The Impact of More Fully Implemented Guidance Programs on the School Experiences of High School Students: A Statewide Evaluation Study
✍ Scribed by Richard T. Lapan; Norman C. Gysbers; Yongmin Sun
- Publisher
- American Counseling Association
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 475 KB
- Volume
- 75
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1556-6678
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Relationships between the statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance programs and the school experiences of high school students were explored. Data from 22,964 students attending 236 Missouri high schools were analyzed by using hierarchical linear modeling. Schools with more fully implemented model guidance programs had students who were more likely to report that (a) they had earned higher grades, (b) their education was better preparing them for their future, (c) their school made more career and college information available to them, and (d) their school had a more positive climate. Positive program effects were found after removing differences due to school enrollment size, socioeconomic status, and percentage of minority students in attendance. Results highlight the important roles school counselors play in promoting the central educational goals of their schools and support a comprehensive guidance program focus for university counseling faculty who train school counselors.
O
n July 1, 1971, the University of Missouri-Columbia was awarded a U.S. Office of Education grant to assist each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in developing guides to implement career guidance, counseling, and placement programs in their local schools. This project served as a springboard, through the 1970s and 1980s for the development and implementation of a K-12 comprehensive school guidance program model (Gysbers & Henderson, 1994;Gysbers & Moore, 1981;Hargens & Gysbers, 1984). The 1980s and early 1990s witnessed the adoption and adaptation by Missouri and approximately 25 to 30 other states, along with many school districts, of this guidance program model developed in the 1970s.
In Missouri, this model was adapted and became the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program (MCGP) in 1984, and it now serves as the state training model for school counselors. Over the past 12 years, more than 2,200 school counselors and administrators from over 400 school districts in Missouri have received intensive training (Starr & Gysbers, 1993) in how to implement and manage the MCGP. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Sec-