COMPREHENSIVE COUNSELING COLLABORATIVE OF ELKHART CO.

COMPREHENSIVE COUNSELING COLLABORATIVE OF ELKHART CO.


OVERVIEW

In 2017, The Lilly Endowment awarded all seven Elkhart County school districts grants through the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative. The school districts chose to work collaboratively, creating the Comprehensive Counseling Collaborative of Elkhart County (CCCEC). Through these awards, the county is developing and implementing a comprehensive counseling program that supports the social-emotional well-being and career readiness of every student. Click the button below to learn more about the history of the CCCEC.


OVERVIEW

In 2017, The Lilly Endowment awarded all seven Elkhart County school districts grants through the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative. The school districts chose to work collaboratively, creating the Comprehensive Counseling Collaborative of Elkhart County (CCCEC). Through these awards, the county is developing and implementing a comprehensive counseling program that supports the social-emotional well-being and career readiness of every student. Click the button below to learn more about the history of the CCCEC.

THE CHALLENGE

The grant opportunity from Lilly recognized the critical role that school counselors can play in addressing two significant concerns for our youth that have been exacerbated by COVID-19: supporting the social-emotional and mental health needs of all students and helping students be prepared for college and career. School counselors play a critical role in both of these areas, and yet school counselors often have to spend a significant portion of time on non-counseling duties, which takes away from time spent in direct services to students. In addition, the immediate need to focus on students in crisis has meant that there is insufficient time and resources to provide the core support and curriculum that all students need.

THE SOLUTION

The purpose of the grants received through the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative focused on supporting schools in developing new counseling approaches to meet the social-emotional, academic and career readiness needs of all students. The CCCEC is working to transform school counseling in Elkhart County through implementing a countywide comprehensive K-12 counseling curriculum, re-structuring counselor roles to optimize counselors’ time and expertise, developing a system for consistent and efficient access to community resources, and improving the use of data to inform counseling practices. The CCCEC is working towards three strategic goals on a countywide scale:

  1. Implement a comprehensive school counseling model aligned with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) model, which includes K-12 social-emotional and college and career readiness frameworks and tiered academic and mental health interventions that meet the needs of every student.
  2. Strengthen ongoing countywide collaboration among school counselors, focused on sharing best practices, identifying the most effective strategies for supporting student outcomes, and supporting the replication and scale-up of effective strategies across districts.
  3. Create and sustain networks of community agencies and business partners that work with counselors to support social-emotional development and provide hands-on, authentic opportunities to develop college and career readiness skills.

THE CHALLENGE

The grant opportunity from Lilly recognized the critical role that school counselors can play in addressing two significant concerns for our youth that have been exacerbated by COVID-19: supporting the social-emotional and mental health needs of all students and helping students be prepared for college and career. School counselors play a critical role in both of these areas, and yet school counselors often have to spend a significant portion of time on non-counseling duties, which takes away from time spent in direct services to students. In addition, the immediate need to focus on students in crisis has meant that there is insufficient time and resources to provide the core support and curriculum that all students need.

THE SOLUTION

The purpose of the grants received through the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative focused on supporting schools in developing new counseling approaches to meet the social-emotional, academic and career readiness needs of all students. The CCCEC is working to transform school counseling in Elkhart County through implementing a countywide comprehensive K-12 counseling curriculum, re-structuring counselor roles to optimize counselors’ time and expertise, developing a system for consistent and efficient access to community resources, and improving the use of data to inform counseling practices. The CCCEC is working towards three strategic goals on a countywide scale:

  1. Implement a comprehensive school counseling model aligned with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) model, which includes K-12 social-emotional and college and career readiness frameworks and tiered academic and mental health interventions that meet the needs of every student.
  2. Strengthen ongoing countywide collaboration among school counselors, focused on sharing best practices, identifying the most effective strategies for supporting student outcomes, and supporting the replication and scale-up of effective strategies across districts.
  3. Create and sustain networks of community agencies and business partners that work with counselors to support social-emotional development and provide hands-on, authentic opportunities to develop college and career readiness skills.

INDICATORS OF SUCCESS   

Indicators of success for the work of the CCCEC include process indicators, such as the number of hours of professional development and the size of the partner network; outcomes for schools, including the implementation of core ASCA components and structural changes in counselor schedules and use of time; outcomes for school counselors, including the effective use of data to inform programs, development and use of shared, high-quality lesson plans, and support within schools; and student outcomes including attendance and behavior, social-emotional well-being and career awareness.

See our Outcomes Data page for more about how CCCEC is making an impact.

INDICATORS OF SUCCESS

Indicators of success for the work of the CCCEC include process indicators, such as the number of hours of professional development and the size of the partner network; outcomes for schools, including the implementation of core ASCA components and structural changes in counselor schedules and use of time; outcomes for school counselors, including the effective use of data to inform programs, development and use of shared, high-quality lesson plans, and support within schools; and student outcomes including attendance and behavior, social-emotional well-being and career awareness.

See our Outcomes Data page for more about how CCCEC is making an impact.

STRATEGIES   

A core component of the CCCEC collaborative work was the completion of the Hatching Results training. The Hatching Results training included six days of on-site training each year for three years, along with site visits to schools to provide individualized feedback. Hatching Results supported a three-year implementation and evaluation plan for a comprehensive K-12 counseling model, culminating in support for schools to work towards developing applications to be RAMP (Recognized ASCA Model Program) schools.

The Hatching Results training process included professional development for counselors and administrators in current practices within school counseling, the use of data in school counseling and the ASCA National Model. As a part of the training process, school districts designed a scope and sequence for a comprehensive and preventive core counseling curriculum, as well as “intentional” guidance interventions to address specific needs of students. The training also supported districts in the development of a mission and vision for their counseling programs, ASCA-aligned management and documentation tools, and a School Counseling Program Handbook. The use of data to drive decision-making and more efficiently identify and respond to student needs was a central component of the Hatching Results training, and was embedded in all three years of the training.

The CCCEC functions through a collaborative leadership structure that engages school administrators and school counselors from across the county. As new learning for all school counselors takes place, strategically designed CCCEC teams engage in planning, decision-making, and activities to move the work forward. CCCEC work teams during the grant period included the Social-Emotional Learning Work Team, Career Readiness Work Team, Naviance Work Team, Counselor Optimization Work Team and the Curriculum Management Team.

Social-Emotional Learning Work Team

Develop countywide K-12 social-emotional resources and foster community connections to address and support the social-emotional well-being and growth of healthy and productive citizens.

Career Readiness Work Team

Provide knowledge and opportunities to students, families, and staff to increase relevance and engagement in Career Readiness in partnership with business/industry and higher education.

Naviance Work Team

Collaboratively implement the Naviance tool to strengthen school counseling services, and support students and parents across Elkhart County.

Counselor Optimization Work Team

Advocate for the school counselor identity, role, data-driven counseling framework.

Curriculum Management Team

Manage, monitor, and review the addition of new lessons to the Core Curriculum Action Plan for CCCEC.

In order to maximize the sharing of resources, the CCCEC has developed resource-sharing platforms that provide go-to site for school counselors to access information about professional development opportunities, best practices, and school counseling updates.

The CCCEC served as an important space for school counselors to come together in response to COVID-19. A platform was developed to house high-quality resources to help schools, including educators, school counselors and administrators related to the issues facing our schools and communities in these current times. The resources included in this platform have been selected by area school counselors (CCCEC), HEA, and The SOURCE to support the needs of our schools and students in Elkhart County during these unusual times. All of the topics included in the resource site reinforce one another and together have the potential to positively impact our schools during the coming months and years.