Student behavior gets a bad wrap. Often focused on compliance and management, attempts at helping students to learn prosocial behaviors can be frought. Many of our typical "behavior expectations" are white-dominant culture norms and don't honor student agency and voice. At the same time, interacting with one another in a shared space and active learning self-management strategies are essential. Today we will consider how we can support positive student behavior with an equity lens.

There are three types of behavior expectations:

• Rules or Expectations: These are decided upon by people of authority. They could be your written "school rules" but they can also be district policies, laws that govern the school, fire code, etc.
  
• Norms or Agreements: These are decided upon by the group as a whole. These could be group norms you set at the beginning of a small group or classroom agreements for how we will treat one another.
  
• Unspoken Rules or Social Norms: These are rules supported and reinforced by a group of people, usually implicitly. The group of people could be a friendship group, club, culture, school building, etc. 
  

Here's the thing, all three of these types of expectations are always present. Sometimes I'll see someone write on twitter - "no more behavior expectations." Um, when that happens, we just push more into the unspoken rule realm. I would argue that doing so increases bias. 

When we consider the behavior expectations experienced by our students, the first step is to take a look at the rules in place and ask ourselves:

Do we elevate white cultural norms in our expectations? Can students be a part of your learning community and be themselves? For example, if a student has to cut their hair to participate in a sporting event or is shushed if they speak a language other than English, does that elevate their culture or expect them to conform to white cultural norms? I recommend that you read this article on How School Leaders Reinforce Supremacy Through Discipline and Behavior Expectations for an extensive look. The article also includes 10 Questions for Ensuring Equity in School Discipline.

After we've checked ourselves to make sure that the rules we are reinforcing are appropriate, we can work to support students in learning the expectations, routines & procedures. But wait, I thought expectations, rules, and procedures were bad? They don't allow students to be their authentic selves? Remember that we do need expectations, rules, and procedures to share a space and have a positive learning community. If you've ever tried to get 25 kindergarteners from point A to point B without losing anyone, you quickly realize why we walk in a single file line. When 600 high schoolers share a cafeteria, there will need to be rules about how to get your lunch quickly enough to have time to eat and what is expected for cleaning up your space. 

Delivery of explicit instruction for expecations, routines, and procedures allows students and staff to be clear about what is expected. It's important to also include feedback from a diverse representation of students (and their families) on behavior expectations and their implementation. I once had the honor of speaking with a few high school girls who talked about how dress codes were unfairly enforced at their school. They told me that a skinnier, white girl was rarely dress-coded for the same torn jeans that worn by students of color who had been dress-coded. 

Nobody's perfect, students will mess up. When that happens, we can view their behavior with a deficit lens and use punishment to fix their behavior. In reality, the situation is more complicated than that. The student may need an (appropriate) consequence but they also may need to learn a new skill. The other possibility is one we don't talk about, the one where the adult has an unconscious (or conscious) bias that is impacting their view of the behavior in the first place. 

Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, uses a Mindful Reflection Protocol to help educators in "a process of deep reflection that interrupts historically deficit views and response to students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds." Read more in the full protocol but the steps include:

• Describe the behavior or interaction
• Reflect on (your own) feelings
• Explain your interpretation of the student's behavior
• Consider alternative explanations (check assumptions)
• Identify one small change to reframe and respond differently
• Continuously revisit

Please share with me how you use an equity lens with behavior in your building. Do you have any effective strategies?

Well, it's August 1, 2020 and that means there's only one thing on every school counselor's mind. What in the world are we going to do to support our students as we reopen school? First, let me explain that when I say "reopen," I mean starting the school year - whether that's virtual, hybrid, or fully in person. No matter how students rejoin our school community, we will need to be ready as school counselors to support them and their families in navigating school during a pandemic.

We're all coming back different. Not everyone is traumatized - some kids have had a great time at home, some kids are excited to come back to school, some kids are dreading the restart of the school year. Some kids had loss, some did not. No matter what, everyone is different. As counselors, I think we need to be cautious about going in to the school year assuming that all are traumatized. Let's find out how our students are really doing first.

How are you as a school counselor or school counseling department a part of the school's back to school transition support. If you are not able to hold "meet the teacher" nights, 9th grade orientations, or Kindergarten parent nights - what can you do instead. I think this is an area where we will grow and develop as a school community. Our new ideas might allow for more participation than traditional evening events and we might decide to keep them moving forward. Plan some type of back to school transition support for all students, not just new students or the first grade level for your building (K,6,9 etc). 

If you are going back to school in person - consider how you are communicating safety measures with students and families. Psychological safety is just as important as physical safety in welcoming our students. If students feel unsafe at school, their ability to learn and grow is negatively impacted.

We can't know how students are doing until we make a connection with them. There are two types of relationships we will need to consider: teacher-student relationship and counselor-student relationship. For teachers, they are likely feeling completely overwhelmed by the logistics of teaching in a pandemic and are nervous about all the missed instruction that students experienced in the spring. Check on your teachers. They may not be OK. Work with your administrator to create a plan for supporting the social emotional well being of your staff. Once you've supported your staff then ask how you can support teachers in creating opportunities for relationship building in their classroom. For some teachers, they will begin the year in virtual environments. This is a new challenge for everyone! They may need some support. Here is a great article from Cult of Pedagogy that might help. 

After students have started their days with their teachers, we will need to make sure that we have opportunities to build counselor-student relationships. This is particularly tricky if you are in a virtual environment. Like all aspects of a comprehensive school counseling program, we have to think about core opportunities for connection with all students. Core counseling instruction might look different this year. I anticipate that it might be harder to get time during instruction to teach lessons. You might need to get creative to incorporate social emotional learning into academics. You might need to ask to be a guest reader or have a quick drop in during class meetings instead of a full lesson. Conversely, you might be asked to be on the specials rotation to provide coverage for teachers. Make a plan for how you will have (virtual or in person) face time with every class/student on your caseload.

Some kids are not OK. For a variety of reasons, their world has been turned upside down and they need more help. Questions to consider:

• Does your school have a referral process for staff and families to refer students for more support from the school counselor? How might this process need to change?
• Does your school have a referral process for students to self refer? How might this process need to change?
  
• Does your school do any data based problem solving to proactively identify students who might need additional support? 
  
• Have you sought the perspective and voice of your stakeholder groups? Have you ensured that marginalized voices have been heard?
• Has your school considered the impact of the Black Lives Matter social movement on your staff and students of color? Have you allowed for time to discuss, process, and consider how you will go about school differently as a result? 

If there was ever a year that you cannot wing it, this is it. Make a plan. Take the time to make a comprehensive counseling plan. I personally use the ASCA National Model but I know that's not everyone's jam. To get started, I suggest:

• Create SMART goals
• Make a Core Lesson Scope and Sequence for the Year
• Keep a detailed calendar

I double pinky promise that if you do these two things, you will see a positive impact on your ability to be proactive and productive with your comprehensive school counseling program. Here are some tips. 

Hey counselor - you got this. You can do it. 

Hello my school counseling heroes. I know that you are all working hard right now to support your students, staff, and families during the COVID-19 crisis. Our work is always hard and now it's been made harder. One of my colleagues said "it's like our muse is gone." Couldn't agree more, without the kids, it's like the best parts of our jobs are whittled down to the notsofun parts. Hang in there, this too shall pass. 

My co-author, Alicia Oglesby, and I had the opportunity to host a #scchat with ASCA School Counselor of the Year extraordinaire Laura Ross. I feel like Laura was there from the beginning chatting with us and supporting our work. Thanks Laura!  We chatted all things interrupting racism when it comes to being a school counselor during school closures. 

So many people came to the chat and, let me tell you, y'all showed up. I could barely keep up. Here's the transcript, in case you want to take a look at some of the amazing thoughts of our school counselor colleagues. What kinds of things are you thinking through right now? My brain is currently spinning on return to school. Stay tuned for more thoughts!

I am about to head to Boston for #ASCA19 and am preparing for my presentation with Alicia Oglesby (co-author), Ignite Change for Equity and Inclusion. As I prepare, I am particularly reflecting on the ethical mandate for school counselors to interrupt systems and lead the way for systemic change when it is the very system itself that is preventing students of color from accessing rigor and achieving. 

As a white woman, I am particularly responsible for using my white privilege and my power as a school employee, to speak up and interrupt racism when I see it. I pulled heavily from the article on white silence from Robin DiAngelo, Nothing to Add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussion. If you are a white person, I highly recommend that you read this article and then her book, White Fragility. In our presentation Saturday and in this post, I want to discuss the role of the school counselor specifically. 

Have you ever not said something when you see or hear racism? I have. I strongly believe in equity and inclusion for all students but I know that I have chosen to let a comment slide by or to turn away when I see or hear something that makes me uncomfortable. I have to admit that to myself and to you if I am going to do better. DiAngelo states “when whites employ silence to maintain some degree of comfort, that silence functions (albeit seldom explicitly) as a means to regain white dominance.” Guess what? My comfort doesn’t mean more than yours. And it really doesn’t mean more than my students’.

If the cause of white silence is that keeping racial perspectives hidden protects us from being challenged. If we see race as “not something you bring up in polite society,” then what are the effects? DiAngelo shares these: leaving others to carry the weight of the discussion, no learning occurring, implying agreement with resistant participants, and invalidating the stories of others who do share. Let’s look particularly at this implicit agreement with resistant participants or racist comments/actions. I think this is even more important when we are a staff member who doesn’t speak up. Particularly in front of students. Let’s say that you overhear another adult make a comment about “those kids that ride that bus.” Students hear this comment and then see you say nothing. What message does that send to students? I would assume that you agree with the speaker or you didn’t think it was out of line. I always want my students to see me as their number one supporter, and I bet you do too. If speaking up is hard, or you want some great tips, check out Teaching Tolerance’s guide, Speak Up at School. 

There are also times when white people shouldn’t speak up. DiAngelo gives these highlights: When you are intentionally trying not to speak first and most. When a person of color has spoken and you feel drawn to re-explain, clarify, or add to their point. When people of color are discussing the sensitive issue of internalized racial oppression. Because sometimes as a white woman, I have nothing of value to add to the conversation. I can stop talking and listen, showing my support by using my active listening skills, and hear the truth that another person is telling me.

It’s time for me, as a white woman, to speak up more. To be a voice alongside. To be an active ally. Because ally is a verb. 

We hope to see you at our presentation on Saturday if you are going to be at #ASCA19. We will also have an informal lunch chat on Sunday in the exhibit hall. If you’re #notatASCA19 then you can check out our presentation here and read in more detail in our book. ​