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 School counselors in New Jersey and other states are beginning to make the
transition from offering a variety of services and activities to
implementing programs based on ASCA National Standards. As those Standards
make clear, counselors can create their own
program--or they can use one that's already available.
A high-impact program addressing all three ASCA
Standards has been introduced very successfully to thousands of educators
and students in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. That program is RELATIONSHIP
IMPROVEMENT SKILLS.
Prosocial and proactive, R.I.Sk is unique--and uniquely effective-- because it translates abstract values into measurable
behavioral skills
that are easy-to-learn and
fun-to-practice. Proven to dramatically change attitudes and actions, R.I.Sk
features built-in outcomes evaluation,
identifying and measuring antisocial attitudes and behaviors in a
pre-survey, and documenting and quantifying changes in a post-survey.
R.I.Sk 's appealing group-centered
concepts and activities strongly and comprehensively support ASCA Standards
for Academic, Career, and Personal/Social Development.
As the Academic Standards mandate, R.I.Sk "implement[s]
strategies and activities that support and maximize student learning." (In
New Jersey the program addresses12 of the NJDOE's Core Content Curriculum
Standards--and many related Progress Indicators--in the areas of Language
and Arts Literacy (St. 3.1 through 3.5); Health and Physical Education (St.
2.1, 2.2, 2.4); and Cross Content Workplace Readiness (St.1 through 4).
The
R.I.Sk program also addresses four of the Pennsylvania Department of
Education's Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening
(St. 1.1,1.2,1.3,1.6), four of the Commonwealth's Proposed Academic
Standards for Health, Safety, and Physical Education (St. 10.1,10.2,10.3,
10.5), and one of the proposed Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Family
and Consumer Science (11.2).
ASCA Standards for Career Development call for a counseling program that
helps student acquire "the skills, attitudes, and knowledge" needed to make
a successful school-to-work transition.R.I.Sk meets that
challenge by giving students the opportunity to learn and practice
communication, teamwork, and leadership behaviors essential to getting and
keeping a job.
ASCA Standards for Personal/Social Development emphasize developing
"attitudes, knowledge, and interpersonal skills" that promote "understand[ing]
and respect [for] self and others," (St. A), and teaching students how to
make decisions and set and reach goals (St. B). R.I.Sk is
fundamentally and centrally concerned with helping
participants build the awareness and intra- and
interpersonal skills -- the emotional intelligence -- needed to feel and
express acceptance of self and others and to "Relate with Respect and
Responsibility" toward self and others at home,
on the job, and in the community. The program achieves those outcomes by
giving participants the opportunity to set and reach short- and long-term
behavioral goals based on the forms of communication and the roles and
responses used in all interactions.
To learn more about this dynamic program, which meets 8 of New Jersey's 12
professional development standards for teachers and has been offered in
state-approved courses to hundreds of Pennsylvania educators, see our
Program Overview and
Measurable Results in Character Ed!
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