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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Is there a relationship between fewer guidance counselors and falling grades in Duval Schools?

Beauclerc Elementary (1,067), Twin Lakes Elementary (913) and Crown Point Elementary (1,046) are all traditionally high performing schools with around a thousand children that have seen their grades drop to a C. Another thing they have in common is they only have one guidance counselor. I am told the recommended average is 250 to one and the districts average is 550 to one.

This is for a larger story I am working on but to be honest I could use some help.   

8 comments:

  1. Chimney Lakes has about 1100 students, one guidance counselor, and we are no longer an A school as of the last FCAT results.

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  2. My school has over 840 students and 1 counselor. :/. However, I quit trying to figure things out with how Vitti is running the system. We are clearly top heavy again and no one seems to want to question it. I'd love for the news to start asking about the mess that is going on.

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  3. I think the bigger question is why the drop. You have these schools surrounded by charter schools. A free public private school education.

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  4. Yes, ASCA recommends a student:counselor ratio of 250:1, but we know we'll never see that because of budget. I work in a high school, and I'm responsible for a little over 500 students. College applications for my seniors, 504s that need to be updated, constant schedule changes, keeping up with my"at risk" students since they're so important for our school grade, dealing with helicopter parents, etc. It's overwhelming. Then throw in a student with a crisis (cutting, depression, suicidal) and there aren't enough hours in the day or in the school year to do everything that the district expects. Focusing on putting out fires and keeping the district off our backs, no time for being proactive our working with students to head off problems. Since I work at a school where students aren't supposed to have any type of mental health problems, we have no resources easily available to our students. It's really quite sad what my profession has become because we have to wear too many hats for too many students (and their parents)

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  5. Well, to be far, we need the money to pay for people to come into our classrooms and criticize us every other week as if they have all of the answers to education's problems. Get rid of those downtown, and pay for people who have direct contact with students on a daily basis!

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  6. I am in a middle school with roughly 1300 students, and two guidance counselors. We used to have three and they were kept very busy. Our school dropped in overall FCAT score as well. I'd like to know, how many guidance counselors are in the charter schools? Is our district money being funneled from the public schools to sweeten the deal for children attending charter schools?

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  7. You have to let the ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS be known because readers will only focus on the SYMPTOMS. People the ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM is that Your Tax $$$$$$$ are being funneled away from the Public Schools System into the Private Charter Schools so that the MOST NOTORIOUS CAPITALISTS in this country ARE SIPHONING those BILLIONS INTO THEIR OWN POCKETS.

    SEND your CHILDREN back to the Public Schools so that you and them are not cheated. They are receiving a more mediocre education at the charter schools. Don't be fooled by the A grades they receive at the Charters;WORRY about the substandard education they are receiving there. And, WORRY about the fact that the longer you take to return your students to the Public Schools the further behind they will be.

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  8. 'Fewer Guidance Counselors' logically translates into poorer performance by students in our schools. However, we must take into consideration the demographics of each particular school and the associated socioeconomic factors within their demographic communities, when determining the number of students per counselor - not some arbitrary number developed in some suburban district in the Midwest.

    It is a known fact that poverty, crime, and other such societal ills abound in African American Communities, in particular. Consequently, these Communities in our schools require 'Very High Maintenance'. Beside, the 'Generational Entitlement Culture' that started several decades ago and now supported by the No Child Left Behind Act has added immensely to the problems facing our schools.

    What I have discovered over the years is that Politicians, at the behest of their Corporate Bosses have been systematically dismantling the support structure in the aforementioned schools and been channeling those saved dollars into Charter Schools, and into Private Schools in the form of Scholarship Vouchers of sorts.

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