School Counseling: Guangzhou, China

JOB DESCRIPTION: If you're interested send your resume to Dr. Dick Moore at dmoore@ncpachina.org

Position Description:

The HS Guidance Counselor will support programs in the domains of academic, personal/social, college planning, and career development. The HS Guidance Counselor will teach sections of the Junior and Senior seminar courses in addition to the following specific duties:

• Work with the other members of the Counseling Department to develop counseling practices in accordance with NCPA frameworks.
• Be a scholar of his/her own practice. The HS Guidance Counselor will gather evidence of student learning with the express purpose of improving counseling support.
• Be actively involved with students through classroom instruction (Junior/Senior Seminar courses, Advisory lessons, student activities)
• Provide a proactive, inviting counseling program that actively involves students, parents and teachers.
• Conduct individual and small group student counseling and assist students to maximize individual intellectual, emotional and social abilities.
• Be fluent in the curriculum, instruction and assessment frameworks of NCPA.
• Design and implement the school advisory program in accordance with standards of the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) and the principles articulated by the Curriculum Coordinator. Advisory lesson designed by the counseling office are implemented and delivered to students by all teaching faculty.
• Assist students in making course choices to meet student interests and graduation requirements.
• Assist students in assessing their interests and aptitudes, relating these to college and career goals, and preparing a college application plan.
• Aid teachers and parents in understanding individual students and assist classroom teachers with students who are particularly at risk.
• Develop a collaborative relationship with his/her designated EAL Teacher who co-plans and co-teaches with the HS Guidance Counselor and acts as the HS Guidance Counselor’s linguistics coach and consultant on the Six Principles of Learning.
• Maintain and update transcripts for students in the secondary grades.
• Provide support to aid students in transition from middle school to high school, grade-to-grade, and from high school to college/university.

• Oversea annual school-wide standardized testing related to the college application process i.e. PSAT and SAT.
• Use web-based software to map the guidance and advisory curriculum, record school and course schedules, report cards, transcripts, individual college guidance plans, student academic goals, and other student documents.
• Be proactive in providing professional development for teachers and education forums for parents on various student behavior or development issues or college preparation topics.
• Co-develop with their supervisor, the High School Principal, a profession growth plan.
Qualifications:
The HS Guidance Counselor must be qualified as follows:
• He/she must have a Masters degree in Secondary School Counseling or an equivalent program.
• He/she must have a minimum of five years experience as a college counselor in an accredited North American school or, preferably, an International school.
• He/she must have a clear understanding of U.S. and other major world colleges and universities, their admissions procedures, requirements and educational programs.
• Experience in schools with Advance Placement (AP) courses would be desirable.
• He/she must have a clear understanding of U.S. based educational programs, academic credits, academic standards and curriculum.
• He/she should have classroom teaching experience.

NCPA Background:

NCPA is the first American-style high school in China exclusively for Chinese nationals. NCPA’s groundbreaking immersion program is what distinguishes it from any other international-style school in China. NCPA is one of two “catalyst schools” in the ISS-sponsored World Language Initiative (WLI) EAL Pilot Program. With the support of the NCPA EAL Team and the WLI Consultant, each classroom teacher uses research-based, “high-challenge, high-support” EAL programs and curriculum to enable English learners' acquisition of full-academic English proficiency. Our model for immersion follows the Six Principles for ELL Instruction (Stanford University, January 2013).

To better prepare our students for the rigors of university every faculty member, regardless of content area, weaves into their instruction the four intellectual standards or habits of mind called Learner Goals based on Conley’s Standards for Success: 1) read to infer, interpret, and draw conclusions; 2) support arguments with evidence; 3) resolve conflicting views encountered in source documents; and, 4) solve complex problems with no obvious answer. Students should be applying at least one of the Learning Goals in every task they perform.

The NCPA Curriculum is derived from research-based, best practices. The model of instruction at NCPA has at its foundation Vygotsky's (1978) research on the importance of social interaction in learning and understanding. Marzano's Instruction that Works (2001) and The Art and Science of Teaching (2008), Hattie's Visible Learning (2009), and Schmoker's Focus (2012) have all influenced NCPA’s instructional practice. Reading and writing instruction follows the Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop and its adaptation for high school by Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them (2008) and Kelly Gallagher's Write Like This (2011).

NCPA is committed to standards-based instruction, assessment, and reporting following the work of Thomas Guskey (2001/2003), Doug Reeves (2003), Ken O'Connor (1999), Robert Marzano (1996/2000), and Susan Brookhart (1991/1993).

NCPA offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses to upper level students. The purpose of NCPA’s AP courses is to simulate the academic rigor and language of the American university classroom. At NCPA the AP exam results will complement a student’s achievement of the four Learning Goals.

Please see the video below to learn more about us.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OmqBASY69Q

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Mekisha Hugh
High School Counselor
Nansha College Preparatory Academy
Guangzhou, China
917-582-3292