Section V

Program Curriculum

Data

A valuable component of any school counseling program is a well designed guidance curriculum. When planning our guidance curriculum for the 2019-2020 school year, we chose to focus on the area of Postsecondary Planning and Career Readiness so that our 9th graders can begin take steps toward creating and attaining personal goals related to their future readiness. The data from our September 2019 needs assessment revealed that our students desired more postsecondary education, specifically college opportunities. Nearly a quarter of student respondents mentioned college-related goals when answering an open-ended question about their goals for current school year.

Program Developed

Armed with this data, we developed a classroom guidance lesson providing postsecondary options with an emphasis on college. The presentation is available to view below.

In the September 2019 student survey, data revealed that, when asked in an open ended question to express their goal for 9th grade, 367 students, or 67%, expressed goals related to grades and GPA achievement. Using these results, we created a counselor led student lesson focusing on grades, GPA and how it relates to college readiness. We shared current college trends and data as well as conducted an interactive GPA game. The GPA game provided students a visual of how most colleges/universities are using a holistic approach to student admissions.

The lesson can be found by clicking the image below.

At the conclusion of this lesson, counselors directed students to the Choices 360 computer program. Students took a 10 minute Interest Profiler assessment. This assessment instrument examined students interests in many different occupational skills. Using each student's individual feedback, the program then provides a list of careers tailored to the student's interests. Counselors encouraged students to research careers they found interesting and save a few to their portfolio for future reference. Counselors also encouraged students to search colleges that offer that field of study and save at least 3 colleges to their portfolio. Of the students that participated in the lesson, the completion rate of these activities was more than 90%, revealing the vast majority of our students gained important knowledge about themselves and their future opportunities.