Summary
Counselor Academy is a workshop-style training for GEAR UP cohort counselors. It offers a formal introduction to GEAR UP and how GEAR UP partners with secondary schools assist with resources, support, and a sustainable path to build a college and career culture. This session, Navigating Partnerships, is a stand-alone training within Counselor Academy. It reframes family engagement as a strategy for student success, not simply another outreach task. The session equips counselors with research-based tools that enable them to partner with families in postsecondary planning.
Essential Question
How can we begin to view and implement family engagement as a strategy to achieve student success?
Learning Objectives
Identify GEAR UP METRO family engagement supports and resources.
Recognize family engagement as a strategy for student success.
Evaluate family engagement activities aligned to career pathway exploration.
Collaborate with peers to identify implementation strategies.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants play Forbidden Phrases with college- and career-themed vocabulary; then they discuss how educational jargon can create barriers for families.
Explore
Participants review research on the family engagement connection to PSI outcomes; then they will use the I Notice, I Wonder strategy with a reading on the roles that families play.
Explain
In small groups, participants complete a Card Sort activity, sorting family engagement activities into Knowledge, Skills, or Attitude categories based on GEAR UP Family Standards.
Extend
Groups discuss the Card Sort and their observations about whether their own school's family engagement efforts lean toward one category over others.
Evaluate
Using the Think-Pair-Share strategy to choose one family engagement activity to implement at their school and discuss how they would adapt it.
Materials List
Slide Presentation—Navigating Partnerships (attached)
Forbidden Phrases—Navigating Partnerships (attached, one copy per group, laminated and cut)
Card Sort—Navigating Partnerships (attached, one copy per group, laminated and cut)
Card Sort Mat—Navigating Partnerships (optional, attached, one copy per group, laminated)
Card Sort Key—Navigating Partnerships (attached, one copy for facilitator or optionally one copy per group)
Preparation
20 Minute(s)
Print, laminate, and cut the Forbidden Phrases cards (in Engage, below) and the Card Sort cards and mat (in Explain) so that they can be used for future events.
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Display slides 1-4 using the attached Slide Presentation, welcome participants, and present the Essential Question and Learning Objectives as you see fit. Explain to participants that this resource will achieve the following goals:
Equip the participants with ready-to-use tools. Quick, energizing activities and resources that can be adapted and duplicated will be modeled.
Strengthen college and career readiness by actively engaging families as partners. We will explore meaningful family involvement that supports students’ long-term academic and career success.
Display slide 5 and prepare to play Forbidden Phrases. Arrange participants in pairs or groups of 3-6 participants. Alternatively, depending on the size of the group and the amount of time you have, you could play as a large group and call a volunteer for each round.
Make sure a “Describer” or clue giver has a Forbidden Phrase card or stack, face down. Instruct them to not turn the card over or look at the card until after instructions are given.
Explain that Forbidden Phrases work like Taboo or Password. In each round, the Describer gives clues to their teammates in order to guess the target word on a card—without saying any of the four related words listed below it (or any part of it, if it's a compound word). The Describer may not act out the word—charades-style gestures aren't allowed—but minimal hand gestures are okay. The group has 60 seconds to guess the target word; then, rotate the Describer role after each round (or every 2 minutes, if playing as one large group.)
You may want to model the first card yourself. Use and reset the timer as needed.
When time has elapsed or all the cards have been played, display slide 6 and facilitate a discussion using these prompts:
Which terms were more difficult to explain without using the typical “insider” words or descriptors?
What did you typically revert to – using acronyms or educational jargon or giving an explanation?
How do you think this mirrors what a family hears when we use this language without “translating” it?
Explore
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 7 and introduce the research behind Family Engagement. Parent engagement and shared leadership roles result in higher achievement in high school, increased graduation rates, increased PSE (post secondary education) admission rates, and a higher percentage of students enrolled in PSE. (Plagens, 2011; Velez, 2020).
Move on to slide 8 to continue presenting the research.
Despite the challenges we often face with family engagement in schools, research has shown time and again that parents/families who are engaged in their child’s learning are one of the ingredients in academic success for students.
Over the last decade, family engagement research has helped change our thinking around defining what it looks like for parents/guardians/family members to be involved in their student’s education.
Display slide 9 to introduce the I Notice, I Wonder strategy. Have participants download a copy of Flamboyan Foundation’s “Five Roles Families Play” by using the link or QR code. Explain the strategy and set the timer for five minutes.
Allow a few minutes for group discussion about their observations from the “Five Roles Families Play” reading. Field any questions that come up.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
In preparation for this activity, break participants up in groups of about 4-6 people. Display slide 10.
Instruct participants that they will participate in a Card Sort activity. After grouping participants, hand out the Card Sort cards and mat to each group. Inform participants that this activity is connected to the GEAR UP: College and Career Preparation Family Standards.
The card mat has three categories: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude. The cards have a variety of family engagement activities. As a group, participants are to place each card in one of the three categories. If needed, briefly define:
Knowledge: information families need to understand college and career planning and preparation.
Skills: actions or abilities families practice to support their students.
Attitude: beliefs, confidence, and mindsets that encourage college and career readiness.
As a group, read each family engagement activity card and discuss whether this activity mainly builds knowledge, develops skills, or influences attitude.
Place each card under the category where group participants believe it best fits.
Extend
10 Minute(s)
When participants have had time to complete the Card Sort activity, display slide 11 and ask them to take 3-5 minutes at their tables to discuss the following questions.
Which category had the most activities?
Are there any categories your school’s family engagement programming tends to emphasize more than others?
If desired, unhide slide 12 to see a key and continue the discussion. Alternatively, supply copies of the Card Sort Key.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 13. Guide participants to use the Think-Pair-Share strategy while posing the questions on the slide. Begin with “Which category could your school strengthen?” Tell participants then to pick one of the activities in that category and think about how they could implement that activity in their school. Allow time for participants to think quietly, then turn to a partner and share. Ask the following questions to facilitate discussion.
Why did you pick this category and activity?
How would you go about implementing this activity?
Would you make any modifications to the activity?
Use the art on slide 14 to shift from family engagement as an add-on task to family engagement as a strategic partnership. Encourage counselors to treat family engagement as a deliberate strategy for advancing their school's goals.
Research Rationale
Researchers have reported that school “counselors are a source of social capital for students, providing a supportive relationship from which information and resources flow to facilitate students’ pathways to college, especially for low-income and first-generation students” (Bryan et al., 2022, p. 39). They also stressed that “throughout college admissions and financial aid support, counselors provide students with critical college-related information” (pp. 4-5), such as knowledge about the FAFSA, other financial aid information, and assistance applying and enrolling in college. Researchers also emphasized the critical role of parents in students' academic success (Paolini, 2019; Chan et al., 2023) and viable pathways into PSE. Chan et al. (2023) reported that “parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the central mechanisms that prepares the child for academic success” (p. 1217).
School counselors are viewed as key stakeholders who connect parents to available college-related resources and information. They may act as empowering agents and the only source of social capital for disadvantaged families who experience difficulties in accessing valuable information and social networks outside schools. School counselors often lack the skills necessary to build valuable parent/school/community partnerships that increase student awareness of PSE options (Kim et al., 2017; Velez, 2020). Project staff will work with learning support developers to integrate American School Counselor Association’s (2019) professional learning standards, both in-person and micro credentialing, in METRO’s Counselor Academy. The Academy will unite counselors for one to two days per semester to engage in critical discussions about the latest college readiness research and activities, understand how to help students and families access financial aid, plan a PSE campus-based activity, and coordinate career-based activities for their students. Special efforts will be made to ensure counselors align activities to streamline a systematic expansion of strategies and best practices at key transition points (e.g. middle to high school). Parent engagement and shared leadership roles result in higher achievement in high school, increased graduation rates, increased PSE admission rates, and a higher percentage of students enrolled in PSE (Plagens, 2011; Velez, 2020).
Resources
Bryan, J., Kim, J., & Liu, C. (2022). School counseling college-going culture: Counselors’ influence on students’ college-going decisions. Journal of Counseling & Development, 100, 39-55. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12408
Chan, H. Y., & Hu, X. (2023). Parental involvement and college enrollment: Differences between parents with some and no college experience. Research in Higher Education, 64, 1217-1249. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=sourcex%3A%22Research+in+Higher+Education%22&ff1=eduSecondary+Education&id=EJ1399422
Flamboyan Foundation. (2022). Five roles families play. https://flamboyanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Five-Roles-Families-Play_Flamboyan-Foundation.pdf
K20 Center. (n.d.). GEAR UP: College and career preparation standards. https://k20center.ou.edu/collegeandcareerpreparation/
K20 Center. (n.d.). Forbidden phrases. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3342
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
K20 Center. (n.d.). Think-pair-share. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/139
K20 Center. (2021). 1-Minute Timer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ilD555O_RE
K20 Center. (2021). 5-Minute Timer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVS_yYQoLJg
Kim, J., Mayes, R. D., Hines, E. M., & Bryan, J. (2017). The parent-high school counselor relationship and students’ postsecondary enrollment. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 4(2), 124-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/2326716X.2017.1322929
Paolini, A. C. (2019). School counselors promoting college and career readiness for high school students. Journal of School Counseling, 17(2), Article 2.https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/School-Counselors-Promoting-College-and-Career-for-Paolini/a40d23e1e32323029dff8eb0c3e72f5cd80998ba
Plagens, G. K. (2011). Social capital and education: Implications for student and school performance. Education and Culture. 27(1):40-64. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ925268
Velez, E. D. (2020). How can high school counseling shape students' postsecondary attendance? Exploring the relationship between the high school counseling context and students' subsequent postsecondary enrollment. National Association for College Admission Counseling. ED608301.pdf