Evaluation Capacity in K-12 School Counseling Programs

Abstract

The K-12 school counseling field continues to develop and implement Comprehensive, Developmental, Guidance and Counseling (CDGC) programs to organize services provided by school counselors. Given the program evaluation requirement to guide refinement and renewal efforts, enhancement of CDGC evaluation infrastructure is needed. This paper presents the results of a literature review, organized by the Milstein and Cotton (2000) evaluation capacity framework, detailing and analyzing the contextual factors and system features that impact the evaluation capacity of school counseling programs. The paper fills a need in the literature for more substantive work focused on evaluation capacity, particularly with respect to the school counseling field. The analytic approach is a test case that could be applied to the analysis of evaluation capacity in other settings.

A Catalyst-for-Change Approach to Evaluation Capacity Building

“…At the individual level, ECB studies have demonstrated cognitive, behavioral, and affective outcomes (see Arnold, 2006;Taut, 2007;Trevisan, 2002;Valery & Shakir, 2005). Taut (2007) defines cognitive outcomes as including increasing evaluation knowledge and evaluative thinking that is incorporated into everyday professional practice.…”

A Multidisciplinary Model of Evaluation Capacity Building

“…In the literature, several authors have cited cognitive outcomes as a result of their ECB efforts. These include increased knowledge and understanding of evaluation concepts, terms, and approaches (Arnold, 2006;Kiernan & Alter, 2004;Trevisan, 2002;Valery & Shakir, 2005). Others have written about behavioral outcomes such as the ability to (a) develop logic models, (b) design data-collection instruments, (c) collect valid and reliable data, (d) analyze data, and (e) teach others about evaluation (Arnold, 2006;Atkinson et al;Brandon & Higa, 2004;Trevisan, 2002;Valery & Shakir, 2005).…”

“…This includes (a) considering transfer when choosing ECB learning objectives, (b) ensuring that transfer is incorporated into the learning strategy's design, (c) communicating that transfer of learning is expected, (d) reinforcing the expectation for transfer during the strategy's implementation, and (e) evaluating transfer after participants have had an opportunity to apply their learning to an evaluation context or project. Trevisan's (2002) research illustrated the need to ensure that ECB participants understand why they are learning about evaluation and that they will be expected to transfer their learning to their work contexts. In his study, he found that only half of the ECB participants in one case expressed concrete intentions to apply what they learned about evaluation to their daily work.…”

Measuring Evaluation Competency Among School Counselors

“…There is clearly a “revived vigor to prove that what school counselors do is vital and essential to the growth of school-aged youth” (Studer, Oberman, & Womack, 2006, p. 385). School counseling has taken important and necessary steps to address its somewhat difficult history and reputation with evaluation (Trevisan, 2002).…”