Outcomes Research on School Counseling Interventions and Programs

1
Outcomes Research on School Counseling
Interventions and Programs

• CHAPTER 6

2
Introduction

• Although professional school counselors may
  believe certain approaches are effective, others,
  such as school board members, administrators,
  parents, and legislators, want documented
  evidence of the effectiveness of school
  counseling.
• Many of these individuals not only want
  confirmation that school counseling services are
  beneficial to students, but also that these
  services are cost effective.

3
Introduction

• The U.S. Department of Education made it a goal
  to transform education into an evidence-based
  field.
• Outcome research in professional school
  counseling analyzes whether school counseling
  programs or components of a program result in
  positive outcomes for students.

4
Introduction

• Counselors are ethically bound to provide
  effective services to their clients, and without
  thorough knowledge of the research, counselors
  will not know what has been shown to be the
  best.

5
Is Professional School Counseling Effective?

• School counseling outcomes research is generally
  based on qualitative reviews and meta-analytic
  techniques.
• Results from qualitative reviews are generally
  supportive about the effectiveness of school
  counseling.
• Substantial impact on educational and personal
  development.
• If results from meta-analytic results are
  coalesced there is support that school counseling
  interventions are moderately to highly effective.
  
• Results from both qualitative and meta-analytic
  techniques are based on a limited number of
  studies.

6
Which students benefit from school counseling
interventions?

• Effectiveness of school counseling at different
  school levels is somewhat mixed and is probably
  related to differences in interventions used at
  different levels.
• Who uses school-based counseling services most
  often?
• African American students
• Students who display early onset mental health
  and educational problems
• Students who possess externalizing or educational
  difficulties
• African American males were more likely to seek
  school counseling to help with academic
  achievement than White students.

7
Which students benefit?

• It is less important to figure out who benefits
  than how professional school counselors can
  deliver a school counseling program effectively
  to all students.

8
What Are Effective Methods for Delivering School
Counseling Programs?

• Professional school counselors must implement a
  comprehensive school counseling program for all
  students that is a systematic component of the
  larger schools purpose and mission.

9
School Counseling Core Curriculum

• Although much of the research is on elementary
  guidance curriculum, it seems middle school
  students benefited most from guidance curriculum
  offerings with an effect size of .46.
• High school students benefited with an effect
  size of .39.
• Elementary students benefited with an effect
  size of .31.

10
School Counseling Core Curriculum

• Elementary counselors primarily used the guidance
  curriculum to address personal/affective needs.
• Elementary guidance lessons which focused on
  improving self-esteem and self-concept had
  limited impact on students self-esteem.
• Schlossberg, Morris, and Lieberman (2001) found
  that counselor-led, developmental guidance units
  presented in 9th grade classrooms have the
  potential to improve students' expressed behavior
  and general school attitudes, while also
  addressing student developmental needs.

11
Individual Student Planning

• Only 10 studies of individual planning have been
  conducted, mostly with high school students.
• Overall weighted effect size was statistically
  significant.
• Professional school counselors often design
  individual planning around educational and
  career/vocational planning.

12
Individual Student Planning

• Parents and students indicate that they would
  like more emphasis on career guidance and
  development activities.
• Meta-analyses differ somewhat on the degree to
  which career interventions are effective.
• The first meta-analysis (Oliver Spokane, 1988)
  indicated career interventions were highly
  effective, whereas the meta-analysis of more
  current research (Whiston et al., 1998) found
  career interventions to be moderately effective.

13
Individual Student Planning

• A recent study found that counselor-free
  interventions are not effective, and
  interventions that involve a counselor are
  significantly more efficacious (Whiston,
  Brecheisen, Stephens, 2003).
• Whiston et al. (1998) found that career
  interventions were more effective at the
  junior/high middle school level than at the high
  school level.
• Career development activities seem to be
  generally effective.

14
Responsive Services

• It seems elementary children, in particular,
  benefit from responsive services.
• Few findings have been conducted with adolescents.

15
Individual and Group Counseling

• Group interventions seemed to be more effective
  than individual counseling, however few studies
  have been conducted of the effectiveness of
  individual counseling in schools.
• Littrell, Malia, and Vanderwood (1995) concluded
  that three approaches to brief individual
  counseling were effective with secondary
  students.
• In a meta-analysis of the effects of school-based
  programs on aggressive behavior, Wilson, Lipsey,
  and Derson (2003) found that behavioral
  counseling approaches showed the largest effects.
  

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Individual and Group Counseling

• A substantial number of studies verified the
  positive effects of group counseling
  interventions.
• Support for group counseling was mostly found
  with elementary students.
• Much more research needs to be conducted with
  secondary students.

17
Bullying and Violence Prevention Programs

• In recent studies of the Olweus Bullying
  Prevention Program, Olweus (2005) found
  reductions in bullying behavior which approached
  around 50.
• Some of the initial studies of the implementation
  of the Bullybusters program found a 20 reduction
  in the number of bullying incidents reported in
  the first year.
• In a study of the effectiveness of the
  PeaceBuilders program, Flannery et al. noted
  significantly higher ratings of social competence
  among K-2 students who received the intervention
  and moderately higher levels of social competence
  for students receiving the intervention in grades
  3-5.

18
School- Based Alcohol and Drug Programs

• The National Registry of Effective Prevention
  Programs (NREPP) is a list of over 150 substance
  abuse programs recommended by the Substance Abuse
  and Mental Health Services Administration.
• Studies on school-based substance abuse
  prevention programs have shown important criteria
  to include community components and peer leaders.

19
Suicide Prevention

• Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among
  young people (NIMH, 2012)
• Studies have shown that students who participate
  in suicide prevention and intervention programs,
  such as Signs of Suicide (SOS), to report 40
  fewer suicide attempts.
• Gatekeepers trained in QPR reported a
  significant increase (14) in questioning youth
  about suicide.

20
Peer Mediation

• Although many studies indicated that those who
  participated in peer mediation programs have
  substantial knowledge of the program, they did
  not indicate the effectiveness on reducing
  conflict.
• Wilson et al. (2003) found that peer mediation
  programs had a small impact on reducing
  aggressive behavior.
• There does not seem to be conclusive empirical
  support for peer mediation programs.

21
Parent Education and Family Counseling

• Many studies indicate that parent and educational
  family counseling is extremely effective.
• There is some evidence that with low achieving
  and underachieving students, the effectiveness of
  counseling is significantly related to the amount
  of parental involvement in the process.
• This is an important time for professional school
  counselors to take a role in parent education and
  family counseling.

22
System Support

• There is growing empirical support for the
  effectiveness of consultation activities.
• Consultation can lead to more students being
  referred for school counseling.

23
Does a Fully Implemented School Counseling
Program Make a Difference?

• According to Lapan, Gysbers, and Sun
  (1997),students from schools with more fully
  implemented programs were more likely to report
  that
• (a) they had earned higher grades
• (b) their education better prepared them for the
  future
• (c) they had more career and college information
  available to them and
• (d) their schools had a more positive
  environment.
• Many other studies showed consistent results.

24
Does a Fully Implemented School Counseling
Program Make a Difference?

• Schools with higher counselor-to-student ratios
  were more likely to have higher numbers of
  students with recurring disciplinary problems.
• There is increasing research that demonstrates
  that lower professional school counselor-to-studen
  t ratios positively influence a number of student
  outcomes.

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Conclusion

• Reviews of outcome research in professional
  school counseling generally indicate that school
  counseling activities have a positive effect on
  students.
• More research needs to be conducted about the
  effectiveness of professional school counseling.