Director, Counseling

Description:

Our public school students need your expertise, passion and leadership.

We are looking for highly motivated and skilled talent to join our team at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). We seek individuals who are passionate about transforming the DC school system and making a significant difference in the lives of public school students, parents, principals, teachers, and central services employees.

DCPS serves 50,000 students in the nation's capital through the efforts of approximately 4,000 educators in 118 schools. As part of a comprehensive reform effort to become the preeminent urban school system in America, DCPS intends to have the highest-performing, best paid, most satisfied, and most honored educator force in the nation and a distinctive central services staff whose work supports and drives instructional excellence and significant achievement gains for DCPS students.

Position Overview

The Office of Social Emotional Academic Development works with the Chancellor to ensure coherence in the educational experience for our students, families, and schools. Our goal is to initiate change and lead DC Public Schools into the highest performing school district in the nation. We are currently in the process of creating our next strategic plan. After engaging with over 3,000 internal and external stakeholders to help shape the future of DCPS, our draft strategic priorities include:

• Promote Equity: Define, understand, and promote equity to close achievement gaps and interrupt institutional bias.
• Empower Our People: Recruit, develop, and retain a talented, caring, and diverse team.
• Educate the Whole Child: Provide rigorous, joyful, and inclusive academic and social emotional experiences for all students.
• Ensure Excellent Schools: Increase the number of high quality schools across the district by defining blended autonomies for schools and creating opportunities for innovation.
• Engage Families: Deepen partnerships with families and community.

Divisions/Teams

• Core Team: works to improve the organizational effectiveness and work to ensure daily operations are managed efficiently across all SEAD offices and divisions. The SEAD Core Team advocates for SEAD DCPS Programs by shepherding cross-team collaboration with procurement, budget, and staffing teams. SEAD Core Team provides oversight to ensure equitable, transparent, and compliant hiring and spending practices through quality customer service.
• Strategic School Planning: works closely with principals, Central Service staff, and community members to ensure schools plan appropriately to meet the needs of their students and the District. The Strategic School Planning division is made up of the Strategic Enrollment Initiatives and School Planning teams. These teams lead DCPS efforts related to the planning and design of the District’s portfolio of schools.

Division of Leadership Development

• Wallace and School Leader Recruitment, Selection: this division will shape the vision for the Wallace Grant initiative and develop and implement comprehensive, aligned principal pipelines reflective of the 7 critical domains articulated by Wallace that produce equity-centered leaders who can help bring a district’s vision of equity to fruition. They drive the District’s goals related to recruiting, selecting, and developing the best school leaders for DC Public Schools.
• Leadership Development: develops and executes instructional leadership programs and initiatives aimed at enabling school leaders to provide outstanding instruction to every student, every day in schools. This team works to build the leadership capacity of school leaders with a particular focus on instruction, data analysis, intervention, and developing capacity within the school. This team also triangulates qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of leadership initiatives and to ensure alignment to leaders’ developmental needs.

Division of SEAD Strategy

• Athletics: The Department of Athletics ensures all DCPS students have access to comprehensive and inclusive interscholastic athletics programming designed to increase student satisfaction, improve physical fitness, keep students engaged in school, develop leadership qualities, and provide additional outlets for students to express their unique talents.
• Career and Technical Education: Career Education programs provide the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary to succeed in college, careers and to become lifelong learners.
• College Preparedness and Persistence: College Preparedness and Persistence includes programming that prepares students for college, including Dual Enrollment, SAT in school day, Test Prep, and the DCPS Persists initiative which enables DCPS to support students through their college graduation and invest in additional efforts to effectively prepare students to succeed in college.
• Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC): JROTC utilizes programming in our Army and Navy academies to motivate young people to become better citizens by teaching them leadership skills that they can use in any career field.
• Ninth Grade Academies: Ninth Grade Academies in DCPS provide rich, responsive, and well-rounded educational experiences for students transitioning from eighth grade to succeed in ninth grade and beyond.
• School Academic Scheduling and Support: School Academic Scheduling and Support (SASS) is responsible for supporting and monitoring DCPS schools in four areas: scheduling, grading, graduation, and the development and distribution of accurate academic records.
• Student Engagement: Student Engagement consists of programming designed to keep students on track academically and connected to their school communities.

Acceleration Division

• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): DCPS’s approach to acceleration is grounded in a commitment to serving the whole child. The MTSS team supports schools to understand student and staff strengths and needs holistically, and supports their implementation of aligned evidence-based best practices across academics, social-emotional learning, attendance, and behavior.
• Cluster Support Model (CSM): Under the CSM, Central Services’ coaching and support for schools from 19 Content Teams across Central Services are streamlined by Cluster under the guidance and direction of each Cluster Instructional Superintendent. Cluster Support Team (CST) members provide direct services, coaching, and professional learning to schools in alignment with the schools’ strengths and needs and district priorities.
• Acceleration: The Acceleration team works across Central Services and schools to promote a cohesive, streamlined approach to acceleration that is grounded in the whole child and evidence-based best practices including, but not limited to, High Impact Tutoring, expanded summer programming, and school-specific acceleration strategies.

The Director, Counseling is responsible for providing a comprehensive Counseling program that is preventative in design, developmental in implementation, and supports DCPS students in the areas of academic achievement, career and college planning, and personal and social development. The Director, Counseling also serves as consultant to educators, families, and community partners. The Director, Counseling receives technical assistance, support, and instruction from the Principal, while working in coordination with School Counselors in the building. Additionally, the Director, Counseling works closely with faculty and staff of local school, DCPS central office, various social services agencies (e.g., D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA)), the Superior Court, personnel from other public school systems, and parents. The Director, Counseling is expected to serve as the lead Counselor for Summer Learning. The Director, Counseling will establish goals and scope of the Counseling Program at their school and can have direct supervisory authority over the Counseling team.

This is a 12-month position.

This position has been designated asSafety Sensitive.Pursuant to section 410 of Chapter 4 of the D.C. Personnel Regulations; in addition to the general suitability screening, individuals applying for or occupying safety sensitive positions are subject to the following checks and tests: Criminal background check; Sex Offender Registry check; Pre-employment drug and alcohol test; Traffic record check (as applicable); Reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol test; and Post-accident or incident drug and alcohol test.

The Director, Counseling will report to the Principal.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The below statements are intended to describe the general nature and scope of work being performed by this position. This is not a complete listing of all responsibilities, duties, and/or skills required. Other duties may be assigned.

• The Director, Counseling is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing a comprehensive Counseling program to serve the academic, social, and career development needs of students enrolled in DCPS. The primary purpose of the comprehensive Counseling program is the support of the instructional and academic goals of DCPS.

• Development and management is the ability to organize, supervise, and manage the comprehensive Counseling program at the secondary level in collaboration with professional school counselors and school administrators. The Director, School Counseling should utilize academic, social-emotional, and postsecondary planning data to develop a written plan to guide an effective comprehensive Counseling program aligned with ASCA standards and central services goals and evaluates impact on the school’s CSP objectives.

  • Communicates the goals of the comprehensive Counseling program to students, families, and community partners while implementing its scope and objectives in alignment with central services guidance.
  • Oversees and coordinates the implementation of secondary social-emotional programming for students at all levels and participates in regular school mental health meetings in collaboration with social workers and the school psychologist.
  • The Director allocates 70% of their time to providing direct services to students, including preventive and responsive support and individual student planning, and 30% to program development, management, system support, and accountability, reflecting the significant demand of administrative tasks and responsibilities.
  • Serves as the main POC for the Counseling program to ensure all students, regardless of their cohort, are prepared for what’s next, in alignment with the DCPS Strategic Plan.
  • Create a plan to support learning opportunities that may arise during the summer, which could include Summer Learning, Dual Enrollment, Study Abroad, SAT Prep, Internships, etc. This includes addressing students scheduling needs and social-emotional concerns that may arise throughout the summer.

• Preventive and Responsive Services is the design, implementation, and assessment of a responsive counseling curriculum, initiating individual and group sessions for students’ academic, social, and personal concerns. This includes planning, coordinating, and providing classroom lessons to meet the identified mindsets and behaviors in the areas of academic achievement, career and educational development, and personal/social development to assist students in developing decision-making skills and identifying life goals.

  • Consults with families and educators to assess student needs and interests and to discuss appropriate recommendations for educational options.
  • Assesses student needs and makes referrals to appropriate school resource personnel, social agencies, community agencies, and alternative programs.
  • Develops and manages a comprehensive calendar of presentations and events to support Counseling program.

• Individual Student Planning prepares students for the transition to the next level: college, career, post-high school activities, and post-secondary options. Counselors and the Director, Counseling will assist students in navigating their academic, workplace, and community experiences through individual student planning (this includes transcript review conversations (TRC), and other planning tools).

  • Plans and coordinates programs such as career and college fairs, test skills preparation, improved attendance activities, and other extensions of the counseling program to support students’ knowledge of post-secondary options.
  • Advertises course offerings to students and supports the scheduling process. Completes the course selection process, including updating and editing student course selections. Ensure proper and accurate student schedules are completed in a timeline manner and reviewed regularly by monitoring data points in Aspen and DDAC.
  • Collaborates with parents/guardians and educators to assist students with educational and career planning.

• The Director, School Counseling uses responsive counseling strategies to establish relationships and collaborate with educators, students, families, and community partners, which reflects recognition of and respect for each individual and promotes an understanding and appreciation of diverse population and cultures.

  • Assists families in obtaining services for their children through an appropriate referral and follow-up process and serves as liaison between the social services agencies (i.e., D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA)).
  • Assists teachers in understanding their students, including providing and interpreting student data and provides in-service training on topics related to the Counseling program and supporting student achievement.

• The Director, School Counseling should regularly monitor available data to review the extent and quality of program implementation. This includes preparing and submitting a variety of reports and data to ensure fulfillment of established program requirements, such as quarterly reports as required by central services, and reviewing feedback from central services team and implements changes as needed.

  • Uses all available data, including academic grades, discipline referrals, and attendance data, to identify students in need to deliver services.
  • Interprets tests, student data, and other assessment results appropriately in the counseling environment for the purpose of developing and implementing academic plans for individual students.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.

• Master’s Degree from an accredited college or university in Counseling.
• Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector a plus.
• Retains a current and valid OSSE-issued certification as a professional school counselor.
• Familiarity with Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), District of Columbia Municipal Regulations, Title 5 Education, The ASCA National Model: A Framework for Counseling Programs, ASCA National Standards, ASCA School Counselor Competencies, ASCA Ethical Guidelines, and ASCA School Counselor Performance Standards.
• Ability to analyze data to inform work and decision making, analyze and evaluate available data, assess student needs, and develop and implement procedures and policies to support student achievement.

DCPS Values

• STUDENTS FIRST: We recognize students as whole children and put their needs first in everything we do.
• COURAGE: We have the audacity to learn from our successes and failures, to try new things, and to lead the nation as a proof point of PK-12 success.
• EQUITY: We work proactively to eliminate opportunity gaps by interrupting institutional bias and investing in effective strategies to ensure every student succeeds.
• EXCELLENCE: We work with integrity and hold ourselves accountable for exemplary outcomes, service, and interactions.
• TEAMWORK: We recognize that our greatest asset is our collective vision and ability to work collaboratively and authentically.
• JOY: We enjoy our collective work and will enthusiastically celebrate our success and each other.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, accessible workplace. We welcome and encourage applications from individuals with disabilities. Accommodation and/or application assistance is available upon request at all stages of the application and employment process. To request accommodation, please contact dcps.eeo-ada@k12.dc.gov.

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