Introduction
The core objective of a school is giving a course education. Much of the time spent is in increasing the students’ skills for passing their courses, planning for college and skills both for white-collared jobs and for blue-collared jobs. But this cannot be achieved without incorporating it with the counseling role which is non judgmental and goal focused.It centers upon solving problems such as abuse of drugs and alcohol, suicide, physical as well as sexual abuse among others. According to Schmidt & Ciechalski (2001) the role of a counselor in one school varies from a similar counselor’s role in a different institution. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the teachers and the principal to maintain a job description and critical professional training standards (Brown & Trusty, 2005).
By collecting the data below, the counselors will be able to sort the various groups of students who have the same needs, are of the same age, have the same attitudes and belong to a similar grade level, since students from diverse backgrounds seem to be affected by different factors (Brown & Trusty, 2005). This in effect will lead to effective counseling groups since one group needs may not be similar to another’s. Therefore, grouping the students according to their relevant needs produces effective counseling that monitors and evaluates personal attitudes and career goals as well (Stone & Dahir, 2006).
Needs Assessment
Here the school Counseling Program will adopt instruments that are easy to use and whose results will be easy to summarize and analyze. The Data collected from the instruments will be used to develop a system for determining patterns and the trends within the school environment (Brown & Trusty, 2005). The methodology will include surveys, observations, and quantitative data. The Surveys will be carried out by way of questionnaires, observations will be through assessing the relationships between the churches, military camps, private organizations and homes and all other types of social amenities that surround the school, while quantitative data will be from sample surveys from various age groups within the society environment (Brown & Trusty, 2005).
The Questionnaire used for the survey will look like this and the results are highlighted at the end.
Questionnaire Data
What is the Ratio of boys to girls in the school?
- 1.7: 1
What is the cultural background of the Students of the school?
- 40% whites
- 30% African American
- 20 % Hispanics
- 10 % other communities
What is the median age of the students in the school?
- 16 years old.
How competent is the staff in providing counseling sessions to the Students?
- 60% staff members have not been trained to provide counseling sessions.
The Data from observations will be obtained through the following method:
Observation Statistics
The Cultural diversity of the society. What is the percentage numbers of the different comminutes in the society? I.e. What is the percentage of the White community, the African American Community, the Hispanic community and any other community?
- 80 % whites
- 10 % African Americans
- 5 % Hispanics
- 5 % Other Communities
What instruments are there within the community to ensure that the diverse community social and cultural values are maintained and will be used by the students as a way to maintain their cultural backgrounds?
Community social halls. Used by the community to gather and air pressing issues in the community
What are amenities available within the society that will enable the students to interact well with the populace of the society?
- Sports Arenas for the community to engage in sports.
- Churches, mosques and libraries to engage the society in extra curricular activities.
Quantitative Data will be obtained through the following method:
Quantitative Data
What is the population of the Society?
- 25786 people
What is the male to female ration of the society?
- 1:1.8
What is the median age of the populace of the society?
- 42 years
What is the majority religious view of the society?
- 70 %Christian
- 25 % muslim
- 5% Other
The data obtained shows the cultural composition of the students differs from that of the society by wide margins hence the need for a classroom guidance unit as well as a group-counseling element. The Data will be used to develop a school-counseling program, such that more teachers will be trained on how to counsel hence the reduction of the untrained percentage to below 15%. The various cultural backgrounds will be taken into account as the curriculum for learning is structured so as the studies that help integrate the various ethic groups can be adapted into the system.
References
Brown, D., and Trusty, J. G. (2005). Designing and leading comprehensive school counseling programs: Promoting student competence and meeting student needs. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Schmidt C. and Ciechalski, J., (2001). School counseling standards: A summary and comparison with other student services’ standards. Professional School Counseling, 4, Routledge, New York, NY, pp 328-333.
Stone, C., and Dahir, C. (2006). The transformed school counselor. NY: Lahaska Press.