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The process for me began when I started to consider how best to prepare for recertification of my National Board Certification in School Counseling. I also love to have a challenge and I was looking for endeavors that might help to challenge me, improve my school counseling program and skills, as well as, provide some structured steps for me to pursue. As I began looking into the requirements for recertification, it became clear to me that I needed something structured, organized, and very linear. In my exploration I came across two different opportunities that seemed to meet my desires and needs both in terms of National Board Certification and also professionally for the service of my school. The two different programs that I discovered were the Teach Leadership Institute of Montana for 2019-2020 and also Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) for my school’s counseling program. As I examined the requirements for these two platforms, I realized that I could easily take care of two birds with one stone and that I could essentially improve my efforts in both by doing them simultaneously.

1. Describe your instructional challenge and how you identified it. The topic that I chose which is having a profound impact on our school culture, the staff, students, and our administration pertains to the behavioral challenges and school readiness of our incoming kindergarteners and continuing into our 1st grade. The challenges that we have seen the last couple of years in these young students is astronomical. The majority of the students sent down to the office for behavioral issues are in either kindergarten or 1st grade at Ponderosa. Increasingly over the last couple of years we have observed children coming to school completely incapable of being successful behaviorally which then directly impacts not only that child’s learning but the learning of many, if not all, other students in the class. The last several years we have no less than five students in each class that we would classify as unable to learn, making teaching even simple behavioral procedures difficult if not impossible.

This trend is also having a major impact on our primary teachers. At Ponderosa in 2019-2020 we have three kindergarten teachers and two first grade teachers. I have spoken with both of our 1st grade teachers individually and both have contemplated putting in for a transfer and/or quitting their jobs because of the difficulty (Artifact #1). I also spoke with one of our kindergarten teachers who has also contemplated quitting and described how last year she would sometimes sit in her car and cry in the mornings before gathering herself to come in to work. This year we have another kindergarten teacher who will not be back next year, and the third kindergarten teacher is retiring. Next year it is projected that we will have three kindergarten classes and three first grade classes. There will be two new first grade teachers next year and one new kindergarten teacher. Having interviewed several of these teachers (Artifact #2), it has become abundantly clear that the behavioral challenges that these teachers are facing every single day is resulting in an inability to teach, students unable to learn adequately, and having a devastating effect on these teachers both professionally and personally.

2. Describe your learners (students and diverse stakeholders) for this project and how you selected them. We have kindergarteners that are coming to our school with incredibly different backgrounds. There are students that have never been in any type of organized social structure. There are multiple students that have come to us without even the most basic background knowledge of things like colors or being able to count to 10. We also have so many students that come to us that have never be evaluated for medical issues, behavioral concerns, or any type of learning disability. Thus kindergarten is a process of identifying needs, evaluating, and eventually connecting students with the proper interventions and supports. This can be more than just daunting, it is typically completely overwhelming to our kindergarten teachers.

The stakeholders include many different staff members. Our principal assigns paraprofessionals to each kindergarten room for the first two weeks of school, and many other staff members help to including the interventionists, special education teachers, school counselor, and principal.

3. Why is it important for your learners (students and diverse stakeholders) that this challenge be addressed? I have been working closely with our district’s behavior specialist, Robin Cormier (Artifact #3). For the last several years she has been tirelessly working and advocating for change in the district. She has identified that the district and all schools must adapt because we are in crisis. There are students coming into every kindergarten class in our district that have severe behavior issues. Many of these students have never learned to self-regulate or handle any type of adversity, but rather have been regulated through the use of technology and screens. These students are coming in with severe developmental delays and deficiencies. Behaviors at this level are so extreme that the burnout rate for new teachers is staggering. It is also extremely disconcerting that more seasoned and experienced teachers are transferring out of primary or kindergarten positions at alarming rates because of the incredible difficulty of handling the behavioral concerns entering these classrooms. At our school this year there are two first year teachers in kindergarten and 1st grade. I also spoke with one teacher who was considering quitting because it was so difficult last year, and another teacher that told me that last year for the first semester she cried in her car before school at least several times a week. These teachers need more support and a more proactive approach to this systemic problem.

4. In what ways will your addressing the challenge promote or support diversity, equity, cultural competency? Part of addressing this problem is to identify and categorize what we are seeing. This means that we as staff have to be able to more effectively communicate, connect, and engage our families. This is even more essential with some of our minority families and students. These families can oftentimes feel intimidated or even antagonistic towards the school and school officials. They may feel that these problems are reflecting their own parenting, lack of education, or even racism on the part of school staff. Connecting with these families is critical to understanding the issues so that we can promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

5. Is it your intention to change an existing practice/program or support diversity, equity, cultural competence? One of the solutions that Robin Cormier has developed and advocated at the both the state and district level is the implementation of a new character development curriculum. She has proposed that the district use the Second Step program, which I wrote a grant to obtain (Artifact #4 & 5). This curriculum has sets for each grade level in elementary. It consists of 22 lessons that sequentially build upon the previous lessons. It also provides a framework for students to think about and process behavioral expectations. I have worked with Robin and am planning to do a lesson a day until we complete all 22 lessons in each classroom K-2nd grade to start the school year. Then in collaboration with the teachers, identify the highest need students to participate in small groups with me to reinforce the concepts taught in the lesson that day.

6. Why might this practice/program be a viable solution for your challenge? This approach will hopefully help staff to work to proactively identify, address, document, and intervene as soon as possible to help these students, classrooms, and teachers be successful. Last year some of our most challenging and difficult students didn’t get the necessary placements, interventions, medications, and support until January or February. This is an untenable situation for these students, their classmates, the teachers, and the school culture.

7. On which two Overarching Competencies will you focus in addressing the identified challenge? For this challenge I will focus on Interpersonal Effectiveness and Reflective Practice.

Why are they relevant to this particular challenge?

I believe that I frequently work hard to address the issues that I see as relevant or pertinent in the school, but often struggle to work, recruit, and collaborate with my coworkers. I just work individually to meet the needs without gaining the input, perspective, and insight of others. Then I never create tools, procedures, or facilitate effective collegial communication. I also tend not to collect, utilize, or reflect on data to make informed decisions.

8. On which competency within Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence will you focus in addressing the identified challenge? I will focus on Collaborate Purposefully for my Foundational Competency.

Why is it important for this particular challenge? This competency dove-tails perfectly with my Overarching Competencies. Working with other individuals within our school to promote change will be crucial to lasting systemic change to address this issue.

9. Which competency in the Instructional pathway will you focus on in addressing this challenge? For this pathway I have chosen Coaching and Mentoring.

Why is relevant for this particular challenge? One of the ways that this fits is that I assume a role as supporter and reinforcement for the teachers because they are the frontline of all these issues in our school. Any initiative that I create, will fall short, if not embraced and implemented by the classroom teacher.

10. With whom will you work in addressing your identified challenge? Who else might you recruit beyond your own cultural and/or professional identity group? I developed a strong support network of individuals to help in this endeavor. I partnered and made sure to have the support of staff, particularly the kindergarten and 1st grade teachers. I also formed a behavior team/ advisory council which included many important stakeholders. I have also gotten the full support of my principal. I have worked with a couple other school counselors and our district's behavior specialist. All of this is outlined further in later sections of this capstone.

11. Which resources (people, money, programs, time and space, etc.) do you have to address the challenge? What resources will you need? How will you obtain them? I recently (July 2020) received the entire curriculum for the Second Step Program. I also formed a school counseling advisory committee to help assist in addressing these behavioral issues.