President’s Letter: Demonstrating Our Difference

I hope the beginning of the school year has been smooth and successful for you and your students. As we walk into our schools each day and work with our students, we know we make a difference. We feel it, we see it – but are we always able to show it? As you read the articles in this newsletter, think about how you can show your impact on student success.

As you know, the Nevada Department of Education has released the 2018-2019 Nevada Educator Performance Framework for School Counselors. Through this new evaluation tool, we are able to show and share the impact we make on student success. This is a big step for school counselors in our state – having our evaluation aligned with what school counselors do is critical to our work. In many states throughout the country, school counselors are evaluated as a teacher, as a specialist or as “other.” We are truly fortunate that our state has recognized the need for a separate evaluation for the essential work we do.

The new evaluation tool may be overwhelming and challenging for some of us – it may feel different having to provide various pieces of documentation for the mandatory and/or confirmatory evidence. Remember, we are still doing what we do – helping students achieve in academic, social/emotional, and college/career readiness domains.

It is critical that we make sure our programming reaches all students and provides all of our students with what they need to reach optimum success. Take it slow, ask questions, collaborate with others, attend professional development – we are in this together! Change can be difficult but it can also be very rewarding and this evaluation is the key to advocacy so that others understand the important role of the school counselor.

For more information on the school counselor evaluation, please visit the Nevada Department of Education website, NEPF School Counselor Tools & Protocols.

Please contact me at kristinbarnson@gmail.com or 702-769-4791 if I can answer any questions or be of assistance in any way.

Contact Kristin Barnson, NvSCA president, at kristinbarnson@gmail.com