Module 3
Start by first examining two different, but interrelated, approaches to the delivery of the interventions you have selected for the coming year(s):
The ASCA National Model Delivery System of implementing the school counseling program.
The Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Levels of Intervention Model.
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Pages 48-51 in Oregon’s Framework present the Delivery Component of the CSCP, with the two primary categories of Direct Student Services and Indirect Student Services. This language is used in the 3rd edition of the ASCA National Model and, though it has been modified slightly in the 4th edition, the essential features of the Delivery Component remain the same.
A number of Oregon districts have utilized ASCA National Model professional development to help them develop and implement their comprehensive school counseling program. In addition, recent graduates of each of the five institutions in the state providing school counselor education programs provide their graduates with a grounding in the ASCA National Model and are thus familiar with the language used in the Framework for the Delivery Component. This alignment of national and state guidance is key to providing consistency in the CSCPs for students across the state, given that research indicates that fully implemented CSCPs have a high correlation to increased student outcomes.
Oregon’s Framework provides information about utilizing Action Plans to deliver interventions, on p. 44-46. The three types of action plans discussed are Curriculum Action Plans, Small Group Action Plans, and Closing the Gap Action Plans. The action plans are supportive tools to guide your implementation of data collection efforts. They will help you know what information you need and how to organize it. Use of these tools has the added benefit of helping CSCP team members clearly articulate important outcomes to school leaders and decision-makers.
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There are also comprehensive school counseling programs that use MTSS language instead of the ASCA National Model language, so this section provides an overview about this approach.
Return to p.10 in the Identifying Evidence-Based School Counseling Interventions EBSCC 2019 pdf. This page captures the essence of the MTSS intervention delivery model. And, each of the interventions listed in this pdf is categorized as either a Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III intervention.
The editors of the The School Counselor’s Guide to Multi-Tiered Multi-Systems of Support (edited by Goodman-Scott, et al., 2019) provide a strong rationale for aligning comprehensive school counseling programs and multi-tiered systems of support, including their belief that the use of MTSS allowed them to more clearly communicate the purpose of their respective CSCPs to their stakeholders. MTSS is considered an “umbrella framework” for PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) and RTI (Response to Intervention) and the US Department of Education recommends the use of MTSS.
For those desiring more information about the use of MTSS by school counselors, we invite you to visit go to this website - School Counselors for MTSS and MTSS Role of the School Counselor. The SSWAA has information about MTSS and school social workers.
3.5.C Additional Considerations in Delivering Interventions
Members of the counseling team will naturally collaborate in delivering the CSCP interventions for the coming year. Annie Schlegel - who was the school social worker and behavior intervention specialist at Lot Whitcomb Elementary School in the North Clackamas SD is a member of the Advisory Council that reviewed all of the materials for this course. Annie worked with Brooke Schiefelbein who is the school counselor at Lot Whitcomb. Annie and Brooke share in this video how they collaborated in delivering interventions to their students.
Teacher Advisories. Comprehensive school counseling programs can utilize Teacher Advisories as one means of delivering CSCP interventions. You watched the video in Module 2 of Rebecca Cohen and Ricky Almeida at West Sylvan MS sharing their about their program outcome to increase student belonging. One of the interventions employed was a teacher advisory program. Developing and implementing a teacher advisory period is a challenging undertaking and requires administrative support and leadership. At the same time, when we consider the depth and breadth of the Tier I interventions that could/should be delivered in each of the four domains, CSCP teams should consider utilizing an advisory program as one means of delivering interventions.
Here are a few resources to consider when developing and implementing an advisory program:
Great Schools - The Most Important Class Isn’t What You Think
Greater Good - Five Tips for Teaching Advisory Classes at Your School
Elementary Advisories may look more like a class meeting or morning meeting structure.
Students discuss the benefits of Collaborative Classroom’s Class and Morning Meeting tools.
Fidelity and Dosage Rates
Fidelity: Assuming you are going to utilize an evidence-based intervention, you want to deliver the intervention just as it was delivered to students when the research studies were conducted. If you do not do so, you may not achieve the same positive outcomes. In an ideal situation, you would have an opportunity to be trained in the use of the intervention and have supervision from someone who has also been trained in the use of the intervention.
Dosage/Length: School counseling personnel are busy and it is often a challenge for them to continue the intervention long enough to begin producing positive results. Be aware in program design and planning, the interventions you employ may need to be delivered for a period of time before producing the desired outcome.
Annual Program Improvement
The PDSA cycle is reviewed in module 4 and is laid out on p. 59 in the Framework. PDSA = Planning the intervention, Doing the intervention, Studying/Observing the results, and Acting on what is learned. What the use of this approach connotes is that you can keep improving the interventions each time you utilize the intervention and evaluate the efficacy of the intervention.
Commercially Available Counseling Curricula
There are a number of commercially available social-emotional learning curricula such as Character Strong, Sources of Strength, MindUp, Second Step, etc. Some of these programs have a strong research base while others not.Given your understanding of evidence-based interventions, your CSCP team can encourage district decision-makers to:
Base program selection on the match between the program and the district outcomes to be achieved.
Select programs that are evidence-based with demonstrated efficacy in achieving the desired outcomes.
Provide staff who will implement the program with professional development adequate to implement the curriculum with fidelity.
Collect data to determine how well the desired outcomes are being achieved and then make program modifications intended to better achieve the desired outcomes.