In March of 2023, a Maryland high school counseling department received the highest honor a counseling program can achieve on a national scale. Despite this recognition, the department was barely recognized for its efforts.
Only 101 schools in the country qualify for RAMP recognition, which is awarded by the American School Counseling Association (ASCA). RAMP stands for Recognized ASCA Model Program, and it recognizes schools committed to delivering comprehensive, data-informed school counseling programs.
Northwood High School was one of these high schools.
In past school years, Montgomery County Public School students have faced adverse challenges related to increases in violence, hate, and bullying. To combat these effects, Bridges to Wellness programs were implemented in various MCPS schools and funding has been directed at employing more school counselors and school psychologists.
These programs—while beneficial for students who have access to their services—are often obscure for community members due to a lack of understanding surrounding what these programs offer.
This is where RAMP status and the ASCA model come into exchange. Northwood’s program is aligned with the ASCA National Model, which provides the framework and components of an immersive, grassroots school counseling program.
Across all American schools, the average student-to-school-counselor ratio is 464 to 1. Eight million students do not have access to a school counselor at all. Counselors experience burnout, empathic distress, and accumulate responsibilities unrelated to counseling such as managing school schedules and attendance lists.
Throughout May 2022 and the 2022-2023 school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) sought to prioritize mental well-being by administering age-appropriate “wellness surveys” to students in grades K through 12. The data would remain anonymized, but its results would supposedly direct educators and counselors to address the most pressing needs of its student body among a range of concerns such as teen violence, gun control, and drug abuse.
How then, does Northwood High look to the future of mental wellness approaches and battling stigma using data collection? In short, counselors analyze data required by the American Counseling Association to see where the students need support.
For example, attendance issues and grades are prevalent obstacles across Montgomery County. Using data collected to maintain RAMP status can benefit identifying these target areas for future improvement. Proactive planning, data collection, and implementation throughout the school day are tangible outcomes used by schools who establish effective systems by getting certified.
Doctor Maureen Ponce, resource counselor at Northwood High School, spearheaded the RAMP certification initiative. Ponce identifies as a school counselor, leader, and advocate who is passionate about promoting the counseling profession. She has over 20 years of experience as a professional school counselor at both the middle and high school levels, and is the current president of the Maryland School Counselor Association. Ponce also presents at National, Regional, and State conferences.
“I was doing a lot of research as part of my doctoral degree program and I began to read a lot about ASCA and the positive impact on student outcomes this model has had based on research studies,” Ponce said. “I was shocked that no one was really aware of this and certainly not talking about it or working to implement it in MCPS. I knew that if I wanted to do this work, I would need to lead it myself.”
Northwood’s counseling department submitted its RAMP application in October 2022, and began by developing and upholding ten action plans. These plans were then evaluated according to a strict model checklist. As part of the evaluation process, the department had to submit extensive write-ups to affirm the validity of their efforts.
Examples of required action plans are detailed in the American Counseling Association’s official manual, which includes creating a series of vision statements, annual student outcome goals, classroom and group mindset behaviors, and opportunity-gap action plans. Along with other tasks, counseling staff must also hold an annual administrative conference and provide advisory council meeting templates.
Northwood counselor, Christine Cappuccilli, extrapolated on the rigorous, labor-intensive process.
“During the grading [period], we were knocked down not because the work wasn’t done, but because the verbiage wasn’t what they wanted,” Cappuccilli said. “In many parts of the country and even the state, school counselors could have 500 students on their caseload and simply would not have the time to start the RAMP process.”
Northwood counselor, Virginia Stouffer, works primarily with ninth graders and special education students. She worked with Ponce and Anthony Louzpone on Northwood’s RAMP certification and is familiar with the learning curve required of schools and counselors when they implement programs. By learning new skills, they can support the model’s ideal learning environment for students.
“[Counselors] don’t just guide students: we provide social support, academic and college and career counseling, and we are trained in all of those areas,” Stouffer said. “The learning curve is that a lot of schools are diving into the data and then creating some interventions, but tracking each part thoroughly is incredibly time-consuming.”
Parents are concerned about the wellness of their children, which is more than understandable due to lapses in transparency. Even so, the nuances of Northwood’s achievement might act as a barrier within the MCPS community when it comes to understanding what RAMP designation implies.
“I do think some parents know, but the larger community, I don’t think knows the scope of what RAMP is and what it truly means,” Louzpone said. “It’s unfortunate that [our] community doesn’t see what we’re doing as a school and how we are using the data…because when you help students and you help improve the school, that can improve the community around it.”
Louzpone has been a counselor for 10-12th graders at Northwood for three years after a practicum with Ponce. Louzpone became familiar with RAMP after his training and from prior studies in his graduate program.
To learn more about the ASCA counseling model’s scoring methods or Montgomery County Counseling services, the official website complete with a Resource Guidebook can be found here.
