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January 2017

For Counselors Only Conference Waiting List Started

There is now a waiting list for the For Counselors Only Conference 2017! The conference will be held Thursday, March 2, at the Moore Norman Technology Center South Penn Campus. Please sign up on the waiting list if you haven’t yet.

There will be 40 great sessions and more than 50 presenters. Our Keynote speaker will be Mid-Del Superintendent, Dr. Rick Cobb. The conference is FREE but space is LIMITED, so register today!

To register, and to see a schedule of the sessions, session descriptions, and presenter profiles, go to the For Counselors Only Conference 2017 web site.

ASCA Conference Grant Available

The deadline to apply for Oklahoma School Counselor Association’s Emerging Leader Grant is Jan. 31. This grant offers $1,000 to attend the ASCA (American School Counselor Association) conference in Denver, Colorado from July 8-11.

The ASCA conference offers a transformational professional development opportunity. All keynote and breakout sessions are relevant and offer specific interventions that can be implemented immediately in your schools. The presenters are among the most talented school counselors and educators in our nation. In addition to these great professional development sessions, you also get the opportunity to network across the nation with the most passionate and skilled school counselors.

You can find the application on the OSCA web site, okschoolcounselor.org under awards, Emerging Leader. The evaluators are interested in hearing how this outstanding professional development will help you to become an even more skilled school counselor. We are also hoping to develop school counselor leaders in our state to ensure that our profession continues to move forward.

The winner will be announced on Friday, February 10, the last day of school counseling week, 2017.

Some Spots Left for Crisis Team Training

There are still spots left for Crisis Team Training. To see ALL of our training dates and to register, go to http://sde.ok.gov/sde/training-counselors.

We also have been approved for seven hours of LPC points, as well as CLEET certification for law enforcement professionals. Districts are encouraged to invite School Resource Officers.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you attend this training with your entire team because you will be working together the entire time. If you have members of your team who have registered for another training date, please talk to each other and agree to attend the training on the SAME DAY. They should register for the new date and email me to cancel the former date.

Space is limited in each training session, so be sure to register as soon as possible. Here are all the dates and links to register.

SW OK
Tuesday, Feb. 7
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Great Plains Technology Center - Lawton

NW OK 1
Wednesday, Feb. 8
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Autry Technology Center - Enid

Central OK 1
Thursday, Feb. 9
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Francis Tuttle Technology Center, Reno Campus - OKC

SE OK 1
Monday, Feb. 13
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Kiamichi Technology Center – Durant

NE OK 1
Tuesday, Feb. 14
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Tulsa Technology Center - Owasso

NE OK 2
Tuesday, Feb. 21
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Tulsa Technology Center - Owasso

NW OK 2
Wednesday, Feb. 22
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Autry Technology Center - Enid

Central OK 2
Friday, Feb. 24
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Francis Tuttle Technology Center, Portland Campus

SE OK 2
Tuesday, March 7
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Kiamichi Technology Center – Durant

Central OK 3
Tuesday, June 6
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Francis Tuttle Technology Center, Portland Campus

I thought you would like to know that we have the following represented to date at this training:

• Districts Represented: 180
• Registrants: 906

Don't be left out! Register today!

Webinar Schedule Set for Spring

Fall webinars are complete, and the result is that hundreds of Oklahoma counselors and other educators have been trained in Mental Health Concerns and Your Students, Drugs and Alcohol in Schools, Building a Crisis Team and Bullying in 2016.  

Registration for our webinars was thrilling to our staff! We are so glad you all are interested in the webinars. We have also received great feedback from our surveys after the webinars. To watch the presentation online for any of these trainings, check out our new Training for Counselors page. All former presentations are archived there, and future presentations are also there for registration.

We are now planning our spring semester webinars. To sign up for any of these webinars, follow this link. Participants should expect the training to last about an hour. Each participant who signs in at the time of the live webinar will receive a professional development certificate, and licensed professionals will receive CEUs.

We have dates for our next webinars. Here is our Spring Schedule:

• Monday, February 6 at 11 a.m. - Teen Dating Violence and Sexual Assault
• Monday, March 6 at Noon - How to Build Empathy in the Classroom and Beyond
• Tuesday, May 2 at 11 a.m. - Community Collaboration: How to Work with Your Community to Serve Your School
• Thursday, May 11 at Noon - Engaging Parents in Prevention

State Wins Major Grant for Individualized Academic Plans

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said Oklahoma’s win of a $2 million, three-year statewide grant by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will help implement individualized academic plans for kids, redefine the senior year, increase concurrent and dual enrollment with earned college credit and career certification, and better connect schools directly with business and industry.

The grant is part of a $75 million, five-year New Skills for Youth (NSFY) initiative aimed at strengthening career-focused education in 10 U.S. states.

“We are thrilled that Oklahoma is among a select few states to win this highly competitive grant,” Hofmeister said. “This will enable families to engage early with their own student’s academic strengths, needs and aspirations for the careers and jobs of the future and will equip schools to support that work. We look forward to working with the Governor’s Oklahoma Works initiative and our partners to create opportunities that lead to high-demand, highly skilled, well-paying jobs for Oklahoma’s successive generations. We are very grateful to JP Morgan Chase for the resources to make great things happen.”

College and career readiness are of particular importance in Oklahoma, where, by the year 2025, three-fourths of Oklahoma jobs will require postsecondary credentials.

Oklahoma received the grant after a rigorous review process that included an evaluation of how the state plans to transform the way it designs and develops programs for college and career readiness. In March 2016, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) won $100,000 as a NSFY Phase One recipient, with funding subsequently used for planning and early implementation.

With Phase One funds, OSDE mobilized cross-sector groups from public education, CareerTech, business and industry and higher education to develop an action plan to broaden and strengthen career education, beginning in middle school, with an end goal of every student obtaining a postsecondary degree or credential aligned with high-skill, high-wage jobs.

Initiatives that will develop further as a result of Phase Two include Individual Career Academic Plans (ICAPs) for Oklahoma students, an engaging website with career pathways information and redefining the senior year for students to pursue meaningful work toward college and career success, whether in the form of concurrent or dual enrollment, internships, mentorships, industry certifications or other individualized pathways.

ACT/SAT Choice Offered to Districts

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister announced that Oklahoma public school districts will have the opportunity this year to choose whether their 11th-grade students can take the ACT or the SAT college-entrance exam free of charge.

This initiative is an extension of a 2015-2016 pilot program widely embraced across the state last spring, when all but two of Oklahoma’s 459 public high schools provided the ACT for juniors. As a result, 79 percent of 11th graders – or 35,477 of 45,071 students – took the test, compared to a little more than half who had taken the exam the year before.

Giving schools the opportunity to administer the free tests onsite and during the school day eliminates cost and transportation barriers for students who otherwise might never have had access to the college- and career-readiness exam. An ACT or SAT score allows a student to earn college credit at a reduced cost while still in high school through concurrent enrollment and is a requirement for acceptance into colleges and universities.

“Access to the ACT and SAT opens up an on-ramp to postsecondary education for all Oklahoma public school students, many of whom might not otherwise consider college to be a possibility,” said Hofmeister. “By easing the path from K-12 to college or CareerTech, we can help ensure that Oklahomans will be competitive in our rapidly changing, technology-driven global marketplace.”

Hofmeister said the assessment program shares the same goals as Launch Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin’s initiative to increase the number of Oklahomans with postsecondary degrees, certificates or credentials from 40 percent to 70 percent by the year 2025.

Participation in the program is optional this spring. The Oklahoma State Board of Education has recommended that a college- and career-readiness exam be a requirement for high school testing beginning in the 2017-2018 school year.

Pending approval by the Legislature and Governor, the ACT and SAT tests replace end-of-instruction (EOI) exams that were repealed last year in legislation signed by Gov. Fallin.

The ACT/SAT program is free for schools and students and is funded through dollars already allocated for assessments through the OSDE, which estimates it will save $2.4 million annually by administering the ACT or SAT instead of the EOIs.

The OSDE is issuing a survey to districts in which they may select which test they will make available to their students this spring.

“Offering districts the choice of the ACT or SAT gives more control back to our communities,” Hofmeister said. “Districts are more likely to know the individual needs of their students and which tool will best serve their students.

Oklahoma students have traditionally chosen to take the ACT to fulfill the entrance requirements of colleges and universities. The number of Oklahoma high school graduates in 2016 who took the ACT was 32,854, or 82 percent. The number of Oklahoma high school graduates in 2016 who took the SAT was 1,503, or less than 4 percent.

Quarter 2 Part Time Graduation Report Open

Pursuant to the changes in Senate Bill 1105, the previous Wave ACE Part-time quarterly reports have been renamed the Graduation Part-Time Reports. 

The changes in the law still allow a student who has been denied a standard diploma by his or her school district for failing to meet the requirements of either the college preparatory/work curriculum or the core curriculum to re-enroll in the district that denied the diploma following denial. 

Students that enroll for this purpose should not be reported on your First Quarter Statistical report or the Annual Statistics Report. They must be submitted through the Graduation Part-Time Report in order for the district to add those students to their State Aid funding calculation. State Aid funding is to be calculated based upon the percentage of the total school day in which the student is enrolled. 

State aid can only be received for the periods necessary to meet graduation requirements and not elective courses. On the Graduation Part-Time Report, you will be required to provide the Number of Classes in a Day and the Number of Days in a Quarter for your school’s calendar and schedule. Each student enrolled on a part-time basis to meet graduation requirements will need to be provided along with the number of classes enrolled, number of membership days, and the actual number of days the student was in attendance. 

The Graduation Part-Time Report will be collected on a quarterly basis at the dates below:

Quarter 1 Collection: 11/4/2016-11/30/2016

Quarter 2 Collection: 12/29/2016-1/31/2017

Quarter 3 Collection: 3/1/2017-4/2/2017

Quarter 4 Collection: 5/1/2017-6/1/2017