College of Education Academic Planning Tool

B-16 Education Settings - 3/15/2011 Notes

Future Trends/Market Demand

• There is now more of a need for school counseling than ever.  However, with the dwindling budgets positions are being eliminated and I believe we will feel the impacts over time.  Therefore, I believe we need to continue training counselors so that when we “realize” we need them in today’s schools we will have trained professionals ready.
• Future: Community colleges are expected to be accountable for outcomes
• Future: Only the most effective teachers will be employed.  Will need to be effective with all students.
• Headed: (Strategies) How to prepare children for the future
• Future: (Global where)
• Headed: Students need to understand differentiated instruction
• Future: Best practices in curriculum
• Demand: Educators competent in working w/children w/autism
• Demand: Clear/induction programs in special ed
• Where is field going: Assessment increasing; teachers working together/collaboration; increased accountability
• Less resources – need to be creative
• Large class sizes
• Principals w/out asst. principals
• S. performance connected to T. eval
• Demand:  Special educators from diverse backgrounds
• Special educators who can work with students with behavioral issues
• Where field is going: English language learners with more languages: Chinese, Vietnamese, more
• Where the field is going:  We need substantially better learning results for Latino, Black and low income students. We need leaders who can bring about better teaching and learning for these populations
• Field Going: Parents want their children w/severe dis to have inclusive social opportunities
• See demand for moderate/sev special educators going up
• We only hire SDSU grads – (keep that anonymous)
• If can’t address needs of English learners, need not apply
• Interventions-based service delivery
• Demand for those with skills to serve English learners
• Old style school psych is a dinosaur, must be out there in the classrooms – which SDSU grads do
• People who can keep up with new and emerging technologies
• Leadership, data informed decision-making, research and evaluation skills, mobile learning design
• As school populations become more racially and ethnically diverse, there will be greater demand for teachers and principals to be competent to address the racial and ethnic experiences of students
• Demand: data on student impact, more emphasis on pre-K school readiness, excellent communication and professional development skills
• Demand: Ed Specialists in mild to mod, mod to severe and early childhood (about 2 to 5 each per district)
• Demand:  Special educators that are competent to work with children and families culturally and linguistically diverse
• Field is moving toward a recovery strength-based model
• I foresee the budget crisis continually impacting the profession but more importantly impacting our students.  I believe that the biggest challenge is going to continue to advocate for the importance of school counselor's as crucial members of the educational team.  This is directly tied to showing our impact on student achievement. With impending economic restrictions plaguing our educational system, the advocacy for school counseling positions at the state-wide and national level is going to be crucial.  I anticipate the possibility of counseling positions being cut and student to counselor ratios increasing drastically, thus impacting our students. Despite the difficult situation the educational system finds itself, I maintain hope for new graduates entering the profession of school counseling.
• There will always be a demand for School Counseling. As a counselor you see the struggles of our students and their families daily. School counselors provide essential guidance and resources to meet the academic, career and personal/social needs of so many children and their families. It is imperative that we continue to support and develop young professionals that are dedicated to improving the lives of all students across America. School counseling is so much more than credit checks and course planning. We provide our students with essential information, resources, and guidance to help them achieve their short and long term goals.
• Out the door, our district is reducing and eliminating so many counselor positions, I worry that schools perceive this role as unimportant.
• In regards to budget cuts in our state, there is going to be less School Counselor positions available in California. I also foresee that due to our budget crisis, there are going to be many more "needy" families living in crisis mode resulting in a high demand for School Counselor or Therapists/Community Agencies or Social Workers assisting our students with the day to day, giving them the skills how to be resilient and letting them know that there is a rainbow out there.
• In fairness to students entering the field given our current budget status, the program may need to refocus to train students more specifically in the areas of most likely job outlook (high school, college counseling, private organizations).
• There will always be a demand for School Counseling. As a counselor you see the struggles of our students and their families daily. School counselors provide essential guidance and resources to meet the academic, career and personal/social needs of so many children and their families. It is imperative that we continue to support and develop young professionals that are dedicated to improving the lives of all students across America. School counseling is so much more than credit checks and course planning. We provide our students with essential information, resources, and guidance to help them achieve their short and long term goals.
• Unfortunately, I think that the future of our profession is bleak.  I think that school reform is ignoring social factors like poverty that greatly is affecting the urban settings and is getting worse day by day.  I think that there is a lot of teacher and union bashing, reform that focuses on testing of basic skills instead of non-cognitive skills.  This is the worst that I have seen in my 16 years of teaching; our district just laid off 900 teachers and over 600 support staff.  I think the worst is yet to come.  I worry about the new generation of educators.
• As always, the demand is Bilingual Competence.  The college should look into district initiatives and tailor instruction to initiatives through the lens of critical pedagogy- where there are opportunities to questions and discover authentic learning experiences for students
• To be honest, the situation does not look promising, there are so many attacks on Education and the move to comodify and privatize education is growing.  I hope things turn around but the climate is not the best it has been.
• We are lacking in teachers who are bilingual and trained in bilingual teaching pedagogy and strategies. In the last 10 years we have seen our school programs being designed to be monolingual, assimilationist, and with teaching approaches that disregard the right to biliteracy.