COUNSELING ADVISORY COUNCIL

THE IMPLEMENTATION CYCLE

The Midkiff Elementary Counseling Advisory Council (CAC): A Collaborative Approach to the Texas Counseling Model Implementation Cycle

As the school counselors at Midkiff Elementary, we firmly believe that a truly effective counseling program is one that is collaborative, data-driven, and responsive to the unique needs of our students. Our Counseling Advisory Council (CAC) is the cornerstone of this philosophy, and we rely on the Texas Counseling Model's implementation cycle to guide our work in building a comprehensive, proactive, and preventative program. With two counselors on staff, our team is committed to this collaborative process. Here's a brief overview of how our CAC utilizes each stage of the cycle.

• Organizing: Our council is comprised of a dedicated group of parents, teachers, administrators, and a student representative who all share a passion for student success. We meet twice a year to ensure consistent progress, with our first meeting scheduled for November 15, 2024, and our second for April 4, 2025. We begin our first meeting by reviewing our purpose, which is to provide feedback on and advocate for our school counseling program. We establish meeting dates and review the roles of our council members. This organizing stage ensures we are all on the same page and committed to the process.

• Planning: This is where we get to the heart of our work. The first thing we do is review the previous year’s data, including our annual student-wide counseling needs assessment. Last year, our assessment indicated a significant need for support in the areas of social skills for our kinder students and conflict resolution for our students in second through fifth grades. Based on this data, our CAC helped me formulate a plan. We set clear, measurable goals for the program, such as reducing classroom behavioral referrals related to emotional outbursts by 20% in first- and second-grade classes. The CAC's input was invaluable in helping me understand the specific challenges teachers were facing in their classrooms.

• Designing: With our goals in place, we move into the design phase. We work together to create a program that directly addresses the needs we identified. The CAC helped me brainstorm and refine a curriculum that included weekly "Calm Corner" lessons in first- and second-grade classrooms. They helped select the resources, such as a feelings chart and sensory tools, that would be most effective for our students. We also planned out the logistics of how teachers would be able to easily implement these tools.

• Implementing: As the school counselors, we take the lead on implementing the program, but the CAC's role is still critical. Our teacher representatives on the council help to champion the program among their colleagues, ensuring that the "Calm Corner" concept and the Resilient Kits are consistently used across all our target classrooms. The Resilient Kits, which include a yellow folder with breathing techniques and other tools, were created to help students who are struggling at times with regulating emotions. We regularly update the council on our progress, sharing anecdotes of student success and addressing any challenges that arise during the implementation.

• Evaluating: This final stage is essential for demonstrating the program's impact and guiding our future work. At the end of the semester, we'll revisit our initial goals. We'll look at the data again, comparing classroom behavioral referrals from the first semester to the second semester. We'll also use informal feedback from teachers and students to assess the program's effectiveness. The CAC will review these results, helping us to celebrate our successes and identify areas for improvement. For example, if we met our goal, we will discuss how to sustain our success or what our new focus should be. If we didn't, the CAC and I will discuss what modifications we need to make for the next school year, starting the cycle all over again.

This cyclical process, driven by our Counseling Advisory Council and grounded in data, allows us to create a dynamic and responsive school counseling program that directly serves the needs of the Midkiff Elementary community.

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