A reader responds to this post about the middle school in the Bronx:
In Vallejo, we did away with our counselors in 2005. Since then we have seen our graduate rate rapidly decline, increase in violence on our secondary campuses, and other issues as well. The teachers’ union have been advocating for a return of our counselors ever since because we have seen the profound negative impact it has had on our kids. It has yet to happen.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Similar story where I was teacher / counselor. Working in a school where there were four predominant gangs represented in the student body, group counseling in the mornings before school began calmed down the entire campus. Our one on one sessions helped countless kids find alternatives to self-destructive behaviors.
In fact, seeing the success of our counseling program (which consisted of myself and my ed aide–how wonderful she was w/ the kids–the county saw fit to rebuild a portion of our school to incorporated counseling rooms, a general meeting room (conference room for larger meetings for public, student, community acitivities), and an additional classroom for SDC kids to help them transition into the community and work force).
Things were going swimmingly until the county decided to change the funding mechanism for the 10 site program (Juvenile Court and Community Schools). Our site included. The SDC classroom remained (and its office), the conference room remained, but the counseling programs were dumped due to “funding deficits.”
This happened, by the way, in the wake of NCLB. Testing and narrowing curriculum (the high stakes CAHSEE, several different “throw the mud on the wall and see if it sticks” literacy programs and the testing that came with those programs trumped counseling.
We had grown into a family at our school. Crime, gang-related incidents decreased, drug use among our students dropped off sharply. All our staff, all teachers, principal, the custodial staff helped our kids. And the kids who would follow from the feeder schools knew about our school and knew that it was a neutral, safe, and caring place to be.
It all went away. About a year before Vallejo did away with their counselors. Our group of campuses, located on the Central Coast of California, rolled over and began drinking the scripted reading programs, irrelevant testing, and the move to take counseling out of the school and outsource it to county agencies who had no connection with our kids.
Graduation rates decreased. Recidivism increased. And the county schools brought in a community resource officer (city police officer) to “take care of the problem kids.” The officer carried a nine millimeter sidearm and held to the authoritarian ethic of policing kids.
This tragic move by county schools eroded all gains we had made with the kids, the community. The counseling rooms? They became a place for personnel to put their feet up and watch TV while they had their lunch break. The teachers were not so lucky. At our school, once a teacher got on campus (and sometimes before, as I’d often stop by and get kids out of bed, throw them in my van, and got them to school…. the kids protested, but they really loved the care), as soon as our feet hit the parking lot our day started. We ate when we could. We often worked twelve or more hours a day.
Paraphrasing a tweet sent to me by @thechalkface : NCLB was the structure that was built upon to bring us to what’s happening now, R3T, etc. It also demoralized our school, the kids, teachers, staff, everyone. We watched as our principal who insisted that doing the right thing was best practice was ordered by divisional supervision that now he needed to ensure that we all did things right. Things went to hell in a hand basket. I got out. Today, I continue as a consultant to public education, especially to schools with “beyond risk” populations. The actions I became obligated to inflict upon the kids became too much. When the smoke clears, if it ever does, I hope Vallejo will get counseling back into their schools. And into the campus systems where I taught and was the school counselor.
By the way, this decision to remove counselors came from our state appointed administrator, after we went into State Receivership due to bankruptcy. Like Kuhio’s school district, we moved towards scripted learning at the early grades, support blocks in the secondary level (giving our most struggling learners 2 to 3 hours of math & language arts support), and mandating our of our students graduate meeting the A-G requirements. We have such lofty goals, but very little resources to make them happen. Then when the graduation rates decline, the easy answer is to point fingers at our teachers as “not doing enough to support the kids.”
We have a new superintendent who is removing the support blocks, implementing innovative programs and other positive changes. However, still no talk of bringing our counselors back to our middle school campuses. if she does that, she will take a huge step towards gaining respect and credibility among the teachers in Vallejo.
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Do school counselors make a difference? You bet they do.
Good ones can make all the difference in the world. Working with the teachers as a team and sharing information, giving us a heads up when possible about the situation a student may be dealing with. We can have someone to go to and say, “Something is wrong with _____. I can’t get him to open up but I can tell he wants to and is hurting.” Counselors who could be counted on to follow up and do so in such a way that the student was supported even when, as preteens and teens, they think adults have never been younger then thirty and don’t understand anything! They sit next to you at the funeral of the ones we lose to poor decisions, alcohol or family violence and cry along with you. They bring you a chocolate bar and a diet coke after you have been chewed out by a parent for giving the child the grade they student earned but not the A the parent wants. They support teachers and we support them.
Bad ones can destroy not only the relationship between students and teachers but obstruct any interventions a teacher may try. They arrive after the first tardy bell and leave before the buses. Some act like they are the gods and goddesses that must remove the failures form humanity and seem to take great care to withhold help or information form the ones they dislike or judge to be failures. They fuss and coo over their “precious” ones, while bringing in the newspaper clippings to share of the boy you teach who was arrested. They never pass on information, come to funerals and sit in the back talking about the “acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree” and “Those parents were bad when they were in school and now the kids are just like them.”
I have worked with both. Unfortunately the good ones, like good teachers, burn out pretty quickly in a bad environment. The bad ones seem to outlast everyone.
We (school counselors) need supportive administrators in order to be effective. I work in a middle school where 70% of the students qualify for free or reduced meals. Our new principal is all about grades, test scores, and looking good. He thinks that the kids that come to the counseling center are just drama queens/kings who are manipulators, and that we enable them. Even though, we have lost 4 students to suicide in my district in the last two years, the kids are interrogated by administrators on their way to the counseling center. What are you doing? Why? Does your teacher know where you are? If there answers do not meet their satisfaction, they are sent back to class before we can even see them. It’s not what I spent $50,000 to be a school counselor for… I want to help kids overcome the barriers to their success.
Research continues to prove that student achievement and success is positively impacted when a strong counseling program is implemented and supported. I am currently a school counselor at a Title One middle school in which a large portion of our students come to school with negative circumstances that we struggle to accommodate. The effects of their home life are often profound and traumatic. My fellow counselors and I actively seek ways to engage these students, while helping them navigate the constant issues they face. Every morning a group of students gather in our offices just to receive a positive and encouraging greeting. We welcome them, and make them feel wanted. We feed a connection that is so often missing in their home environment. Developing and sponsoring intervention programs that offer support and involvement is our mission. Collaborating with teachers (and other third-party members) to recommend ideas and solutions is a daily task. We strive to make our students feel significant and capable. By visiting their neighborhoods and homes, their caregivers have come to know us by name. Over time, we have become a connected and dependable strand in the safety net of their lives. I know we make a difference, and I can’t imagine the void that would exist if we were absent.
Yes, big time matter!!
One year right before school started a student and his mother came to me asking if he could get into Spanish 1. I’ll call him Don. He was a junior and wanted to get the two years in than many universities now require, even though the all my level one classes had more than 30 students. His English grades weren’t that great and the counselors told him he had to get my permission. He was a very well liked kid, athletic, my own son’s age, in the same graduating class. I told him as long as he did the work he’d be fine. He ended up in the same class, 1st hour, that his younger sister, a freshman, was in. The year went on and he was doing fine.
Then on the way home from after baseball practice on April 1st, my son got an email (in a small town word travels fast) saying that Don had just been killed in a car accident, had been driving too fast, lost control of the car, flipped it and hadn’t been wearing a seat belt. I asked my son, are you sure, because Don was known to have played good hearted jokes on people and it was April Fools Day. Yes, he was sure, it really did happen.
Without the counseling staff, I don’t think I could have gotten through that next days !st hour as there were two empty seats, and everyone knew why. Many students walked in stunned, crying (brings tears to my eyes now recounting it). I was absolutely speechless, I had no clue what to say to the kids. What does one say in that situation? Well, the counseling staff knew what to say and do and they were there for us that morning in the class, worked with the kids, helping them through their thoughts and feelings. The counseling staff literally “saved the day”.
I can’t imagine a school without a counseling staff, trained professionals that they are. Amazing folk, kind hearted, caring, folk. I’ve never met one of the counseling staff that I didn’t like and admire.
The powers that be that determine that there is no need for counseling staff should have their fuses pulled so that they don’t have any power anymore.
For all the counselors that are reading and commenting, thanks a bunch from this teacher. You all have completed one of the most rigorous of all masters programs, way more rigorous that any education administration masters. Again, Thanks!!!!!
“The teachers’ union have been advocating for a return of our counselors ever since because we have seen the profound negative impact it has had on our kids. It has yet to happen.”
Why in the hell would anyone listen to the teachers, you know, those lazy ass, money grubbing, union protected million dollar pension folks. What the hell do teachers know about what the teaching and learning process is and what supports are needed. No, no need to listen to the teachers!!