TENNESSEE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

SCHOOL COUNSELING MODEL & STANDARDS POLICY 5.103

Academic Standards

Attitudes:

AA1. Improve academic self-concept Skills Assessment

AA2. Display positive attitude toward work and learning Portfolio

AA3. Develop high expectations for achievement Portfolio

AA4. Apply self-motivation and self-direction to learning Portfolio

AA5. Model a sense of belonging in the school environment Student Activities

AA6. Build aspirations for postsecondary education and training Portfolio

Knowledge:

AK1. Specify high school graduation requirements, including pathway of study High School Plan

AK2. Describe the benefits of education for career, life management, and personal and professional satisfaction

Career Search/Job Demand

AK3. Articulate belief that postsecondary education and life-long learning are necessary for long-term career success

Portfolio

Skills:

AS1. Use test-taking, time management, organizational, and study skills to improve academic achievement

Skills Assessment/ GPA

AS2. Work independently Personality Assessment

AS3. Develop and practice effective technology skills Messaging Center

AS4. Utilize resources to overcome barriers to learning Counselor Resources

AS5. Exhibit creativity Portfolio

AS6. Set, evaluate progress toward, and achieve long and short term goals Portfolio/ File Vault

AS7. Demonstrate critical thinking and decision making skills to make informed decisions Portfolio/Test Scores

Experiences:

AE1. Experience academic growth and success Smart Goals/File Vault

AE2. Engage and persevere in challenging coursework Smart Goals/Portfolio

AE3. Create a secondary educational plan that includes transition to postsecondary education and the workforce

Smart Goals/HS Plan

AE4. Participate in enrichment or extracurricular activities Portfolio/Resume

TENNESSEE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

SCHOOL COUNSELING MODEL & STANDARDS POLICY 5.103

Social and Emotional Standards

Attitudes:

SA1. Develop positive attitudes toward self as a unique and worthy person Skills Assessment/

Personality Assessment

SA2. Develop positive attitudes toward others as unique and worthy people Portfolio

SA3. Respect diversity in culture, perspectives, values, and experiences Portfolio/Values

Assessment

SA4. Recognize each person is a part of a diverse local and global community Values Assessment

Knowledge:

SK1. Develop and articulate personal values, attitudes, and beliefs Values Assessment

SK2. Compare and contrast healthy and unhealthy behaviors Portfolio

SK3. Distinguish appropriate behaviors for a variety of settings and situations Portfolio

Skills:

SS1. Make ethical decisions and practice social responsibility Resume

SS2. Advocate for self in multiple settings using assertiveness skills SMART Goals, HS Plan

SS3. Demonstrate empathy toward others Resume, Values

Assessment

SS4. Effectively collaborate with others, cooperate with diverse perspectives, and communicate effectively in a variety of situations Explore (Middle School)

SS5. Exercise personal safety skills, including refusal skills Explore (Middle School)

SS6. Assume responsibility for choices and consequences Resume

SS7. Positively manage behavior and choices by applying self-discipline and self-control Resume

SS8. Persevere through challenges to achieve goals Resume

SS9. Select and utilize appropriate coping skills in the face of a specific challenge

SS10. Appropriately utilize social media to enhance learning, develop positive relationships, communicate, and engage in age appropriate entertainment Messaging Center

Experiences:

SE1. Participate in service projects, service learning, and/or philanthropic activities Portfolio/ Resume

SE2. Work effectively in diverse groups by developing and employing leadership and teamwork skills

Portfolio

SE3. Explore cultural, ethnic, philosophical, or demographical differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment

Student Activities

SE4. Create and sustain positive, supportive, and appropriate relationships with peers and adults that support success

Recommendations

TENNESSEE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

SCHOOL COUNSELING MODEL & STANDARDS POLICY 5.103

College and Career Readiness Standards

Attitudes:

CA1. Develop and articulate postsecondary education and career aspirations Smart Goals/File Vault

CA2. Articulate that career development occurs across the lifespan Career Search

CA3. Reflect on progress toward goals, display a growth mindset, and accept feedback to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities in order to meet goals Learn about Yourself

Knowledge:

CK1. Research and appraise characteristics of a variety of traditional and nontraditional occupations

Career Search/ Job Demand

CK2. Articulate how personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations influence values, choices, and plans

Skills Assessment/Career

Search

CK3. Articulate the importance of responsibility, dependability, punctuality, integrity, and effort in the workplace

Values Assessment/Resume

CK4. Research and summarize the education and training needed to achieve specified career goals

Career Search

CK5. Examine and utilize resources for college affordability planning Money for College

CK6. Research, select, and participate in postsecondary admissions and scholarship applications processes

Scholarships/College

Search

Skills:

CS1. Develop skills to locate, evaluate and interpret career information Career Search

CS2. Balance school, home, and community activities effectively Portfolio/Resume

CS3. Utilize internal and external resources to manage transitions and adapt to changing situations/responsibilities

Messaging

CS4. Communicate effectively using oral, written, and listening communications skills Messaging

CS5. Set clear, ambitious, and obtainable postsecondary goals Portfolio/File Vault

Experiences:

CE1. Participate in career and postsecondary institution exploration activities Apply to College

CE2. Assess and modify educational plan to support changes in educational and career goals

Career Search

CE3. Pursue and develop competency in areas of career interest Portfolio

CE4. Participate in college and career assessments Test Preparation

CE5. Complete the FAFSA FAFSA

CE6. Submit at least one postsecondary education, training, or workplace application; participate in TNPromise program, if applicable Apply to College

CollegeforTN.org Appendix

Apply to College-CollegeforTN.org allows high school student users to

Track a College Application so that counselors and students know the

steps and the deadlines they are required to meet when applying for

admission to TCAT, community colleges, or four year universities.

CollegeforTN.org does not allow students to apply to college through the

website, but it does send students directly to the school websites to learn

more about the admissions process. School Counseling programs can collaborate to design

programs for all CollegeforTN.org users during College Application and Exploration Week in

September. While seniors are applying for colleges, underclassmen can be shown the process and

then self-report prospective colleges to be saved to their digital portfolios.

Career Search-Users can narrow

down a career search based on

their values, interests, and skills, as

well as, research the average

salaries and Tennessee employers

hiring within these fields. The

Career Search allows students to

add careers to the Portfolio and

then rank these Career Interests.

In other words, a middle school

student may want to see which

careers fit her STEAM aspirations,

but succeeds in high school

engineering courses and is now

more interested in civil

engineering so she ranks civil

enginnering first on her Career list.

College Cost Estimator-When a user

saves colleges into his/her Portfolio,

the Financial Aide tools will

automatically input tuition and other

fees so that students can begin to see

what that school will actually cost.

Students can manually add in a

Financial Aid Award and then input the

specific work-study information and

grants they have been offered to get a

better picture of what the total price

of attending will be. This is a great task

for high school seniors in the final stages

of decisions during the months of February through May.

College Search- Students in middle school

and high school can search for colleges

within Tennessee and beyond. The most

helpful tool within the College Search is the

ability to narrow down a search for colleges

based on Academics, Size, Environment,

Campus Life, Costs, and Majors. School

counselors can connect a lesson about GPA

to a lesson about college match and reach with

the College Search tool. For example, counselors can show middle school students that there are

more college options when a student’s GPA is above a 3.0 GPA. Counselors can also show the impact

of an ACT score, or geography on a student’s options for

college after high school.

College Visit-High School students who have saved

colleges to their College List and Portfolio within

CollegeforTN.org can record the date and jot down

personal experiences about a recent college visit.

Students could be encouraged to complete a journal

response after a class field trip to a local institution, or

students could be asked to complete these over the summer to

show a demonstrated interest in certain colleges.

Counselor Resources-Counselor lesson plans and activities can

be found behind a Counselor login, allowing school counselors

and teachers the ability to locate specific lessons that meet the

new TN Counseling Standards. For example, students working

to complete a college essay for the College and Career Readiness

standards can find a specific 50 minutes-long lesson on writing and revising a college essay. To

request counselor access, a school-administrator, or state administrator must approve your

permission. Create a counselor account and request permission on CollegeforTN.org. Your approval

should take no longer than 24 hours to be completed.

Explore-Middle School Student Users are guided through CollegeforTN.org in 3 modules: What Makes

You Special, What Are Your Dreams, and How Do You Prepare? Here, middle school users walk through

the interest inventories, career/college aspirations, and the social and emotional expectations of

students in high school and beyond. School counselors can support middle school students Social

and Emotional Learning by guiding them through the lessons within a classroom with a homeroom

teacher or professional school counselor.

FAFSA –The Free Application for Federal Student Aid must be completed by every Tennessean to

become eligible for the HOPE scholarship and TN Promise awards. The FAFSA must be completed

each year that a student is receiving scholarships or grants. CollegeforTN.org allows students to store

and save their FSA Username. Counselors cannot see students’ secure FAFSA Login credentials, but

can monitor when a student has stored an FSA Username within CollegeforTN.org in order to support

students in meeting the milestone.

File Vault-Students can save and

securely store important

documents within

CollegeforTN.org. Students can

store a personal statement,

high school transcript, senior

capstone presentation, or even

teacher recommendations within

the File Vault. Now, counselors can impersonate, or switch between a student-view and a counselor

view in order to view these documents and prepare a counselor letter for college, begin building a

course schedule for rising 9th graders, or prepare community partners for senior thesis/capstone

presentations. Presently, counselors cannot batch print Files from the File vault, nor can counselors

store files within a counselor file vault. We are working on it!

Grade-Point Average (GPA)-The Tennessee Department of Education has pointed out that all 8th

graders need to know and

understand how GPA impacts

choices for college and career.

In order to make certain that all

8th graders (and others) know

how to calculate GPA, send your

student users to his/her

Portfolio. There, students can

Edit Portfolio in order to self-

report GPA and any test scores.

A best practice is encouraging all

students to enter these GPA

numbers after they receive a report card/progress report.

“Guide Me” Milestones-Depending on the age and

grade level of each user, CollegeforTN.org will

prompt students and counselors to complete

certain items each academic school year to make

sure that each counselor and student is working

towards college and career success. These

Milestones, created by the TN Department of

Education, are research-based and lead to higher

college-going rates and the expansion of college and

career cultures within schools. Counselors,

administrators, and state officials will be able to

monitor the amount of active students and counselors

who are meeting these milestones. CollegeforTN.org will also be able to directly nudge students

through the Messaging Center to encourage more students and counselors to hit all of the milestones

each academic school year.

High School Plan- Developing a plan for high school and beyond must start in elementary and middle

school. With CollegeforTN.org, students

can develop high school graduation

plans using credits required and the

Tennessee Graduation Policy and then

store that high school plan in their

Digital Portfolio, under the File Vault.

Interests Assessment-What careers

and work environments will keep

students engaged and enjoying the

work? Using these assessment tools,

students rank personal interests in

order to narrow down a college major

and a career field.

Job Demand- High School Students searching for Careers that are in high demand can narrow down

Career Searches by job

demand and save careers into

her/his portfolio. For example,

a student who is worried

about loans because a career

requires a Bachelor’s Degree

can now see how “in demand”

that job is in Tennessee and

use this information to make

decisions about potential

degrees and fields of study.

Messaging Center- Students

and all users can communicate

within schools through the messaging center. If students and users want the messages to come to a

specific email or cell phone number, users create these account preferences and then receive

CollegeforTN.org system-wide messages and also counselor-created messages. Students can develop

mature technology skills by composing a message within CollegeforTN.org via the Messaging Center.

Counselors can document regular interventions and conversations with students over time through

the Messaging Center. The messaging center is a one-way tool for students; in other words, students

must respond to communications via CollegeforTN.org.

Money for College-CollegeforTN.org has robust financial aid planning tools that can be accessed both

with and without creating an account. Students who want to begin saving in the elementary grades

can learn from financial aid myths

and even watch videos about state

and institutional scholarships.

Money for College allows high

school students the opportunity to

store an FSA Username, estimate

family contribution, estimate loan

costs, and compare college costs.

These results are saved securely

and privately to the student user’s

account within CollegeforTN.org.

Personality Assessment-Students

can take a Myers-Briggs Inventory on

CollegeforTN.org. When students are more aware of personal strengths and areas of growth, they are

much more likely to believe that future colleges and careers are well within their grasp. Counselors

can also use the Myers-Briggs to support students meeting Social and Emotional Standards, SK1

“Develop and articulate personal values, attitudes, and beliefs.”

Portfolio-Students create an online Portfolio with an appropriate picture and important resume

information that is stored on CollegeforTN.org. The Portfolio is available to students for a lifetime, as

long as the students still remember their username, password, and email address. The Portfolio is the

hub for counselors, parents, and students to monitor their own progress and keep track of goals,

activities, accomplishments, resumes, personal statements, and even store documents in the File

Vault. Encouraging students to regularly update activities, leadership roles, and even ACT and GPA to

the online portfolio, can support your school’s counseling program. Students can print out the

Portfolio in preparation of meeting with an adult counselor, or can export the document so they can

share with colleges or employers virtually. Students with an IEP, or 504 Plan may find the Portfolio

helpful because it celebrates assets, skills, and interests more personally for a student than a high

school transcript.

Recommendations-When students

Track a College Application, they

are prompted to research the

number of teacher

recommendations a school

requires or suggests. Students are

encouraged to have a teacher in

mind to write their

recommendation(s) before they

leave for summer break leading up

to senior year. It is important that

middle school and high school

students know about the recommendation requirement for many colleges so that students are aware

that forming positive relationships with counselors, teachers, and administrators will support students’

college and career aspirations.

Required Classes-All elementary, middle and high

school students must be aware of Tennessee high

school graduation requirements. The state of

Tennessee wants to make certain that all students

are taking the correct courses, ACT/SAT and the 22

required credit hours in order to be able to apply for

TN Promise and to graduate from high school with a

clear pathway. See High School Plan for ideas on

how to store a HS Plan and Postsecondary Plan into

your students’ Digital Portfolio using File Vault.

Resume-Under each student’s Portfolio, students are encouraged to create and keep an updated

resume. The resume imports students’ personal address, activities, accomplishments and other items

and then creates a printer-friendly resume. The resume is automatically stored within a Students

Digital Portfolio for the life of the student. Students can be expected to update/complete a resume

prior to senior year so that counselors can begin to know students and craft personalized counselor

letters to colleges and universities.

Scholarships and Money for College- Users can search national and Tennessee specific scholarships

through the Money for College and Scholarships Search. Counselors can virtually recommend

scholarships to specific groups of students and also students can add scholarships to a saved list.

When scholarships are added to a student’s list, the deadlines appear in the student’s

CollegeforTN.org calendar, helping parents, counselors, and students stay on track to complete the

right scholarships for the most amount of money.

Skills Assessment- Users can take a skills survey within the site and save the results in order to

customize career and college searches. The skills inventory is not an aptitude test; skills results ask

students to self-report strengths, ensuring that Counseling Programs are helping all students meet

the TN Counseling Standards, i.e. CA3-Reflect on progress toward goals, display a growth mindset, and

accept feedback to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities in order to meet goals; CK2-Articulate how

personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations influence values, choices, and plans.

SMART Goals- Students need to set short term and long term goals in order to take steps towards a

pathway. An editable PDF allows students to create social, academic, or career goals. Counselors can

locate this resource under their Counselor Resource page, Student Activities. Students can edit the

PDF and then can store SMART Goals within their file vault and Portfolio.

Student Activities-Within a user’s Portfolio, the student is encouraged to keep updated clubs,

organizations, or groups in which that user is an active member. Users will edit his or her portfolio

and then be

prompted to clarify

which career field or

category fits best.

Counselors can use

students resumes to

support academic

and career pathways,

as well as learn more

about the student in

order to form positive

counseling

relationships.

Test Preparation-

Students need to

know what to expect

on the ACT and SAT

tests before they take

the test. CollegeforTN.org

allows students to register for the ACT/SAT and learn more about the test by taking a practice test.

Students are also required to enter a Target Score for the ACT during junior year of high school.

Schools can celebrate test scores and use these target scores to support students’ aspirations and

address social and emotional needs.

Test Scores-Students are required to complete an ACT or SAT in order to attain a regular diploma

from the State of Tennessee. Students can input their ACT scores into the Portfolio and enter the

sub-scores for the ACT test as well. Now, students can compare to see if summer

enrichment/summer bridge programs will help them test out of remedial courses while in college.

Target goal scores also help students create a goal to strive for each time they take the ACT test.

Track College Applications-When users have added at least one college to their list, users can track an

application within the site. Users can put in the deadline, requirements and other important

transcript information so they can begin to see how “ready” and on track they are to apply for

college(s) and complete the necessary paperwork. Schools can use this part of the site during College

Application and Exploration Week to show students all the steps required in order to complete a

college application before they become seniors in high school.

Values Assessment-What will students value in the work place? Students need to think critically about

what they deem important in life and in the future. If students can identify the important aspects of a

career and/or a career cluster, then students can begin to fill in the blanks and search for meaningful

work and academic pathways. Students can import values results into his/her career search and can

retake these assessments. The Values Assessment can help counseling programs engage students in

conversations about specific social and emotional needs in their future careers. If students have

certain values as middle and high school students, then students are very likely to continue to have

these values into their adult lives.