5 Great ASCA Templates to Improve Your Program

In my conversations with school counselors in Connecticut and New England, the question of how to assess their comprehensive school counseling program comes up again and again. Often the question centers on what tools are available to accurately assess the quality of their program and its alignment with the ASCA National Model. In this article, I highlight five templates available on ASCA’s website that can help you facilitate the assessment process and improve your program. As I stated in my article last spring, I believe the first step toward program improvement is gaining an understanding of the 12 components of the RAMP application. Through this research, you will come to understand the key factors that ASCA considers essential in model programs. Our team used each of the templates below to assess, plan and develop our program. We found that the resources available on the RAMP site provide a wealth of information and were a great starting point for us in our journey. Below are the top five templates that we used to assess our program.
 
1. School Counseling Program Assessment
This template takes the form of a comprehensive list. Systematically reviewing this list forces you to closely examine your program compared to the ASCA National Model. We found this to be an emotional process since we had to take a hard look at our practices and the state of our program. Once we understood our strengths and weaknesses in relation to the list, we could begin the difficult work of improvement.
 
2. Annual Calendar
This is a great tool to assess your program and conduct a curriculum mapping. For our process, we added a layer to the audit including grade level columns. This allowed us to gain an understanding of what programs were being offered at each grade level. Once you have a clear idea of the curriculum map for current programs, you can use your findings to identity areas of need.
 
3. Monthly Checklist
Found under the Helpful Tips section on the RAMP website is a document called “monthly checklist.” This can be a scary document if you take it at face value, but we used it as a cross-check with all the tasks that needed to be completed and as a check-in on progress along the way. For example, listed in July, August, or September is completion of your annual agreement(s). We decided as a team to complete our annual agreements along with our SLOs. What we found most useful about this document were the descriptions for each RAMP area. We adjusted the dates on the document to fit our timeline, but the organization of the monthly checklist was invaluable for keeping us on track.
 
4. Closing-the-Gap Results Report
Before you can identify the gaps in equality at your school and make a plan to close them, you need a clear understanding of data. Dr. Trish Hatch’s book “The Use of Data in School Counseling” became our guide to understanding data at our school. The information presented in the book is well organized, informative, and became essential in our process. Once you have reviewed your school’s data, the closing-the-gap template provides you with an organizational tool to help you plan your attack.
 
5. ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors Planning Tool
We used this template as an overlay to the annual calendar template. After completion, you will have a clear understanding of which ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors are addressed at each grade level. You will also be able to describe how each Mindset & Behavior is addressed through the core curriculum (CC), small group (SG) or closing the gap (CTG) format. Several great customized examples of this template are on the ASCA RAMP site under example model schools. We drew inspiration from one that combined the annual calendar with Mindsets & Behaviors and was color coded!
 
Program assessment is a multistep process that requires sustained effort over time. I hope you will find these five templates useful as you assess your program’s strengths and build your comprehensive school counseling program. Again, I encourage you to think of this process as a journey toward alignment with the ASCA national standards and overall program improvement.
 
Todd Dyer is a member of the board of directors of the Connecticut School Counselor Association and a 2017 RAMP Recipient.