The following are summaries of research published in ASCA's Professional School Counseling journal. Read the highlights here and visit www.professionalschoolcounseling.org for the full text. Use the search function to search summaries by topic area.
There is evidence to support the positive impact of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) and student success (Lapan, 2012) and the relationship between leadership practices and school counseling program implementation (Mason, 2010). Despite the benefits of implementing CSCPs, there is limited research (i.e., Mason, 2010) focusing on variables predicting school counselors’ ability to implement the ASCA National Model. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of ASCA...
VIEW ARTICLEThe purpose of the current study was to foster school adjustment and improve academic achievement for recently immigrated middle school ESL students using the Achieving Success Everyday Group Counseling Model (ASE Model) (Steen, Henfield, & Booker, 2014) as an intervention. Recently-immigrated middle school English-as-Second-Language (ESL) students need academic, language acquisition, and acculturation supports. School counselors can use group counseling to foster positive school adjustment. Results in this study showed students...
VIEW ARTICLEThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the work habits, personality, and satisfaction of life within a sample of professional school counselors. Specifically, personality and demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, age, partner, and parental status) contributing to workaholism and its subsequent influence on satisfaction with life are examined. The study utilizes the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (2012), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (1985), and The Big Five Inventory (1999). The...
VIEW ARTICLEThe American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends that school counselors spend 80 percent or more of their time in direct and indirect services to students. Direct services are those in-person interactions between school counselors and students, including core curriculum, individual planning, and responsive services (ASCA, 2013). As part of the comprehensive school counseling program, school counselors spend their time in individual counseling sessions for either individual planning or responsive services...
VIEW ARTICLEThis article presents a case study of one urban elementary school where a school counselor conducted a small group academic advisement intervention. The school was identified as one of the lowest performing elementary schools in its district. The school counselor was charged with developing a six-week intervention that included detailed small group lessons supported by individual planning, including appraisal and advisement, designed to improve student academic success. The intervention involved...
VIEW ARTICLESchool counselors are charged with helping students develop academic skills and the necessary mindsets and behaviors to bolster those academic skills. Academic skills are measured by academic performance. Developing a growth mindset has been shown to improve academic performance. In previous studies, academic performance has been defined as a grade in middle-school mathematics, college credit completion, passing grades in high school classes, and math course completion for community college students....
VIEW ARTICLEWhile the field of school counseling has dutifully taken up the disposition of advocating for, and being more responsive to, students from traditionally undervalued groups, it has yet to call attention to perhaps the most pernicious and egregious systemic impediment to student success, that being the model of zero tolerance punitive discipline that dominates U.S. schools. Over the past 30 years, zero tolerance discipline measures have become widespread. Zero tolerance...
VIEW ARTICLEAligned with a more holistic perspective of wellness, the authors advocate for the inclusion of student subjective well-being (SWB) as part of school climate assessment within school improvement plans (SIPs). Relevant theory and research are presented demonstrating the relationship between student perceptions of school climate and students’ SWB. Within the context of school improvement planning/assessment and counselor program accountability, school counselor recommendations for evidence-based practice are provided. More specifically, this article...
VIEW ARTICLEThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between involvement in school-family-community partnerships and school counselor leadership dimensions, along with previously identified school and school counselor factors in studies of school counselor partnership involvement. This study utilized the School Counselor Leadership Survey [SCLS] (Young & Bryan, 2015) to measure the leadership practices and the School Counselor Involvement in Partnerships Survey [SCIPS] (Bryan & Holcomb-McCoy, 2007; Bryan & Griffin,...
VIEW ARTICLESchool counselors are key agents in helping youth develop plans for life beyond high school, specifically with respect to future career guidance (ASCA, 2012). However, achieving career goals can be dependent on students' privilege and position within society (Diemer & Blustein, 2007). Some of the factors related to students' vocational expectations are examined in the research on future orientation, hope, and perceptions of control. These factors are important to examine...
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