ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
Distributed Counseling - Distributed Counseling is an educational strategy in which teachers, administrators and counselors work systematically
with students and parents to provide the social, emotional, and academic support students need to succeed in school, graduate, and pursue
postsecondary education opportunities. Teams of teachers, administrators, and counselors work together to personalize the learning community by
knowing students well and developing close relationships with them for the purpose of achieving higher levels of achievement and productivity.
Distributed counseling requires the teams to take individual and collective responsibility for the academic, social, and emotional education of
students.
DIMENSION: Understanding of Social/Emotional Issues & Needs
Less
NOVICE
Teachers see their
responsibility primarily or
solely as teaching content.
More
APPRENTICE
PRACTITIONER
MASTER
Teachers express interest in
increasing their knowledge
about how to address the
social and emotional issues of
their students.
Teachers, individually and
collectively as teams, accept and
take responsibility for students’
academic, social, and emotional
development.
Teams are engaged in
sustained team-wide
practices of distributed
counseling.
Individual teachers address
some student issues and
problems, e.g., behavior and
academic performance.
There are expectations, time,
protocols and processes for teams to
address student issues and
problems.
School culture reflects
acceptance of responsibility
for the academic, social, and
emotional development of all
students as evidenced by a
wide array of resources,
allocation of professional
development, and student
data.
NOTES
Teachers individually and
voluntarily address students’
social and emotional issues.
Students with issues are often
sent to the counselor.
There are professional development
opportunities that increase teachers’
knowledge, understanding, and skills
with regard to addressing students’
issues.
Counseling is primarily in
response to student issues
and problems.
Counseling is proactive to
student issues and problems.
There are counseling systems,
structures and strategies in place
that anticipate and address student
issues and problems at all grade
levels.
Counseling structures that
anticipate and address
student issues and problems
are systemic and evident to
all members of the
community.
1|P age
ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
DIMENSION: Understanding of Social/Emotional Issues & Needs
Less
More
NOVICE
APPRENTICE
Counselor provides individual
counseling in urgent cases.
Counselor provides individual
and/or small group counseling
as needed.
Structures exist for a student
advocacy system, e.g.,
advisory.
Students do not participate in
or have knowledge of
counseling supports.
Some students participate in,
or have knowledge of,
counseling supports such as
guidance in making college
decisions.
PRACTITIONER
Counselor facilitates ways that the
team addresses individual student
needs, e.g., convening case
conferences and meetings with
parents.
MASTER
NOTES
Team initiates counseling
supports with ongoing
guidance of counselors.
Structures ensure that all students
are known well and regularly advised
by an adult (through mechanisms
such as advisory groups, family
groups, mentors, family contact for
all, etc.).
All students participate in and have
knowledge of counseling supports
such as:
 advisory;
 specialized support groups;
and
 guidance in making college
decisions.
Students initiate counseling
supports.
2|P age
ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
DIMENSION: Monitoring Collective Responsibility for Student Progress & Achievement
Less
More
NOVICE
APPRENTICE
PRACTITIONER
MASTER
Teachers occasionally discuss
individual students informally
or in occasional meetings with
counselor.
Teachers discuss students’
progress and problems
informally and there are some
formal structures for these
discussions.
There are effective structures such
as common planning time for
teachers to meet regularly to discuss
students’ progress and problems
using clear processes to guide
discussions and determine follow-up
steps.
The school culture reflects
systematic and systemic
approaches which teams
use to look at students’
strengths and needs so that
all students are known well
to the team and no one “falls
through the cracks.”
The primary method for
monitoring student progress
is report cards.
Teachers analyze students’
grades and report cards and
informally formulate
interventions to support
students’ academic progress.
The team (including administration)
actively monitors and supports
students’ academic progress, for
example, with:
 individual and case
conferences;
 transcript reviews;
 check-ins;
 ongoing discussion with
team colleagues;
 phone calls home;
 using alpha lists;
 academic folders for each
student; and
 follow-through from decision
minutes.
Students regularly monitor
their own academic
progress; participate in
counseling activities and
programs; and proactively
seek support.
NOTES
School has adopted
mechanisms such as peermediation that enable
students to take
responsibility for problemsolving school wide.
Teachers teach students strategies
to monitor their own academic
progress.
There is electronic system for
monitoring student data that teachers
and teams use to prevent students
from falling through the cracks.
3|P age
ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
DIMENSION: Counselor Support
Less
More
NOVICE
APPRENTICE
The counselor’s role is
exclusively to provide student
services:
 class scheduling
 college admissions
 individual student
problems
Counselor supports teams with
information, e.g.:
 factual knowledge (e.g.
graduation requirements);
 expertise in aspects of
social/emotional piece in
individual cases; and
 understanding and seeing
themselves as teaching
the “whole child.”
PRACTITIONER
Counselor is an integral part of the
team, providing leadership with:
 academic counseling; and
 social/emotional supports.
Counselor provides and coordinates
professional development and
distribution of materials on
adolescent social and emotional
issues and postsecondary access.
MASTER
NOTES
There is frequent and strong
interaction and
communication among
counselor, team, and
administration.
The entire team, including
counselors, administrators,
and teachers, develop
curriculum and materials to
expand approaches to
student issues.
4|P age
ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
DIMENSION: Parent Involvement
Less
NOVICE
Family contact is mainly
through report card
conferences and/or open
school nights.
Families are contacted for
academic and behavioral
issues (problems).
More
APPRENTICE
Families are contacted for
academic and behavioral
issues, but also occasionally
for positive communication.
PRACTITIONER
MASTER
Strategies are in place that facilitate
regular, ongoing communication with
families about students’
development, such as:
Family contact for all
students is ongoing, includes
positive and informal
communication, and occurs
through multiple forums
(phone contact,
conferences, etc.).




advisors make regular phone
calls;
most faculty are accessible
to parents;
there are avenues and
venues for parental voices to
be heard and for the small
learning community to
respond; and
most faculty provide parents
with e-mail updates.
NOTES
Schools view families as
partners in their children’s
education.
5|P age
ISA Principle: Distributed Counseling
DIMENSION: College & Career Orientation
Less
NOVICE
College readiness process
occurs primarily in 11th and
12th grades.
More
APPRENTICE
PRACTITIONER
MASTER
Team provides students with
some awareness of college
and career information in all
grades, (e.g., college trips,
interest inventories, and
teacher awareness of
vulnerabilities in grade 9).
All students participate in a welldefined curriculum (4-year sequence
of activities) that supports
college/career orientation.
There is a sequence of
activities tailored to different
groups and grade levels, for
example:
 older students and
graduates help orient
the younger ones; and
 students learn about a
variety of careers and
post-high school
possibilities and
opportunities through
multiple modalities.
 Students develop
portfolios in grades 912 with artifacts
reflecting evidence of
growth and reflection
in post-secondary
access over 4 years.
From 9th grade on, structures are in
place to support all students and
families to support students’
academic success, prevent dropouts,
and support college readiness.
Each student develops a plan
connecting high school goals with
post-secondary plans including
careers.
NOTES
6|P age