27 McAllen ISD schools recognized for earning state counseling awards

Twenty-seven McAllen ISD schools have earned the state CREST (Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas) award. This is the third straight year multiple schools from McAllen ISD have been honored.

The 27 awards are the most of any school district in the Rio Grande Valley.

“What we want to share with parents is that our schools have very highly qualified counselors,” Norma Cabrera, Director for McAllen ISD’s College, Career and Counseling Department, said. “They’ve all been teachers at one point, so they know how schools work. And now they’re counselors helping students succeed.”

The awards were first presented to counselors at the Texas School Counselors Association (TSCA) conference on February 2 in Galveston. The district held a celebration for them on February 7 in McAllen.

Three years ago, McAllen ISD’s Fields Elementary was the only school in the Rio Grande Valley to win a CREST award. Now, as a four-time winner, Fields was presented with the CREST Leadership Award. This raises McAllen ISD’s total to 86 CREST awards in four years.

“CREST recognized schools help students that are at-risk to overcome some obstacles that are affecting their education,” Cabrera said.

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, Brown Middle School, Cathey Middle School, De Leon Middle School, Fossum Middle School, Travis Middle School, Achieve Early College High, Lamar Academy, McAllen High, Memorial High and James “Nikki” Rowe High. All are now three-time winners except for Fields Elementary which won for the fourth time.

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 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.

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 20,000 students.