School counselors awarded OSSCARs for intervention work

John Howell
Posted 10/14/14

Two Warwick school counselors received OSSCARs Thursday at the fall conference of the Rhode Island School Counselor Association.

Like the Oscars of movie renown, the winners were chosen from among …

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School counselors awarded OSSCARs for intervention work

Posted

Two Warwick school counselors received OSSCARs Thursday at the fall conference of the Rhode Island School Counselor Association.

Like the Oscars of movie renown, the winners were chosen from among their peers for outstanding achievement. But in this case, the awards recognized the work of the recipients in analyzing school data to identify student or school-wide issues in need of improvement.

Jean Greco, an association board member who made the presentations, said the counselors “designed and implemented appropriate interventions to promote student success” while collecting data to determine the change in student knowledge, attitude, skills or behavior. She said the final step was for the recipients to publicize their results to demonstrate the impact of school counseling.

Geralyn Bergeron, school counselor at John Brown Francis Elementary School, was awarded an OSSCAR (Ocean State School Counselor Accountability Report) Starfish for her observation that test scores improved when students were in small group settings. Bergeron brought this to the attention of Principal David Cuff, and they began testing students in the at-risk area in small groups. Testing was preceded by meetings with parents designed to get their children to take the tests more seriously. As a result, all of the 34 students targeted saw improved test scores, with 15 being removed from the danger zone.

Greco also recognized Bergeron for her role as a member of a support team contributing to the improvement of the school climate through the delivery of anti-bullying lessons in grades four through six.

An OSSCAR Lighthouse was awarded to Stacey Chadronet, elementary school counselor at John Wickes.

The Lighthouse Award, as compared to the Starfish, requires more extensive documentation of interventions.

Chadronet and her intern delivered a bullying prevention program to all students in grades one through five. In addition, she provided teachers information, and she taught teacher assistants who monitored the playground and lunchroom. She also targeted improving attendance by identifying chronically absent students and assigning them a mentor who called and met with families. The efforts paid off with improved attendance and a reduction in disciplinary referrals, as demonstrated in graphs that were projected as Chadronet was presented her award.

The New England Institute of Technology hosted the conference at its East Greenwich campus.

Two additional OSSCARs were presented to a team of counselors at Tolman High School in Pawtucket for their attendance intervention and the team of Cynthia Lancaster and Kerry Carlson, school counselors at the McCourt Middle School in Cumberland, who expanded a student ambassador program to address bullying and welcome transfer students.

In her closing remarks, Greco congratulated recipients for making a difference in the lives of students and for demonstrating their effectiveness “through the collection, analysis and use of data to carefully design and implement interventions that produce positive results for students.”

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