Caught in the middle: a counselor's call to action.

As a middle school counselor for 20 years, my experiences have varied considerably. During this time, counselors have been called upon to address a host of problems including substance abuse, teen pregnancy, school violence, and equity in academic achievement. Counselors also have become more critical to schools as the challenges and demands faced by students intensify. My days are demanding, stressful, chaotic, and frustrating; however, I try to remain flexible and to keep my sense of humor. I never have had downtime and no day is ever the same.

Before 1990, school counselors in Kentucky were required to write an annual guidance plan reflecting activities that supported social-emotional and career development in the middle school. Each summer the plan was evaluated through a self-study. After the enactment of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act in 1990, school counselors were no longer mandated and were left out of the rhetoric of education reform. I continued providing individual and small group counseling, classroom guidance, appraisal, coordination, and consultation, but I found I was required to assume more technology-related duties in the areas of scheduling and grade reporting. I realized that guidance was not integral to the school's instructional focus and "random acts of guidance" proliferated in the post-reform era. As high-stakes testing became paramount to school success, I was challenged to structure my activities to more closely support academic achievement and became a liaison to the entire school community.

The American School Counselor Association's (ASCA) National Standards (Campbell & Dahir, 1997) were introduced and I saw them as a structure to provide legitimacy and consistency in middle school counseling. The Transforming School Counseling Initiative (House & Martin, 1998) and the ASCA National Model[R] (2003) now provide me with tools to transform my current program to a comprehensive, developmental, student achievement-focused school counseling program that incorporates advocacy and the use of data to effect systemic change. I continue to advocate for educational equity, access, and academic success for all students and strive to create opportunities for all students to nurture their dreams and aspirations. In addition, I align all of my counseling program components with the Kentucky Core Content and Kentucky's Standards and Indicators for School Improvement (Kentucky Department of Education, 2000). Part of my program management activities involves the development of an annual action plan based on students' needs to ensure focused direction and accountability. These experiences have supported my work as a consultant in my district and state, and at the national level, and have provided the opportunity to be involved in the transformation of school counseling. I currently lead a task force to write a Kentucky Guide to the National Model and serve as an adjunct professor at Western Kentucky University.

These professional activities create a synergistic effect on my programmatic approach to school counseling and facilitating middle school students' development and learning. Middle school students often appear "caught in the middle" as they face physical, emotional, and social changes. As a middle school counselor, I help students to cope with these changes and facilitate transitions from feeder elementary schools to high school. To better prepare students for high school and beyond, I strive to engage students in planning for success, exploring career interests, and building awareness of postsecondary and financial aid options. My students and their parents are provided early exposure to the college experience because the middle school is a GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programming) school.

As a middle school counselor, I provide activities to facilitate students' academic, career, and personal/social development. My ultimate goal is to empower students to consider alternatives for change and to make plans for success. I realize that a small amount of positive attention can be effective in empowering a student to change and that there will be students I cannot reach; however, I do not stop trying. Over the years I have built a repertoire of visual aids to accompany individual and small group counseling. These include squeezing toothpaste out of a tube to represent that rumors, once said, cannot be put back; a Plexiglas shield to use as a barrier to hurtful comments; or a rubber band to represent stress. I strive for a high level of student engagement in classroom guidance lessons with the use of PowerPoint presentations and the Internet. Staying on the cutting edge of technology has been important to my professional development and my work as a middle school counselor. I have remained dedicated, energetic, and innovative in my role, and

I constantly strive to provide the best middle school counseling program through collaborative endeavors. I feel a sense of gratitude that I was able to make a difference for many of the nearly 10,000 students whom I have served as a school counselor. I have found middle school counseling to be a rich and rewarding profession and a true passion in my life.

References

American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Campbell, C. A., & Dahir, C. A. (1997). Sharing the vision: The national standards for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association.

House, R. M., & Martin, P. J. (1998). Advocating for better futures for all students: A new vision for school counselors. Education, 119, 284-291.

Kentucky Department of Education. (2000). Performance descriptors and glossary for Kentucky's Standards and Indicators for School Improvement. Frankfort, KY: Author.

Mary Higgins, Ed.S., LPCC, is a school counselor at Bowling Green Junior High School, Bowling Green, KY. She was the 2002 ASCA Middle School Counselor of the Year. E-mail: [e-mail]