. Ms. Caudillo states, “There are many students who attend Luskin and are in desperate need of a mental health counselor since some of the services these students need are outside of my scope of practice. I can only do so much since I am not a licensed MSW.” Ms. Caudillo states that with the school’s limited resources and funding, the school has yet to get an MSW on campus to work with the students. One recommendation is to create a partnership with local mental health services in the community. Also, the MSW should have an office in the school to work out of since the school currently does not have one. By reaching out to the community and asking mental health services to help students at Luskin, this partnership will benefit not only the student, but the community as a whole because communities who provide mental health services to its residents experience an increase in neighborhood economic activity, a lower unemployment rate, and less crime (Whelan, 2010).
Another barrier preventing the school counseling program from fully implementing the National Model is the lack of knowledge students have of the various career fields they can enter. Ms. Caudillo states, “Although our school prides itself with a high rate of school graduation, as well as a high two- and four-year college admission rate, students are often clueless about the field they want to enter because they don’t know about all of the options they have.” One recommendation to address this problem is to provide students with a volunteer program that allows students to go into the community and learn about different career fields they can enter. According to Smith (2018) of Youth.gov, one of the best ways to help teens learn about career fields is by providing them with volunteer opportunities in various areas so they can get a better understanding of the career and determine if it is a field they would like to enter. Ms. Caudillo revealed that although the school has a counselor to student ratio lower than the ASCA recommended a counselor to student ratio, Ms. Caudillo and the other counselors still do not have the time they need to help each student fully explore career fields that may be of interest to them. Luskin Academy students will benefit from volunteering in various career fields because it will provide them with the information they do not receive in counseling about areas of interest. This recommendation will also help school counselors meet their highest priority counselor led initiative which is to increase the rate of students who go on to two and four-year colleges from 70 percent of the students to 80 percent.
A third recommendation is to implement more opportunities for parents to engage in with students, counselors, and teachers. According to the Luskin Academy website, the school has a part-time Parent Engagement Specialist working to engage parents in their child’s education such as providing parents with a two-hour Parent Workshop that teaches parents how to support their child’s success (“Family Resources,” 2019). Although the school has this program, Ms. Caudillo does not think it is enough. Ms. Caudillo states the parent volunteer rate is higher at her campus than many of the other high schools in LAUSD low-income areas, but for the school to be able to meet the ASCA National Model program, more parent participation is required. Parental involvement positively impacts a child’s personal/social and academic well-being, as well as increases a child’s social capital, increases a parent’s skills, and also helps make parents more equipped assisting their children with school-related activities (Hornby & Lafaele, 2010). ASCA states counselors can successfully implement the ASCA National Model program when they not only collaborate with the teachers but also with the parents. Ms. Caudillo can work with the school’s Parental Engagement Specialist to determine how to implement more parental involvement opportunities that allow the parents to engage with the students and Luskin Academy staff members.
Conclusion
Luskin Academy prides itself for having a lower counselor to student ratio than the LAUSD district average, as well as a much higher rate of students who go on to two- and four-year colleges, but Ms. Caudillo believes more can be done to lower the counselor to student ratio and increase the rate of students who go to two- and four-year colleges. One recommendation, to help the counselors better align with the ASCA National Model, is to elicit more involvement from the community. Community mental health services can be incorporated at Luskin Academy to provide students with the mental health services they need and will also allow Ms. Caudillo and the other counselors to continue to focus on school counseling services within their scope of practice. Also, more opportunities for parental involvement and volunteering in the community will ensure students are provided with equitable access to opportunities, allowing them to participate fully in the educational process, which is the ultimate goal of the ASCA National Model.
References
California Department of Education. (2018). California School Dashboard. Np.: Author.
Retrieved from
American School Counselor Association. (2012). The ASCA National Model: A framework for
school counseling programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Amer School Counseling Assn.
“Family Resources” (2019). Luskin Academy. Retrieved from https://www.luskinacademy.org
/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=43303&type=d&pREC_ID=53534
Gordon, L. (2017, Apr. 18). Graduation and dropout rates: Look up California districts and
high schools. Ed Source.
Hill, N.E., & Tyson, D. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic
assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3),
740-763.
Smith, S. (2018). Career exploration and field development. Youth.org. Retrieved from
development
Whelan, R. (2010, Aug. 9). The importance of community health centers. American Progress.
Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/reports/2010/08/09/
8195/the-importance-of-community-health-centers/
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