Findings on Blended Learning/ School Counseling
From Proof Points: Blended Learning Success in School Districts In Salt Lake City were losing 10% of students every year. Now after 3 years of blended learning at the selected high school their graduation rate rode to 89% which was higher than the district’s and state as a whole.
Used the Flex model of blended learning. Students attend school every day but at their own selected time between 7am-5pm. Important relationships were teachers establishing mentoring relationships with students. School Counselors work with students to personalize their education plan by setting career goals and choosing which courses are most appropriate online, face to face, and/or community college courses. Test scores showed improvement in math. English Language Arts scores were mixed. some grades improved, others stayed flat or declined.
EJ Carrion, co-founder of Student Success Academy (SSA), realized first-hand the problems school counselors face with a one to 500, counselor-student ratio on average. Counselors often feel over-worked and do not have enough time to help prepare students to be college or career ready. Carrion developed Success Consultants (SCs) in his SSA. SCs can spend an average of 12 hours with each student a year while on average counselors are only able to spend 38 minutes with each student.
“SC’s are college students hand selected from the top 150 colleges in the country and are chosen because of their leadership, philanthropy, and academic performance. Each consultant working for SSA holds a leadership position on their campus, has received scholarships, and has participated in professional internships. This experience allows SC’s to provide guidance to HS students, help them realize their passions, identify college or career opportunities, and assist them in moving forward with specific action plans” (J. Slusser)
It is important to note that SCs do not take the place of counselors; they simply free up time for counselors to track student success and be more involved with every student's’ action plan. As with blended learning face to face time and a hands on approach is still vital.
A pep rally kicks off SSA to get students and staff excited, about blended learning/counseling.
“ Out of the first 150 students who went through the program, 92% were able to find a local mentor in their career field and 98% of students say they now have a plan after high school. Many students who’ve gone through the program moved up in their class and even students at risk not to graduate completed their diplomas.” (J. Slusser)
SSA hopes to grow and extend its assistance with scholarships, test prep, etc.
http://gettingsmart.com/2013/07/high-school-career-counseling-goes-blended/
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