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National Consortium Recognizes ABC Program Honorees The ABC’s of Career Awareness and Exploration has completed its ninth year of recognizing exemplary elementary and middle school career guidance programs in all states. The guidelines align closely with components of the No Child Left Behind legislation. The program outlines the framework for student success. It reflects the increasing emphasis on high standards and student achievement for all students with the following program elements identified: • Accountability including a system of evaluating student success and program effectiveness and feedback to stakeholders • Academics including integration of applied career guidance across the curriculum and with activists that support district academic standards • Basic Skills including skill-based activities defined by comprehensive standards/competencies and integration of SCANS (or similar) skills throughout the curriculum • Career Awareness and Exploration including career guidance for all students and program content organized by domains such as academic achievement, personal/social development, and career development • System Structure including key components of vision, commitment, comprehensiveness, collaboration, program management, and assessment/evaluation as well as inclusion of all educational stakeholders in the planning, development, delivery, and evaluation of the program. Following are the program descriptions for the 2007 recipients. The recipients were recognized with plaques and trophies, as well as free curriculum products. Although each program implements a slightly different method or emphasis, the criteria for program excellence is reflected in each one. Contact information is included for anyone wishing further details on these exemplary programs.
2007 Honorees / Fordland Elementary & Fordland Middle Schools, Fordland, MO
THE ABC’S OF EXEMPLARY CAREER AWARENESS AND EXPLORATION PROGRAMS COVER SHEET
Applicant Name and Location (School InstitutionlAgency) School
Administration Contact: State
Guidance Leader Contact: Description of applicant setting and organization: (School/InstitutionlAgency; context; population served-type, size, age, grade levels, etc.) The Fordland Elementary and Middle Schools are housed in two separate facilities. The elementary school is located in the center of Fordland and serves 277 students in kindergarten through fifth grades. The middle school is located on the fringe of the Fordland City limits and serves 138 students in sixth through eighth grades. Both schools have a high incidence of students that qualify for the free or reduced school lunch program. The elementary school has 49%, while the middle school has 41% of students receiving free or reduced lunches. Together the schools strive for academic excellence and as a result have been awarded honors. The elementary school has received the Blue Ribbon award, the middle school has received the Gold Star award, and the school district has received School of Distinction recognition for three years. Community Context: (population, rural suburban, urban, business, and/or industry, economic environment, etc.) The Fordland Elementary and Middle Schools are located in the small rural town of Fordland, population 684, located 20 miles east of Springfield, Missouri. The economic environment is primarily farming, with a significant number of unemployed. Many wage earners commute to nearby towns and cities such as Springfield, Marshfield, or Seymour for employment and cultural prospects. The primary employers in the community are the Fordland R-III School District and the Ozarks Correctional Center. The Fordland community also commutes primarily to Springfield for higher education endeavors at institutions of higher learning such as Ozarks Technical College, Missouri State University, Drury University, Evangel University, to name a few. What is special about your program? The Fordland Elementary and Middle School guidance programs are special because of the many opportunities for the 415 kindergarten through eighth grade students to experience applied learning. A solitary counselor serves all students in kindergarten through eighth grade, which contributes to the smooth and consistent flow of learning in all levels of the guidance program. Each grade progressively builds on guidance skills taught during the previous year. The counselor has written and received 7 grants to implement hands-on learning into the guidance curriculum. The grants include counseling with toys, WV/AIDS, Career Development and Exploration, and classroom characters, which have provided funds totaling $22,000 to enhance and enrich the guidance programs. The grants for counseling with toys have provided an abundance of toys for individual counseling, and hands-on activities for the classroom. The grant for career development and exploration has provided enhanced career activities in kindergarten through eighth grades. To further bring careers alive for the students there are “Career Days” held in each building. To heighten the festive mood for the day the counselor dons her “official career jumper” (constructed out of fabric with many careers printed on it). The grant for “characters” was developed to add pizzazz to the lessons in each classroom at the elementary level. The characters include “Zero the Hero”, a decked out cowgirl that visits the kindergarten classroom every ten school days (or” 0” days) to encourage students to learn their number skills in a fun way. The fourth grade gets a visit from wacky Professor Wilted. She demonstrates the harmful chemicals in cigarettes by “cooking up a batch” with smoke (dry ice) flying. Farmer Fran (dressed in overalls and flowerpot hat) visits the first grade planting flowers in her friendship garden. Second grade is all a Buzz as Honeybee Harriet dressed in a “bee” apron and matching antennae discussed “Bee”-ing helpful, kind, etc. Chef Walton checks out the ingredients for a good goal in the third grade. Fifth grade goes on a safari with Jungle Jane as they explore what makes a good student and test taker. A complete year plan (attached) is evaluated annually with updates to provide the students with current and best practices for effective learning. Accountability: The program provides for a system of evaluating student results and overall program effectiveness. Evaluating student results and the overall program effectiveness is accomplished in several ways. The counselor conducts a pre and posttest yearly in selected areas of the curriculum so that periodically all areas in the curriculum have been formally evaluated for comprehension. The area of career exploration was the focus of the evaluation during the 2006-07 school year, with over 90% of students in kindergarten through eighth grades gaining knowledge about career paths. Another way the program is evaluated is through vigilant documentation of classroom visits including topics covered. This evaluation is accomplished in the counselor’s plan book. It involves logging complete and careful records of the activities in the counselor’s day. This evaluation is in relation to whether the program activities meet and support the districts identified needs, and whether the student’s have many opportunities to learn using a hands-on approach. The guidance and counseling advisory board meets at regular intervals to offer suggestions about the program. Feedback is provided to stakeholders on the status of the career development program. Career development information is compiled and regular reporting is provided to the community in the local newspapers, district newsletters, and PTO meetings. An annual evaluation report is presented to the Fordland R-III school board to provide information concerning accomplishments and evaluation results during the past year. Immediately after the “Career Day” a summary of data gathered on the end of day evaluations are shared with all interested parties including students, teachers, parents, and staff. This information is used to plan the “Career Day” for the upcoming year. Academics: Career guidance activities are integrated across the curriculum at all grade levels and taught in an applied context allowing students to see real world connections. All 415 students in kindergarten through eighth grades at Fordland Elementary and Middle Schools participate in counseling activities in the classroom. The counselor visits the kindergarten classroom for 30 minutes weekly. The first through fifth grades, take part in a 30-minute counselor visit that averages two times per month. The counselor joins the sixth through eighth grade students in a 45-50 minutes class for a total of eight visits. The majority of career guidance activities include hands-on application of the lesson. Through a variety of activities, the students are exposed to real world examples of careers. All activities included in the curriculum are listed on the year plan incorporated later in this application. The following are specific examples of activities that students engage in to make careers relevant to their particular level of development. After kindergarten students are familiarized with the six career paths, they further explore careers on hat day. Hat day is a favorite activity for kindergarten students as they categorize distinctive hats into the appropriate career path. The counselor has collected over 30 different hats that include careers such as detective, clown, fireperson, and chef to name a few (yes, the nurse conducts a head check for lice first). First graders are allowed to explore career paths by sorting over 35 dolls and stuffed animals dressed in job specific attire, such as mail carrier, conservation agent, accountant, etc. Second graders use job bags filled with tools from careers to classify the career and the path it fits in to. Third graders learn about careers as they play the career sort game, which is to sort paper career people into the appropriate career paths. Fourth graders are introduced to the Children’s Dictionary of Occupations (DOT) as they continue to investigate the career paths. They also enjoy brainstorming about many jobs in the different career paths that relate to producing chocolate, while enjoying a sample. Fifth through seventh grade pupils challenge their newfound knowledge while competing in the Jobardy (like Jeopardy) game. Sixth grade students are introduced to the Missouri Connections (MCCPS)/Kuder interest inventory as it relates to similar careers. They also have an opportunity to explore many careers on the MCCPS/Kuder program. Eighth graders spend the year participating in the real world Career Game and continuing to explore careers on MCCPS/Kuder. A “Career Day” is also held at each building. Career guidance activities support the district’s academic content standards. The career guidance activities in the elementary and middle schools support the district’s academic content standards. The guidance program is designed to meet the locally identified needs, MSIP, CSIP, and learning objectives of the Fordland R-3 school district in the area of strategy 2, which states: “The district will provide a comprehensive program of career awareness and exploration in grades K-12”. Specifically it will meet 11.1B-1 and 2 #3, which reads: “Offer career awareness and exploration grades K-12.” The guidance program also meets the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program Content Standards and Grade Level Expectations (GLE) in the strand of Career Development (CD). Basic Skills: The program provides skill-based activities defined by a comprehensive set of standards of competencies. The guidance curriculum consists of structured developmental experiences presented systematically through classroom and group activities in kindergarten through eighth grades. The purpose of the guidance curriculum is to facilitate students normal growth and development, promote academic achievement and positive mental health, and assist students in acquiring and using life career skills. The Comprehensive Guidance Program curriculum framework is organized around three strands of learning: 1) Personal and Social Development (PS) 2) Academic (AD) and 3) Career Development (CD). These Strands lead to nine Big Ideas which are further described by concepts and K-8 Grade Level Expectations (GLEs). The guidance curriculum implementation strategies are directly aligned with the Show-Me Performance Goals. While all of the Big Ideas are considered important to the overall development of students, the Fordland R-III school district will determine the specific Big Ideas, which are local priorities. The complete program activities are listed in the Handbook of the Fordland R-III School District’s Guidance and Counseling Department and are aligned with the standards and grade level expectations agreed upon by the district. The comprehensive sets of content standards of competencies are also included in the resource notebooks for each grade level. Each resource notebook contains specific activities including enrichment activities, which are referenced with corresponding content standards. An example of a specific activity can be viewed at the conclusion of the Guidance and Counseling K-8 Schedule. SCANS, basic living, or employability skills are integrated throughout the curriculum. The purpose of the guidance curriculum is to facilitate students’ normal growth and development, promote academic achievement and positive mental health, and assist students in acquiring and using life career skills. It is the goal that each student is provided with systematic and sequential activities to facilitate educational and occupational decision-making appropriate to maturity. Career development should include all aspects necessary in developing a way of life, and to enrich the life they choose. These activities are related to the social significance of work, occupational exploration, and occupational preparation. These goals are initiated with activities in the following areas: self concept, respect for self and others, safe and healthy choices, personal safety of self and others, coping skills, lifelong learning, respect for all work, career decision making, along with others. Career Awareness and Exploration: Career guidance activities are provided for all students. All students are encouraged to be present for the guidance program activities. The counselor makes every attempt to provide lessons that are applicable, interesting, and relevant to all students in a class regardless of their academic ability level. Students are encouraged to be present for all activities and participate to the full extent of their ability. The teacher and counselor often work together to select compatible and workable groups that include all students prior to the visit so that no one student will be left out or feel uncomfortable. The counselor has developed “helper sticks” that are made at the beginning of the year with each student’s picture and name on it. The classroom helper for the day is selected at random by the previous helper. One of the responsibilities of the helper is to “round-up” students that would normally be out of the regular classroom at that time. By first grade the students have this routine so ingrained that they remind the counselor to ask the helper to gather students that are not present. Program content is based on student competencies and is organized by domains such as academic achievement, personal-social development, and career development. The guidance and counseling program for grades K-8 follow the curriculum frameworks recommended by the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program that are cross-referenced to the Show-Me Standards. The guidance program is designed to address the needs of all students by helping them to acquire the concepts in the three areas of learning. The three Strands followed by the Big Ideas are as follows: Strand I: Personal and Social Development
Strand II: Academic Development
Strand III: Career Development
System Structure: The key components in a career awareness and exploration program are vision, commitment, comprehensiveness, collaboration, program management, and assessment/evaluation. The key components in the career awareness and exploration program are the foundation on which a school district is built, and upon which the product of the school program is evaluated. Recognizing each student as a unique individual, the counselor believes that education should provide an opportunity for the maximum development of each individual regardless of limitations of his or her capabilities. Through education, it is possible for the individual to discover and endeavor to achieve t~ the limits of his or her capabilities. The counselor believes that the guidance process is to provide opportunities for the student to achieve at the maximum level of capacity, to create a learning situation conducive to learning, and promote principles of the democratic way of life. It is also believed that parents/guardians, community members, and staff in a cooperative effort can encourage the student to give his or her best efforts to daily school responsibilities by participating in school activities. It is also important to the counselor to provide an educational environment for the students in the district, which will foster and accelerate their intellectual, physical, social, and career development. Teachers, administrators, counselors, parents, students, and business/community representatives are stakeholders involved in the planning, development, delivery, and evaluation of the program. Organized at the district level, an advisory council provides support, offers advice, reviews present activities, and encourages new activities to meet the goals of the Fordland R-III school district’s comprehensive guidance program. Advisory council membership includes school board members, school staff parents, students, and community leaders. The members have a shared enthusiasm for students and guidance. It is organized at the district level.
Sachem Central Schools, New York
Accountability Sachem Central Schools (a large suburban school district with more than 15,500 students Kindergarten through 12th grade) has fully implemented New York State’s Career Development & Occupational Studies (CDOS) Standards. Beginning in 2000, students in grades 9 - 12 engaged in a pilot career development curriculum that now extends from grades Kindergarten through 12. This Career Development curriculum follows the belief that Career Development is a Process—Not An Event. Through the creation of a comprehensive, age-appropriate, integrated career development curriculum, Sachem students create a career plan that is revisited and updated multiple times each year. Career plans in grades K - 5, which focus on awareness of self and careers, are contained in a career plan portfolio that is accessible to students, teachers, parents and administration. These portfolios move with the students to middle school, where the Career Exploration teacher for grades 6 - 8 is the recipient. By reviewing the Elementary Career Plan Portfolio, Middle School teachers and counselors are able to discover individual student needs, abilities, interests and preferences—this enhances the caring environment in which children learn best. Sachem Central Schools was the recipient of the 2004 ABC Middle School Career Exploration Award. The electronic career development portfolio created and updated in grades 6 - 8 is also continued through high school with online accessibility by students, parents, and guidance counselors. Sachem’s Elementary Career Awareness curriculum includes a series of both required and optional activities integrated into the elementary curriculum through the classroom teacher. All required activities are contained in a portfolio created in Kindergarten and follows the student through the conclusion of 5th grade. At the end of each school year, 5th grade Career Plan portfolios are transferred to the appropriate middle school and career exploration teacher. Optional career awareness activities cover a broad area of interests and subject areas to encourage the classroom teacher to find more opportunities to integrate the career awareness curriculum into their classroom instruction. Activities also stress academic standards and concepts—for example the use of Venn diagrams to compare and contrast careers. With each additional year of career awareness curriculum implementation, Sachem’s elementary schools are taking the challenge of creating building events that celebrate the curriculum. Gatelot Elementary School hosts a very successful annual Elementary Career Night where parents and business community members volunteer to demonstrate their career to K – 5 students. Leading up this event, students are involved in many academic integrated activities that bring career information to life. This annual event is held on the same night as New York State’s School Budget Vote. Not only are parents and students exposed to different careers each year, this school continually has the highest number of parents voting in the annual school budget vote. This year, Wenonah and Tamarac Elementary Schools’ Parent-Teacher-School Associations created their first Career Night. Grundy Elementary School’s Kindergarten creates “The Grundy Diner” through which students are exposed to the jobs and skills as part of owning and managing a diner. Students play the parts of the maitre d’ host/hostess, waiter, waitress, busboy/girl, chef and cashier. All Grundy students are invited to have breakfast at the diner. Other Kindergarten students at Gatelot Elementary School interview their parents/guardians about their jobs and verbally report to their class. After their report, placing the career name on the bulletin board is a special treat. Academics Over the past seven years, all teachers K - 8 have received professional development in the area of the integration of career development into Sachem’s elementary curriculum. Classroom teachers are continually encouraged to help students identify the 21st century workplace skills (SCANS) utilized in their classrooms and suggest a career where they would be used. To further connect the academic teacher to a student’s career plan portfolio, at the end of 5th grade, students complete a preliminary learning styles survey. As previously mentioned, career plan portfolios are moved to the Middle School Career Exploration teacher. This teacher shares the Elementary Career Plan Portfolio, which includes the 5th grade learning styles survey and a more extensive 6th grade learning styles survey, with the academic teacher. This sharing of the Career Plan Portfolio enables the classroom teacher to quickly know more about their incoming 6th grade students and their learning styles. This information enables the teacher to differentiate instruction. With the guidance of Jeanette James, District Chairperson for Career Development, the elementary career development curriculum was created by Sachem elementary teachers. Sachem’s Elementary Career Plan is a curriculum that integrates academic standards and awareness of self and careers. After a one-year pilot program, full implementation first occurred in three, then six, and finally all 12 of Sachem’s elementary schools. The Elementary Career Awareness curriculum, along with the Middle School Career Exploration curriculum and the High School Career Planning curriculum are continually evaluated and revised. Our goal is to create a customized K - 12 Career Development Curriculum that is maintained in-house on Sachem’s computer network. Basic Skills Sachem’s Elementary Career Plan draws on language arts standards for grades K - 2. Beginning in grade 3, students are introduced to career awareness activities that help identify skills first utilized in the classroom and then in the workplace. Students begin to see the connection between school and work. Teachers are encouraged to include SCANS skills identification as a reflection activity following a particularly rich lesson and/or project. It is most important for students to recognize the use and patterns in their own skill development. This is a common thread throughout our entire K-12 curriculum. Individual elementary school teachers create additional lessons to further enhance the integration of career awareness into Sachem’s curriculum. Many teacher-created lesson plans are posted at the district’s career development website: www.sachemcareerdevelopment.com. These lesson plans also include the identification of SCANS skills utilized by students—an important component of Sachem’s Career Development Curriculum. Career Awareness and Exploration At the elementary level, all classroom teachers have specific awareness activities that must be included in a student’s portfolio each year. There are many additional activities that teachers can utilize to customize career activities for a variety of students and interests. This instruction continues at the middle school level, where classroom teachers attend career exploration sessions with their students enabling them to learn more about their students resulting in the creation of more student-focused learning environment. Parents and counselors have access to student electronic portfolios. Sachem’s Career Development curriculum involves 15,500 students and stresses planned activities spread over a long period of time. Students have structured opportunities to view themselves and how they fit into the world of work. This continuous curriculum slowly and firmly ingrains the process of career development into our students—a process they will use over and over in the ever-changing workplace they face. System Structure Sachem Central School District is committed to the integration of a comprehensive K - 12 Career Development curriculum. What began as a pilot program with one teacher at the high school seven years ago has now expanded to middle and elementary school with the involvement of teachers, parents, counselors and community. All K – 12 Sachem students are engaged in our Career Development curriculum. Elementary students utilize both software and the internet for career awareness activities. The Elementary career plan portfolio is currently in paper format and we are slowly moving toward an electronic Career Portfolio folder with career templates for each student to store information electronically on Sachem’s computer network. It is most important that our students have continuous access to their career plan portfolio. Academic teachers K - 12 have learned about the components of the career development process, learned about careers relating to subject areas, and learned how to identify workplace skills utilized in their classroom. Teachers are a key component to enhancing student motivation by revealing the connection between the classroom and the world of work. Two online courses offered through Sachem’s Teacher Center, provide our professional staff instruction in the components of a successful comprehensive career development curriculum and the preparation of lesson plans to incorporate career development concepts into the academic curriculum. Sachem Central School District demonstrates a firm collaboration between the career development curriculum and guidance counselors. In New York State, we are fortunate that our Career Development & Occupational Studies (CDOS) Standards compliment School Counseling Standards. In addition, the New York State Education Department annually collects data from all New York State schools on the number of students in K - 12 who maintain career plan portfolios and whether those portfolios are paper or electronic. Counselors, ever an integral part of this curriculum, can access the progress of awareness of self, awareness of careers, and the ability to set goals by viewing a student’s continuous career plan. Parents are valuable partners in their child’s education. We also facilitate this by providing newsletters covering a variety of career development themes; maintain a website that encompasses both career development and our School-to-Work Partnership, and offering parent workshops. Sachem Central School District over the past seven years has created a comprehensive career development curriculum that is continually evaluated and improved through a collaborative effort of students, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, parents, and business/community.
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©2006 National Consortium for State Guidance
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