Alternative Education Center earns state award for counseling, support

Dec. 18—Ector County ISD's Alternative Education Center has earned the Texas CREST award for 2023-24 in recognition of its exceptional counseling program and comprehensive support services, designed to enhance the overall well-being of students.

The award comes from the Texas School Counselors Association (TSCA), which started CREST in 2005 to recognize schools that have demonstrated a commitment using the Texas Model to improve the lives and achievement of students in academic, career, and personal social domains.

At ECISD's AEC, the counseling team is made up of Brenda Creear, Reynaldo Duran and the campus' Communities in Schools representative Teena Castillo.

CREST looks at the counseling program in five categories:

— Introduction to the School and the Role of the Professional School Counselor

— Program Implementation Cycle

— Foundational Components

— Four Service Delivery Components

— Program Curriculum

CREST is a continuous improvement document that gives a school counseling program an opportunity to demonstrate effective communication and a commitment to obtaining results. CREST helps counselors to evaluate their counseling programs, promote their programs to the stakeholders in their districts, demonstrate the effectiveness of their guidance and counseling programs through empirical means, and to implement the Texas and National models for school counseling programs.

CREST winners will be recognized during the annual TSCA conference, which will be held Feb. 4-6 in San Antonio.