As a Project Director for the Los Angeles County Office of Education from 1997 to 2011, I provided professional development for school counselors in 81 school districts. I was also an ASCA National Standards for School Counseling trainer and adjunct university professor.

I visited hundreds of schools throughout L.A. County and the state, and all too often, my work with counselors started with:

“We’re overwhelmed.”
“They don’t understand what we do.”

In my first year, I formed an advisory committee (comprised of counselors, administrators, and counselor educators) to work on moving our profession from being overwhelmed and not understood to a positive and confident public posture. California has a history of high student-to-counselor ratios and, combined with inappropriate duties and the perception of a lack of administrative support, counselors were struggling to provide services.

We hosted professional development residential academies for counselors and their support team members (administrators, psychologists, SROs, nurses, and paraprofessional staff). Their work at these academies was centered on establishing a support services program that reflected data-informed teamwork. The first morning of the 3-day academy was devoted to a “low ropes” teamwork session; it became a highlight of our academy experience.

Our annual low-cost Getting Ready for High School and Getting Ready for Middle School booklets were very popular throughout the state as we focused on multiple options for college and career success. We sold more than 2.5 million copies over the course of 10 years. We also provided statewide workshops on ethics, grief and loss, gaming addiction, and college and career advisement, among many other topics.

Our core mission was to represent school counseling as the hub of a competent, coordinated, and data-informed student support system.

The Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC)

My work with the ASCA National Standards was an eye-opener for me. For two years, I made more than 30 presentations statewide. In my training sessions, counselors informed me that they were already doing the work described in the Standards.

And that led me to the question: “Where can I see it?”

There was no response.

Our Advisory Committee designed a 2-page executive summary infographic for the SPARC in 2001. It was aligned to the National Standards, and we believed that it would create an information network not only for counselors but also for our school communities. We presented the SPARC in a session at the National ASCA conference in 2003 and had over 100 attendees.

And despite our request for attendees to return the laminated copies we handed out as examples, we went back home with significantly fewer SPARCs.

The SPARC Template Included:

  • Principal’s Message (with photo)
  • Link to Support Services Calendar
  • Partnerships and Resources (with logos)
  • Contact Information, including hours of operation
  • Counseling staff role photos, degrees, certifications, and years of experience
  • Academic, Career, and Social-Emotional Development data visuals (one for each area)
  • A statement of commitment to abide by the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors

Important note: We encouraged each school to include photos and background information for professional, intern, and paraprofessional support team members on their SPARC.

Over the course of 10 years, we helped over 500 K-12 public, private, and charter schools statewide create and publish a SPARC. We initiated a peer review process that included “Academy Award” recognition for meeting the standards of our scoring rubric. The SPARC came to be seen as a valued document by Accreditation Committees, Boards of Education, school faculty, Parent Teacher Organizations, and many other entities, including real estate agents! Our SPARC website was visited by 100,000+ users.

We partnered with our state school counselor association to host an annual SPARC awards ceremony at its annual conference, complete with an actual red carpet. The highlight was seeing whole support teams (superintendents, principals, SROs, nurses, paraprofessionals, and PTO representatives) take the stage together. To top it off, California State Legislature aides presented commendations to schools that had published a SPARC for five consecutive years, celebrating their commitment to transparency, achievement, and continuous improvement.

The best part of our “Academy Awards” event was having superintendents, assistant superintendents, and principals on the stage with their team. This included SROs, nurses, paraprofessional staff, and PTO Representatives. Even better, California State Legislature Aides presented Commendations to the teams that had submitted SPARCs for 5 years.

The School Counseling Program Profile (SCPP)

From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Nancy Jarman-Dunn, Sharon Rieckewald, and I worked with six university school counselor education programs to move SPARC to an SC Program Profile platform. Our primary users were graduate students in practicum or internship sites. Creating and publishing a Profile met several mandated California School Counseling Fieldwork Competencies.

The Profile aligned with Accreditation Standards, State and Local initiatives, and the ASCA National Model. We had 94 graduate students publish 74 Profiles. The website hosting the Profiles web page had more than 25,000 views.

The graduate students received a publication credit for their resumes, and perhaps most importantly, a valuable asset for job interviews.

Final Notes

The best testimonials we received from counselors?

“It saved my job.”
“This document validates our value on campus.”
“We met as a true team (for the first time) to plan for SPARC.”
“Thank you for the opportunity for growth and change, as well as providing us with a clear and concise format for promoting our program to our administration and community.”
“This document will be used to communicate student outcomes with our parents, students, staff, administration, district administration, and community.”
“We are extremely proud of this document and the service to parents, students, and community it represents.”

You can preview published Profiles here. →

Our goal was to always help school counselors and their respective support services staff improve awareness and advocacy for the important work they were doing with students. As the complexities in education shift expectations for support services professions, the value behind the SCPP is even more relevant today.