Only a small percentage of schools in Texas earned it but 29 schools in McAllen ISD have received the CREST (Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas) award for the second straight year!
McAllen ISD school counselors will be recognized during a ceremony on Monday, February 19.
WHAT: CREST Awards for McAllen ISD school counselors
WHEN: 2-3 pm on Monday, Feb. 19
WHERE: Rio Bank- McAllen (701 E. Expressway 83)
PARKING: Park in the north parking lot. Entrance on north side of building.
McAllen ISD’s 29 awards are more than the rest of the Rio Grande Valley combined. There were 27 additional awards split among three other Valley school districts. The Valley’s total among the four districts comes to 56, up from 30 one year ago.
The awards were originally presented to counselors at the Texas School Counselors Association (TSCA) conference on February 4 in San Antonio. Now, they will be recognized on familiar grounds.
Two years ago, McAllen ISD’s Fields Elementary was the only school in the Rio Grande Valley to win a CREST award. This raises McAllen ISD’s total to 59 CREST awards in three years.
In 2005, the Texas School Counselor Association began the CREST program to recognize schools with outstanding counseling programs. Schools receiving CREST awards have demonstrated a commitment to using the Texas Model to improve the lives and achievement of students in academic, career, and personal social arenas. The Texas School Counseling Association announces winners.
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 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
The counseling team prepares a digital submission that highlights these areas and communicates just what the counseling program is doing to help students succeed. These are sent to reviewers throughout the state of Texas to be judged according to pre-set standards of excellence.
McAllen ISD’s winning schools include Alvarez Elementary, Castaneda Elementary, Escandon Elementary, Fields Elementary, Garza Elementary, Gonzalez Elementary, Hendricks Elementary, Houston Elementary, Jackson Elementary, McAuliffe Elementary, Milam Elementary, Perez Elementary, Rayburn Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Sanchez Elementary, Seguin Elementary, Thigpen-Zavala Elementary, Wilson Elementary, Brown Middle School, Cathey Middle School, De Leon Middle School, Fossum Middle School, Morris Middle School, Travis Middle School, Achieve Early College High, Lamar Academy, McAllen High, Memorial High and James “Nikki” Rowe High. All are now two-time winners except for Fields Elementary which won for the third time.
About McAllen ISD
McAllen ISD is a three-time winner of the state’s highest rating, an “A,” and a four-time winner of the state’s Post-Secondary Readiness Distinction. In 2022, McAllen ISD was named the Best Large District in Texas through the H-E-B Excellence in Education awards. The district is home to 30 campuses and approximately 20,500 students.