Professional School Counselors and High School Graduation: Does Assigned School Counselor Correlate With Students' Rate of Graduation?

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Applications of Counseling Psychology in Practice

Abstract

High school counselors are coming under increased pressure to demonstrate both their effectiveness in supporting individual students’ success in school and their ability to provide effective comprehensive school counseling programs. Limited research has focused on whether school counselors actually impact their students’ graduation rates. The graduation rates of 5,957 students were examined to determine associations between individual counselors and their assigned 9th grade students’ graduation rates using data from four high schools within one urban school district. Factorial ANOVAs, z-proportion tests, and descriptive statistics were used to determine whether school counselors’ 9th grade student graduation rates were consistent over time, influenced by school building assignment, or varied significantly between individual counselors within the same school building. Significant differences were found.

Author

• Dawn M. Horton, Teachers College, Columbia University