EAST PALO ALTO, California—September 5, 2007—Ravenswood City School District Board of Trustees has approved a plan for expanding the District’s scope to provide counseling to its students.

Assembly Bill 1802, the Middle and High School Supplemental Counseling Program, is providing $200 million statewide to increase the number of school counselors available for students in grades 7-12. Ravenswood’s allotment of AB1802 funding will eventually allow the Counseling Program to review the academic and conduct files of every 7th and 8th grader in the District.

Hopes are high that the new funding will enhance efforts of counselors, in conjunction with teachers, to prepare Ravenswood’s middle school students for successful transition to high school and beyond.

 “Our goals for the program are to increase both academic achievement and college awareness, and to better prepare our students for high academic achievement in high school,” says Sara Grace Johnson, Ravenswood’s Counseling Services Coordinator.

For the initial year, 2007-2008, counselors will focus on the 7th graders who scored “Far Below Basic” on either section of the 2007 California Standardized Tests (CST).

Counselors will meet personally with students and their families to discuss academic challenges, personal and family strengths, and to develop individualized plans for improving academic performance.

The goal of AB1802 funding is to provide additional counseling services to middle school and high school students by expanding on schools’ existing counseling support-- a timely resource as the District strengthens the Academic and Career Counseling portion of its Counseling Program.

Counselors also will provide information of educational and vocational options open to students and provide specified services for those students to prepare for the California High School Exit examination. 
 

Media Contact:

Kathleen Dixon

Dixon Communications

408-871-7765

kathleen@kdixon.com