Mission Statement

The School Counseling Analysis, Leadership and Evaluation (SCALE) Research Center provides national leadership in the facilitation and dissemination of school counseling research demonstrating the connection between comprehensive, developmental, evidence-based school counseling programs and student success. This research can be used to improve school counseling practice and to support and advocate for national, state and local policy change that promotes high achievement for every student.

Vision Statement

The SCALE Research Center is founded on the belief that school counseling is integral to accomplishing the mission of the school. Recognizing the importance of academic achievement, career planning and development to overall student success, SCALE supports school counselors in gathering and disseminating data to demonstrate the critical role these professionals assume in the development of the whole child across diverse backgrounds and experiences. Through SCALE, school counselors are able to provide active advocacy and leadership in designing and implementing comprehensive, developmental and evidence-based approaches to removing systemic barriers to the academic achievement of all students.

To this end, SCALE engages in the following activities:

• Coordinates efforts to establish and maintain a national research and evaluation agenda for school counseling and academic achievement
• Obtains funding to support research development and dissemination
• Coordinates research and evaluation work at the national, state and local levels
• Develops research protocols and instruments to help school counselors and school counselor educators in their research efforts
• Coordinates ongoing professional development in research and evaluation for practicing school counselors, school counselor educators and school counseling students to develop and advance their skills in program evaluation and research
• Facilitates partnerships between practicing school counselors and school counselor educators by matching those who desire research assistance with those with research expertise
• Builds data banks and provides data for meta-analyses
• Disseminates research and evaluation findings to local, state and national legislators, policy personnel and decision-makers (e.g., school boards, superintendents, principals and taxpayers)