Georgetown ISD

School Counseling Programs Foundational Components

Georgetown ISD School Counseling Mission Statement

Georgetown ISD Mission Statement

Inspiring and Empowering Every Learner to Lead, Grow, and Serve

GISD school counselors uniquely support this mission through a balanced school counseling program by:

Understanding every learner’s strengths and unique interests and creating and supporting personalized academic plans with the learner to reach their academic and post-secondary goals.
Providing every learner with a calming presence and nurturing environment where personal social skills can be taught, learners are encouraged, and self-awareness is strengthened.

GISD school counselors recognize that to work toward this goal, we must:

Foster and model healthy relationships
Meet learners where they are
Collaborate and advocate for learner needs within a broad support network
Model academic and self-regulation skills to foster growth in students

Program Definition, Rationale, & Assumptions

Program Definition

Georgetown ISD school counselors, in collaboration with campus and district administrators, teachers, parents, and community partners, strive to provide a comprehensive counseling program for all students. In Georgetown ISD, we believe every learner shall graduate from our schools with the attributes outlined in our Learner Profile, which include the ability to:

Communicate, collaborate, and apply critical thinking
Create and innovate
Obtain knowledge through inquiry and exploration
Adapt and persevere
Develop self-knowledge and personal responsibility
Build and model respectful relationships

School counselors play a critical role in supporting students to learn, grow, and connect through classroom guidance, small group interactions, and individual student support, in order to strengthen these Learner Profile attributes for academic success in GISD and beyond.

Program Rationale

The Georgetown ISD Counseling Services Team empowers students to be socially and emotionally prepared to learn, grow, and connect. Our counseling programs serve the whole child by preparing students with competencies which address interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, personal health and safety, and post-secondary planning. Counselors use a variety of data-gathering practices to determine student needs and implement strategies to address these needs into their school counseling program. GISD school counselors utilize their unique counseling skills to address students’ individual and developmental needs. Additionally, we work closely with families, staff, and the community to support student needs through consultation, collaboration, guidance and advising, and referrals to additional resources as needed.

Program Assumptions

Comprehensive School Counseling Program Assumptions are statements of student, staff, and program conditions that must exist for the school counseling program to exist.

Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) provide for each of the four delivery system components: Guidance & Advising, Individual Planning, Responsive Services, System Support.
Every student, parent, teacher, community member, etc. has equal access to the CSCP's services.
Parents will be full partners with educators in the education of their children.
Counselors can make their unique contributions to the educational program and healthy growth & development of students.
School Administrators understand and support the school counseling program priorities and demands & make decisions that reflect those.
All Staff Members accept responsibility for CSCP goals and objectives.

For the 2023 - 2024 academic school year, Wagner Middle School will prioritize the following two assumptions:

Priority assumption one: Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) provide for each of the four delivery system components: Guidance & Advising, Individual Planning, Responsive Services, System Support.

Priority assumption two: Counselors can make their unique contributions to the educational program and healthy growth & development of students.

Developing and Evaluating Program Goals

Developing Goals

Wagner Middle School's Counseling Team and campus Administrators work collaboratively to design a goal based on student, staff and campus needs. Goals are aligned to Wagner's campus priority work and the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. Sources of feedback and alignment that are used to develop the WMS CSCP Goal include, but are not limited to:

Student LP Survey
Staff LP Survey
Behavioral Health Threat Reporting (SBT Referral Data)
Discipline Data
Campus Walkthroughs
Teacher Feedback Forms
Mood Meter Data
PTA/Behavior Leadership Team
CBAS Priority Objectives

Evaluating Our Program

Our program evaluation involves several planned touch points throughout the school year, as well as, consideration of qualitative feedback from our staff, parents, students and community members.

Wagner counselors utilize a variety of tools and resources to evaluate our programs effectiveness to include Student Learner Profile Survey and Staff Campus Culture survey, CBAS data and number of requests/referrals for counseling throughout the year.

Our Student Learner Profile survey provides data that highlights interpersonal and intrapersonal skills that impact student academic and postsecondary success. Our CBAS priority work speaks to the capacity of our School Counseling Program to impact student behavior as part of a larger proactive system on our campus. The tools utilized for this are the Mood Meter, Department Meeting feedback on learning, Weekly Teamings and Observations.

Our counseling team uses this data and information to provide lessons to students, develop groups and guide individual advisement conversations with our Wolves.

Data

Learner Profile Survey

In the 2023/2024 School Year, Wagner students reported over 50% increase in skills and positive experiences in the Learner Profile Attributes of:

Communicating, Collaborating, and Applying Critical Thinking
Creating and Innovating

100% of Wagner students surveyed reported an increase in every area for the Learner Profile Attribute:

Develops Self Knowledge and Personal Responsibility

The highest growth points from last year to this year were in the areas of "student awareness of their emotions and how their emotions affect their body" and "student awareness of their individual strengths".

Community Based Accountability System (CBAS) Priority 5

For the 23/24 School Year our School Counseling Program supported our campus goal to positively impact student behavior through:
- Developing an MTSS process with targeted Tier 2 interventions
- Increased support for teachers utilizing behavior strategies in the classroom (Teaming Process)
- Implementation of school wide PBIS initiatives (Brag Boards, Wolf of the Month, Classroom Observations/Walkthroughs, Peer Mediations)
As a result, Wagner Middle School staff and students reported:
- Increase in teacher confidence to address classroom behaviors
- Decrease in referrals for disrespectful behaviors
- Decrease in tardies overall
- Increase in students identifying acknowledgement of Pack Pride (Safe, Respectful, Responsible)

GISD MTSS

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