CS Educator Toolkit CS Family Toolkit Community of Practice
Counselors in Computing
School counselors play a crucial role for K-12 students feeling comfortable to enroll in CS courses. They help dispel misconceptions about who can succeed in CS and connecting students' interests and aptitudes with relevant coursework and future career opportunities. By providing academic advising and career guidance, counselors empower students to see themselves in the world of computer science, ultimately broadening participation and ensuring all students have an opportunity to participate in CS.
Professional Learning Opportunities
Counselor Resources
Education is guided by standards to ensure cohesion and consistency in student learning. Computer Science Teachers are using CSTA Standards, School Counselors are using American School Counseling Association Student Mindsets and Behaviors guidelines. Pennsylvania also has Career and Education Work Standards and the PA Career Ready Skills, which can be integrated with school counselors and across curriculum. These standards relate to each other in that they aim to prepare students for future success & Career readiness, though each standards approaches it different. By thoughtfully integrating CS Education with PA Career Ready Skills and PA Career and Education Work Standards, educators can help students not only develop strong technical skills, but also become well-rounded individuals equipped with essential social and emotional competencies for career success.
Definitions
Computer Science (CS) Standards:
The CS standards aim to prepare students to be well-educated citizens in a computing-intensive world. The CS standards focus on computing and technology. They outline what students should know and be able to do in computer science from elementary through high school.
PA Career Ready Skills (PA CRS):
These skills focus on the social and emotional competencies students need to succeed in all areas of life, school, college, and career. They include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These skills are intended to be integrated into all aspects of a student's day, rather than being a separate subject. The PA CRS are not a curriculum, but a foundation for creating or reinforcing curriculum. Instead of standards, there are performance indicators and “I Can” Statements that indicate a student has attained that skill.
Also referenced in this document are other standards and guidelines that intersect with computer science in preparing students for future success in technology and careers:
Pennsylvania Career Education and Work (CEW) Standards:
These standards are focused on preparing students for the world of work in four areas: career awareness and preparation, career acquisition (getting a job), career retention and advancement, and entrepreneurship. The PA CEW standards emphasize the importance of a well-educated, skilled workforce and complement all disciplines and other academic standards.
ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors Standards:
These standards focus on the knowledge, attitudes, and skills students need to achieve academic success, college and career readiness, and social/emotional development. They are divided into mindset standards, which focus on students’ beliefs about themselves and their abilities, and behavior standards, which focus on the skills students need to succeed in learning, self-management, and social skills.
CS & CRS Integration Themes
The PA Career Ready Skills & ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors focus on social and emotional skills, while the Computer Science standards center on computational thinking and technology, but there are some natural overlaps in areas related to problem-solving, collaboration, and responsible decision-making.
The major themes which relate to both the work of the computer science teacher and school counselors are:
- Collaboration & Communication
- Problem-Solving & Critical Thinking
- Responsible Use of Technology
- Self-Awareness & Reflection
Here are a few examples of the many highlighted in the crosswalk as a tool for computer science teachers to integrate the PA Career Ready Skills in Lesson Plans or collaborate with the school counselor.
- Computer Science Standards require to students to work together, share ideas, and communicate effectively to achieve a common goal, which are essential skills for Career Ready PA Graduates. When students work collaboratively on a coding project (CS standard), they are also developing their relationship skills (PA CRS) and their ability to work as a team (CEW employability skills).
- Breaking down complex problems into logical pieces that can be solved is a skill utilized in computer science and to make responsible decisions in all areas of life. When students are debugging a program (CS standard), they are also using their problem-solving skills (PA CRS and CEW employability skills).
- When students learn to evaluate and plan for cybersecurity (CS standard), they are also developing responsible decision-making skills (PA CRS) and an understanding of ethical behavior (ASCA).
- In computer science, the process of designing, testing, and refining programs encourages students to reflect on their learning process, which is a key part of self-awareness and self-management. Debugging code and creating algorithms develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Acknowledgements
Authors uploaded PDF version of standards to Notebook LM and utilized the Google AI tool to compare documents and help brainstorm common themes from source files.
NCWIT Counselors 4 Computing School Counselor Consultants.