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Virginia C apitol C onnections, Winter 2016 25
learning, identifying and overcoming obstacles to academic success,
making students and parents aware of higher learning opportunities
and ensuring that the coursework they choose challenges them and
prepares them for what lies beyond their K-12 education. We need to
measure that!
The good news is that school counselors in Virginia already have
our own professional growth and student standards, which directly
apply to what we should be doing, to make sure we do it well. Our
evaluations need to be based on those to adequately measure student
progress and counselor effectiveness, but they aren’t right now except
in a select few districts. To solve this issue,VSCA, theVirginia School
Counselor Association, has created a statewide school counselor
evaluation tool to ensure that school counselors across Virginia can
be held accountable and evaluated in an appropriate and relevant way
to our profession. Our goal is to publish this evaluation through the
VDOE so that all districts have access to it and administrators can
effectively measure their school counselor(s)’ professional growth
and efficacy. The proposed document is formatted similarly to the
state teacher evaluation so that administrators will be more familiar
with it. It also includes an observation form for administrators to
use detailing what is and is not appropriate to observe a counselor
doing due to student confidentiality constraints. VSCA would love
input from stakeholders on this document before it is submitted
to the VDOE. If you are interested in giving input, please email
. Thank you for all you do in supporting
school counselors, schools and students!
Mrs. Brett C.A. Welch, MA, NCC is VSCA President.
the training were effective and clearly impacted the students as we
had hoped they would. In fact, many students reported in their survey
questionnaire that they would like to see more of these opportunities
in the future and they would also like to have opportunities to interact
with one another during future advocacy training events. The some also
indicated that they did not find the thought of speaking to the legislators
nearly as intimidating or overwhelming as they did before the training.
Overall, the student specific advocacy training was a successful
one. Students commented on the training day that they found the event
to be extremely informative. Many of them indicated that they really
understood the importance of staying involved with advocacy, and
they are motivated to get involved in professional issues now. Three
students were so interested in getting involved that they inquired
about the application process to become the student representative
for SHAV. Others reported they definitely planned to attend SHAV’s
Accountability Overhaul
for School Counselors By Brett Welch
Accountability is a huge buzz word in schools today, and rightly
so. We talk about accountability for teachers to ensure students
are learning, growing and meeting benchmarks. We talk about
accountability for students to be independent and responsible for their
choices and their schoolwork. We even talk about accountability for
parents to make sure students get to school on time and to be involved
in their child’s education. As school counselors, we too want to be
held accountable for providing students a comprehensive counseling
program that addresses their academic, social/emotional and college/
career growth. But what happens when accountability measures do
not adequately reflect the job assessed? This is a dilemma that many
school counselors face today.
In most districts inVirginia, school counselors are being measured
using classroom teacher accountability tools. This leads to confusion
for administrators in understanding exactly what counselors are
supposed to be doing and how to measure their effectiveness with
students. Many of the teacher evaluation components must be marked
“n/a” for school counselors, and therefore result in incomplete
monitoring of programs and of counselors themselves. Using SOL
scores and other benchmarks are invalid measures of student social/
emotional growth and academic planning. Similarly, trying to
measure college and career readiness using curriculum standards
doesn’t work either. Yet, school counselors serve an essential role in
helping students manage behavioral and emotional issues that impact
E. Hatcher Crenshaw, Jr. served two
terms in the Virginia House of Delegates
while building a family real estate business
and enjoying a colorful and unusual military
career.
Hatcher grew up in Concord, N. C.
and was drafted into the U. S. Army early
in World War II. On the third day of his
service, he was promoted to corporal
because he had two years of college and
held this rank for the next three years. He
was sent to language school in California,
became proficient in Italian, and was put in charge of a large number
of Italian prisoners of war. “They taught me a lot of words that were
not in the nine-month course the Army offered me,” said Hatcher.
After he was released from service, Hatcher attended Duke
University on the G. I. Bill, earned a degree in business, and a
commission as a second lieutenant. In the following years, he
established a successful real estate business in Richmond and
continued his military work in finance, rising to colonel. But that was
not the end of the military for Hatcher.
As an affable and active business leader and member of the
Downtown Kiwanis Club, Hatcher was elected to two terms in
the Virginia House, serving the 68th District. Gov. George Allen
appointed him as his aide for military affairs with the rank of General.
I asked Hatcher what he liked most about the General Assembly
and he said, “I enjoyed bringing young people to the Assembly. I
brought a group of hearing impaired students in 1987 to sit in the
balcony and be recognized by the Assembly. I was able to tell the
students what was being said and done by ‘signing,’ perhaps the only
time an elected official in Virginia was able to perform this act.”
Hatcher Crenshaw, 92 in the fall of 2015, goes to his real estate
office most days, and has written two humorous books. He and his
wife, known as Spots, enjoy life at The 5100 Building in Richmond.
Dr. Charles Todd is a retired Virginia teacher and administrator.
advocacy event at the state Capitol in January 2016.
The student specific training provided the students with a greater
knowledge base about professional issues and heightened their
interest in advocacy efforts. It also gave them the sense that they
can make a difference as well as the realization that legislators are
“real people”. However, SHAV’s work with student advocacy is not
done. In future trainings, we must continue to reinforce the students’
confidence and comfort level about advocacy. Students are the future
of our professions. We must continue to cultivate advocacy in them,
and empower the students so that they may competently discuss
professional issues with Virginia legislators and advocate for our
professions and those that we serve throughout the Commonwealth.
Darlene D. Robke, M.S., CCC-SLP is VP for Governmental &
Professional Affairs and President-Elect of Speech-Language-
Hearing Association of Virginia.
SHAV continued from previous page
Where Are They Now?By Charlie Todd
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