Running head: Systems Change Project 1
Systems Change Project
Tyrone R. Robinson Jr
University of Brandman
Systems Change Project 2
Systems Change Project
Introduction
This paper will evaluate the delivery of direct services by
a counseling department, and then make a recommendation to
improve their delivery of these services. Encinal Jr. & Sr. high
school’s counseling department will be the focus of this paper,
but the school district, Alameda Unified School District (AUSD),
Encinal resides in will be examined as well. The discussion will
start by surveying the entire school district, and then focus on
the needs assessment at Encinal.
Surveying
Alameda Unified School District. Prior to the needs assessment
administered at Encinal, research was conducted on all schools
within the Alameda Unified School District to obtain information
on counseling departments at all sites. Before this discussion
starts, a couple of caveats will be explained. First, The
district has fifteen schools in total, but there are four more
charter schools within the district too. These four schools
operate more independently than the rest. This made gathering
information around their counseling departments terribly
difficult. For this reason, the four charter schools will be
Systems Change Project 3
excluded from this survey. Second, as schools are discussed,
it’ll be done primarily on an entire level; e.g. elementary,
middle, and high school.
Gathering data on the nine elementary schools within this
district proved to be a task of resiliency. After researching
online, it is evident that counselors at the elementary level
are nonexistent (AUSD, 2018). Initially, this finding seemed
inaccurate but after much research, it’s true. A study on
student to counselor ratios agreed with these findings.
Carrell’s (2006) study stated “some districts offer no
counseling services at the elementary school level” (p.1).
However, each elementary school did have a school psychologist
and a speech pathologist. One of the nine schools, Bay Farm
Elementary School, serves students from kindergarten up to
eighth grade. This school has one counselor that primarily
serves the middle school, grades sixth through eighth. Due to
the lack of counselors at the elementary school level, there
aren’t any comprehensive counseling programs using the ASCA
National Model.
As stated before, Bay Farm Elementary is a middle school
too. It has the smallest cohort of middle school students and
has one counselor (C. Fergusson, Intervention Coordinator,
Systems Change Project 4
personal communication, February 20, 2019). There are five
counselors, three speech pathologists, two school psychologists,
one school psychologist intern, and three student support
providers among four middle schools (AUSD, 2018). The position
student support provider is ambiguous, and is define by the
principal at each site (D. Hurst, Principal, personal
communication, February 22, 2019). Counseling departments at the
middle school level aren’t using the ASCA National Model.
Although counseling departments have made great progress in
recent years within the district, to deem them comprehensive
wouldn’t be accurate. Resources change year to year, and this
district has a lot of turnover due to low wages. These two
reasons limit consistency within this district. Consistency is
necessary to build a comprehensive counseling program (C.
Fergusson, Intervention Coordinator, personal communication,
February 25, 2019).
As stated above, consistency thrives when there are
resources and committed employees. Although the high schools
within this district are closer to achieving comprehensive
counseling departments than the middle schools, they too, still
fall short. The ASCA National Model isn’t the guiding force
among the counseling departments at the high school level (C.
Systems Change Project 5
Lua, Counselor, personal communication, February 20, 2019).
There are nine school counselors, two student support providers,
and two school psychologists among four high schools. The two
prominent high schools have comprehensive health centers on
campus that provide a variety of services, notably mental health
services. The two schools rely on the health centers heavily to
fill counseling gaps (C. Fergusson, Intervention Coordinator,
personal communication, February 20, 2019).
Encinal. Encinal high school has three academic counselors, one
school psychologist, one supplemental counselor, and an on
campus health center with two therapists. The counseling
department doesn’t use the ASCA National Model (C. Lua,
Counselor, personal communication, February 20, 2019). Encinal
is the only school in the district that has a full multi-tiered
system of supports (MTSS) (C. Fergusson, Intervention
Coordinator, personal communication, February 20, 2019).
Although Encinal’s counseling department has an abundance of
services that are unique to its campus, such as a restorative
justice center and an after school peer tutoring program; the
lack of guidance in all three counseling domain areas: academic,
career, and social/personal, results in it falling short of a
comprehensive program.
Systems Change Project 6
Needs Assessments
The focus of this needs assessment was to evaluate the
delivery of direct services by Encinal’s counseling department.
In order to do this, six members of the counseling department
were surveyed using the ASCA National Model assessment of
delivery of direct services (ASCA, 2012, p. 62). The survey’s
results state that the counseling department is doing an almost
exceptional job of delivery direct services (see Appendix A to
view the full survey). To gain perspective on the topic from the
student population, a small sample, nine students, were asked to
complete a survey. The survey consisted of questions that were
guided by student to counselor communication, relationship, and
individual counseling. With all research, the collected data
possessed strengths and weaknesses, but overall, the information
taken from the data was beneficial (see Appendix B to view the
full survey). Several concerns revealed themselves about the
delivery of direct services: (1) only one student said that they
had a bad relationship with their counselor, but a third said
their counselor doesn’t care about them; (2) a third of the
students said the line of communication with their counselor
Systems Change Project 7
could be better; (3) seven out of nine students said they could
use support with topics within the three domains; (4) a third of
the students suggested that counselors need to be more available
to check in with them. These concerns make for an unfortunate
realization; the delivery of direct services at Encinal needs
improvement.
Proposal
To improve the delivery of direct services, Encinal needs
to improve its student to counselor ratio. The American
Counselor Association recommends a student to counselor ratio
that isn’t larger than 250:1 (NACAC & ASCA, 2018). Encinal is
currently at about a ratio of 350:1 (C. Lua, Counselor, personal
communication, February 20, 2019). A large percentage of a
school counselor’s job is centered around a very simple dutie,
talking. However, this dutie isn’t simple when a counselor’s
caseload is overwhelmingly large. A 2014 study revealed that
“students in schools where counselors are responsible for
advising a large number of students are less likely to speak
with a counselor about college, plan to attend college, take the
SAT, and enroll in a four-year college” (Woods and Domina, p.
1). School counselors need time to reach every student by
inspiring, educating, and guiding all of them through direct
Systems Change Project 8
counseling. A 2006 study proved that “lowering the number of
students per counselor decreases both the probability of a
disciplinary recurrence and the share of students involved in a
disciplinary incident”(Carrell & Carrell, p. 14). Again,
counselors need time to impact every students’ social/personal
self. School counselors will not be able to impact students in
the fashion they need to, if student to counselor ratios exceed
the ASCA recommended ratio of 250:1 (NACAC & ASCA, 2018). In
order to achieve the recommended ratio, Encinal needs an
additional academic counselor in the department. The question
now, is how?
As mentioned before, Encinal has three academic counselors
and one supplemental counselor. The supplemental counselor
doesn’t have a traditional caseload. Unlike the three academic
counselors, the supplemental counselor’s caseload is
significantly smaller and consists of high needs students. This
counselor works primarily with the restorative justice center on
campus mediating conflicts and responding to various crises on
campus (C. Fergusson, Intervention Coordinator, personal
communication, February 20, 2019). The supplemental counselor
needs to become an academic counselor, so that the recommended
ratio can be achieved.
Systems Change Project 9
Integration Plan
Moving the supplemental counselor into the position of
academic counselor is simple. However, filling the void that
this move will cause isn’t as simple. Encinal’s librarian
doesn’t plan to return next year. The Librarian works in a space
called the student center. The student center houses the media
center, library, intervention coordinator, supplemental
counselor, and restorative justice center. The school doesn’t
need a librarian in the space, and this position could be filled
by a credentialed staff member such as a counselor (D. Hurst,
Principal, personal communication, February 22, 2019). If an
additional counselor was hired, the integration of an additional
academic counselor would be seamless.
Budget. The cost of this addition could immediately save the
site money too. The current librarian will be entering their
14th year and their education puts them in the last column at
$82,629.35 (see Appendix C, Table 1). The site could hire a
counselor with no more than 12 years experience with maximum
education, and it wouldn’t impact the budget for the worse (see
Appendix C, Table 2). However, if the site hired a counselor
with less years and/or less education, it could potentially save
Systems Change Project 10
the site a minimum $27,616.63 for a first year counselor or
$24,223.04 for a third year counselor.
Evaluation. The first step in evaluating this recommendation of
an additional counselor is to adopt the ASCA National Model. The
ASCA National model would allow the department to do a
comprehensive assessment of the department that would encompass
the additional counselor. The survey in Appendix B would
definitely need to be incorporated to gather student feedback
about the delivery of direct services. However, the survey would
need revision to ensure that if the desired results are
achieved, they’re a direct result of the additional counselor.
Conclusion
The needs assessment found that the Encinal counseling
department isn’t delivering direct services to the best of its
ability. In order to better deliver these services, academic
counselors need more time with their students. This can only
happen with a smaller student to counselor ratio. The addition
of one academic counselor would yield the ASCA recommended ratio
of 250:1. The addition would come at no expense to the school
because the counselor hired would be filling a vacant position.
Although this addition may be perceived as unorthodox, it would
Systems Change Project 11
provide the students with a more valuable high school experience
than they’re currently receiving; an experience that has the
power to impact all of their persons in the key areas: academic,
personal/social, and career.
Systems Change Project 12
Reference
Alameda Unified School District (AUSD). (2108). Retrieved from
https://www.alameda.k12.ca.us/
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2018).
Career/Roles. Retrieved from
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/c
areers-roles
American School Counselor Association (ASCA) (2012). The ASCA
National Model: A framework for school counseling programs,
Third Edition. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Carrell, S. (2006). The Student to Counselor Ratio: Does it
Matter? [PDF file]. Retrieved from
https://www.umass.edu/schoolcounseling/uploads/breif5.3.pdf
Carrell, S.E. & Carrell, S.A. (2006). Do Lower Student to
Counselor Ratios Reduce School Disciplinary Problems? [PDF
file]. Retrieved from
https://www.schoolcounselor-ca.org/files/Advocacy/Lower%20C
ounselor%20Ratios%20Equal%20Less%20Discipline.pdf
National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) &
American School Counselor Association (ASCA) (2018).
STUDENT-TO-COUNSELOR RATIO REPORT: Learn which states are
gaining or losing ground. Journal of College Admission,
Systems Change Project 13
(239), 27. Retrieved from
http://libproxy.chapman.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscoh
ost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cookie,url&d
b=eft&AN=130810987&site=ehost-live
Woods, C. S., & Domina, T. (2014). The School Counselor Caseload
and the High School-to-College Pipeline. Teachers College
116(
Record, 10). Retrieved from
http://libproxy.chapman.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscoh
ost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cookie,url&d
b=eric&AN=EJ1033545&site=ehost-live
Systems Change Project 14
Appendix A
Survey of Six Members of the Encinal Counseling Department
The following questions were taken from the ASCA National Model.
Data was gathered using a google form.
Systems Change Project 15
Appendix B
Survey of Nine Students at Encinal
The following questions were designed to yield qualitative data
around the delivery of direct services at Encinal high school.
Data was gathered using a google form.
Systems Change Project 16
Appendix B Cont’d
Systems Change Project 17
Appendix C
Alameda Unified School District Salary Schedules: Teacher &
Counselor.
Table 1
Systems Change Project 18
Appendix C Cont’d
Table 2
