Contents:

• ICAP Documentation Resources
• Work-Based Learning Resources
• Professional Development
• Leveraging ICAP to Increase Student Success
• School Counselor Framework Spotlight

ICAP Documentation Resources

Check out our new ICAP documentation resources below:  2021 Transcript Guidance  ICAP FAQ's Work-Based Learning Quick Guide

Work-Based Learning Resources

Work-Based / Service Learning is an important part of a students career development. For implementation tips in each WBL activity choose the links below: Internship Job Shadow Mentorship Project-Based Learning Service Learning Youth Apprenticeship Work-Based / Service Learning Quick Guide

Professional Development

Join the Southwest College & Career Counseling Community

The Oklahoma State Department of Education's Office of College and Career Readiness is pleased to partner with the New Mexico ECHO for Education Project and OSU Project ECHO to launch a new ECHO program for Southwest College & Career Counseling! The program aims to connect educators, guidance counselors and youth mentors with training, resources and experts so they're better equipped to provide college and career counseling to their students. 

• Open to all professionals engaged in CCR planning for students
• Access to CCR experts, resources, training, and best practices
• Participants will receive a stipend upon completion of the program
  
  Register to receive more information about the program and to participate in the launch on Jan. 19, 2022. bit.ly/3bGEKe8

Join the Virtual Counseling Community 

Connect with counselors and college and career experts across the state via the OSDE Connect online learning community. Online communities offer the following: 

• On-demand professional development
• Virtual college and career readiness coaching 
• New counselor training 
• New ICAP Resources 
• Professional networking 

Make a profile and join our three virtual counseling communities below: 

Leveraging ICAP to Increase Student Success

Hope is a psychological strength that can be learned and promotes well-being. Therefore, ICAP represents a set of individual career and academic strategies that educators can use to promote student success. To be more concise, the data from this study show that ICAP is a pathway of hope for students.  In the Fall of 2020, the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the HopeResearch Center of the University of Oklahoma engaged in a partnership to investigate the effect to which ICAP participation is associated with student hope.  The purpose of this report is to provide the findings of an assessment of student hope, teacher-student relationships, student future aspirations and goals, student well-being, and items associated with the ICAP experience (student options, goals, and plans after high school). View a copy of the report here.

School Counselor Framework Spotlight

Each month we will spotlight a topic from the new school counselor framework. In this edition we will spotlight:  "ADVOCACY AND LEADERSHIP IN ACTION" School counselors advocate for the school counseling program by explaining the benefits of a comprehensive school counseling program to administrators and providing rationale for appropriate activities for school counselors. Often, school counselors feel uncomfortable using leadership to advocate for their school counseling program, especially with their administrators.

Seth Goodin (2009) explained this phenomenon by stating that “leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. When you identify the discomfort, you’ve found the place where a leader is needed. If you are not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain that you are not reaching your potential as a leader.” (OSDE School Counselor Framework, 2021)

Critical Questions

• How can you use your advocacy and leadership skills to strengthen your school counseling program, even if it means embracing vulnerability and discomfort?
• How do you advocate for time devoted solely to the three domains of counseling: Academic, College and Career, and Social Emotional Learning.

Follow up Resources

• The use-of-time calculator helps document how school counselors spend their time and how much time is being spent on appropriate activities versus inappropriate activities.
• The Oklahoma School Counselor Framework is full of amazing resources meant to help districts build a winning counseling program. 

Oklahoma Edge is the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s commitment to giving our students a competitive edge by ensuring they are prepared for the real world of work and higher education after they graduate high school. This initiative includes Individual Career Academic Plans (ICAP) – multi-year plans that will provide students the opportunity to explore career interests and post-secondary opportunities. 

Visit us online: OKEdge.com

Connect on social media: Facebook

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