Evaluating the Impact of National and State Policies on School-Based Counseling Practices and Student Outcomes

Abstract

There is perhaps no other time in recent history that provides such a compelling case for the essential role of school-based counselors as today. Advocates of school-based counselors have stressed the importance of organizational structure to school-based counseling programs, a core curriculum, and program evaluation for improvement and accountability. This chapter argues for the essential role of statewide evaluation in supporting policies that promote the development and implementation of effective school-based counseling programs. The rationale is that the state often has the most leverage to bring about broad change within its borders. To this end, the chapter provides a content analysis of existing statewide evaluation studies found in the literature and assesses the evaluations against the National Leadership Cadre (2007) suggestions for statewide evaluations. Seven recommendations are provided that include (1) expansion of cost-effective, statewide evaluations; (2) use of evaluation strategies that support outcome evaluation; (3) wider use of methodological approaches and evaluation strategies; (4) deliberate evaluation of promising practices; (5) promotion of evaluation use; (6) finding ways to take advantage of existing policy research studies in promoting school-based counseling as a viable education reform tool; and (7) reaching out to the broader education policy and policy research community to argue for school-based counselors as essential personnel in the drive toward attainment of critical student outcomes.