Getting Started

The School Counseling Program Assessment will guide you where you need to further develop your counseling program to fully implement the third edition of the ASCA National Model.  Go to the ASCA web page and under Application Process download all the required templates, also download and print the entire rubric.  I recommend you get a large 3 ring binder and tabs for the 12 components.  Even though you are going to submit the document electronically you need a hard copy of everything.  You are going to need to show your work to people who need to sign off for submission.  I put all my documents in plastic sleeves.  I find that easier than punching holes and they last longer.  My binder from 3 years ago still looks great (on the left) and lots of folks have actually looked at it.  Right behind the tab I put a copy of the level 5 section of that rubric so I know exactly what I am aiming to communicate to the reviewers in each component.  My new binder has pockets on the inside front and back cover.  These are useful to store back up information you might need - like a copy of your district and school management plan or data.  The table of contents of your binder can be used as your organizer about what you are going to do for each section.  You have many decisions to make along the way (e.g., which group to highlight).  Most can't be made until you set program goals for the year, more about that in a future post.  Start by buying a nice binder, tabs, and a box of plastic sleeves.  You may want to buy a thumb drive to store your entire application as well.  I have one with only my original RAMP application and my current re-RAMP documents.  I also store a copy of everything for RAMP in a folder in my Dropbox.  If I would ever loose the thumb drive it is also stored in the cloud.