Posted on Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Westminster College will host an American School Counselor Association (ASCA) workshop for area high school counselors Friday, March 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Witherspoon Lakeview Room of the McKelvey Campus Center
Featured speaker Dr. Judy Bookhamer is the executive director for the Pennsylvania School Counselor Association and will speak on the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Transforming School Counseling Initiative, as well as the Department's revised career education and work standards.
"The Transforming School Counseling Initiative is a national school reform effort funed by the Education Trust, The Wallace Readers Digest Fund, whose primary goal is to enable professional school counselors to play a more critical role helping schools meet the needs of all students, especially underserved students from low-income environments and students of color," said Dr. William Evans, associate professor of education at Westminster College.
"Currently, the Pennsylvania Department of Education does not require schools to provide career development education for students. The department is in the process of completing a draft of career education and work standards that, if approved, would require schools to develop and implement a K-12th grade curriculum that is designed to prepare students to understand the world of work, accurately assess career interests and abilities, take appropriate coursework, and make a successful transition from public school to the adult world with a clear career plan,' Evans said.
'ASCA has developed a model for a comprehensive, K-12 school counseling program that is geared toward assisting the academic, personal, and career development of students. The model articulates how a school district can best utilize the skills of professional school counselors with master's degrees in meeting these developmental needs. There are only a few school districts in western Pennsylvania who have seen the untapped potential of their school counseling programs and have adopted and implemented the ASCA standards. These schools have reported significant positive effects. The School Counselor program at Westminster prepares professional school counselors to provide counseling, consultation, program coordination and classroom guidance for K-12 students using the ASCA model,' Evans added.
For more information, contact Evans at (724) 946-7184 or e-mail evanswj@westminster.edu.
