college counseling
At RDS, differentiated instruction in the classroom permeates through each division. Teachers know exactly how to meet the needs of their students through careful planning, meaningful conversations with students and their families, engaging assessments, and thoughtful narrative evaluations. All of this lays the framework for a successful college counseling program. In my past experience as a Director of College Counseling, I found it useful and necessary to use differentiated instruction strategies when it came to helping young people navigate through the college application process. As Redwood Day expands to a K-12, it is imperative that a differentiated approach be taken as we design the college counseling program.
Careful Planning: As a new upper school, we will be proactive in introducing Redwood Day to the college admission world. Recently, I attended the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) annual conference. During the main event, the massive college fair where hundreds of colleges are behind tables and hundreds of college counselors roam on the other side, I found it exciting to make my way through at least 100 colleges, telling them about our plans for the K-12. As I described our academic program along with our life planning curriculum, eyes lit up with excitement and words like “can’t wait to visit your school” or “you guys are going to be a breath of fresh air” or “your students are lucky.”
Meaningful Conversations: As students begin the upper school, there will be ample opportunities for them to be challenged academically, discover their strengths, explore a variety of ways to make a positive impact on society, develop a clear understanding of how to manage their money and create ways to devote their time to a societal cause. At the beginning of their junior year, each student and their family will have a heart-to-heart conversation with me regarding their future plans and the factors that have influenced their plans. We will then discuss pathways for moving toward those future goals. In many cases, it may not be clear which school or schools would be a great match for the specified goal. Therein lies the need for engaging assessments.
Engaging Assessments: Every student and their family will be given creative ways to express their desires for life after RDS. It is clear that the responses to the questionnaires will look different and require tailored feedback. Questions like, “What size school are you interested in- large (8,000 and up), medium (1,500-8,000), small (1,500 or less)” or “What academic area(s) are you interested in pursuing?” These are just a taste of many questions that are useful in establishing a list of schools that “match” the needs and desires of each student.
Thoughtful Narrative Evaluations: One of the beautiful moments in the college application process from my point of view is writing a letter of recommendation for each graduate. Each letter captures the true essence of each student and reflects their journey during high school. What is also encapsulated in the letter are the results from the engaging assessments and the outcomes of those meaningful conversations. Of course there is the narrative description of the academic performance and impact of activities outside of the classroom. Another piece that I find necessary in the letter is the student’s global outlook or how they view the world/society around them. These pieces are extremely important to the college admission officer reading each file. In some cases, the students transcript and letters of recommendation can make or break a decision. With that said, the more the writer of the letter of recommendation knows the student, the clearer the picture will be for the colleges to see.
Benefits of RDS Upper School: Every student attending the upper school will be known! Through their hard work in the classroom, contributions to school plays, rock band performances, membership on athletic teams and leadership positions in student clubs, it will be very clear who our graduates are and what impact they made on the RDS community. As colleges begin reading our graduates’ files, they will discover students who were challenged academically through an advanced curriculum. They will also see students who took advantage of the many opportunities to start something new, and who are financially responsible. They will find students who maintain a world view that is grounded in fairness and empathy. Our graduates will be leaders on their campuses and they will be the feature stories in our and their colleges’ alumni publications for their meaningful work in local and global communities.
This is what our differentiated college counseling program will look like.
See you around campus!
Ray