Student Achievement Chat

How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success

In this chat, the heads of two school counseling programs discussed the many ways counselors are integral to both social-emotional and academic learning. They answered questions on how schools can balance teaching students the three R's and "soft skills" such as grit, motivation, and self-regulation, which some experts claim are more critical to student achievement.

How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success

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Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. ET
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How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success

(01/10/2013)

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8:24

Bryan Toporek:
Good morning, and welcome to today’s Quality Counts 2013 chat, “How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success,” sponsored by Talk About It. I’ve just opened today’s chat for questions, so please start submitting yours below.

We’ll be back at 4:30 p.m. ET with Gene Eakin and Lori DeKruyf. We hope to see you then!

Thursday January 10, 2013 8:24 Bryan Toporek

8:26

Bryan Toporek:
In the meantime, be sure to check out Quality Counts 2013, which just went online today. You can check out what grade your state received in our State Report Card map, or read about how limited school resources have forced school counselors to adapt.

Thursday January 10, 2013 8:26 Bryan Toporek

4:21

Bryan Toporek:
Thanks for joining us for today’s Quality Counts 2013 chat, “How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success,” sponsored by Talk About It.

We’ll be getting underway in just a few minutes with guests Gene Eakin and Lori DeKruyf. In the meantime, please continue to submit your questions below.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:21 Bryan Toporek

4:22

Gene Eakin:
I have been a high school counselor full-time or part-time for 28 years with most of that time as head of a high school counseling program with 1600 students. I have been on staff at Oregon State since the summer of 1990 either part-time or full-time and am now the School Counseling Program Lead at OSU. Go Beavers!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:22 Gene Eakin

4:29

Bryan Toporek:
OK, let’s get this chat going. I’m passing control over to Liana Heitin, our moderator for the day. Take it away, Liana!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:29 Bryan Toporek

4:30

Liana Heitin:
Hi everyone and welcome to our discussion on How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:30 Liana Heitin

4:30

Liana Heitin:
We have two experts on school counseling with us today, Gene Eakin and Lori DeKruyf. Gene, would you go ahead and introduce yourself first?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:30 Liana Heitin

4:31

Gene Eakin:
Gene Eakin:
I have been a high school counselor full-time or part-time for 28 years with most of that time as head of a high school counseling program with 1600 students. I have been on staff at Oregon State since the summer of 1990 either part-time or full-time and am now the School Counseling Program Lead at OSU. Go Beavers!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:31 Gene Eakin

4:31

Liana Heitin:
Excellent, thanks, Gene. And Lori, would you mind introducing yourself as well?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:31 Liana Heitin

4:31

Gene Eakin:
Thanks for joining us today. I hope you will feel your time is well spent with us.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:31 Gene Eakin

4:31

Lori DeKruyf:
Hello! My name is Lori DeKruyf. I direct the master’s in school counseling program at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon. Before this I was a school counselor at the high school level for 20 years in Washington and Wisconsin.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:31 Lori DeKruyf

4:32

Liana Heitin:
Terrific. Let’s get started. We’ve got a lot of great questions coming in.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:32 Liana Heitin

4:32

Liana Heitin:
Lori, maybe you can take this one.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:32 Liana Heitin

4:32

[Comment From Laura AchkarLaura Achkar: ]
What strategies have you found to be most helpful in increasing parent involvement in schools that lack resources, administrative leadership, consistency and an infrastructure that works in the best interest of students from under-resourced communities?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:32 Laura Achkar

4:33

Lori DeKruyf:
Laura Achkar: Student-led conferences have proven successful in engaging parents. Advisory time or small groups can be used to prepare the students to lead them. Students share their academic progress with their parents/guardians and their advisor and connect it to their academic goals and future aspirations. A best practice is for students and their parents/guardians move directly from the conference to course scheduling so there is no delay between planning and execution of academic goal-setting. >

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:33 Lori DeKruyf

4:34

Liana Heitin:
Great. Here’s one from someone who’s new to the field.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:34 Liana Heitin

4:34

[Comment From GuestGuest: ]
I am starting my school counseling internship at the elementary school I teach at, where the influence of the counselor has been pretty much nonexistent for at least a decade. What would you say is the single most important thing I can do this semester to impact achievement?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:34 Guest

4:34

Lori DeKruyf:
In a Washington state school this bumped their parent involvement from 33% to 94%

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:34 Lori DeKruyf

4:35

Gene Eakin:
The research shows that at the elementary level developing relationships with students and staff so everyone develops a sense of safety and security in coming to school will increase student achievement. This is often done through classroom lessons in all three domains of the ASCA National Model.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:35 Gene Eakin

4:35

Lori DeKruyf:
The 4th R: Relationships! With students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:35 Lori DeKruyf

4:36

Gene Eakin:
Check the research done by Chris Sink and Heather Stroh from Washington.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:36 Gene Eakin

4:37

Liana Heitin:
Here’s one from someone in your home state of Oregon.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:37 Liana Heitin

4:37

[Comment From Pete TellerPete Teller: ]
Hello Drs. Eakin & DeKruyf, the Oregon Education Investment Board has somehow overlooked school counselors in their strategic plan. Why is it that school counselors tend to be an afterthought rather than an essential component?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:37 Pete Teller

4:38

Gene Eakin:
Pete Teller and Sally Hildebrandt,

Our Oregon School Counselor Association and our Oregon Association of School Counselor Educators and Supervisors have been busy in getting the word out to the Oregon Education Investment Board – in charge of making recommendations for funding to the Governor and Legislature and the State Department of Education that we need better student-counselor ratios in order to improve college-career readiness for all students. Advocacy, Advocacy, Advocacy!!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:38 Gene Eakin

4:38

Lori DeKruyf:
Amen!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:38 Lori DeKruyf

4:39

Lori DeKruyf:
I think part of the reason we’re overlooked is that our role is not very well understood.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:39 Lori DeKruyf

4:39

Lori DeKruyf:
Even among school counselors there is wide variation in how the role is seen.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:39 Lori DeKruyf

4:40

Gene Eakin:
Politicians and administrators want to know what we can do to support academic achievement and college/career readiness so we have been discussing this with the Rudy Crew and Hilda Rosselli who are in charge of the Education Investment Board. Advocacy. Advocacy,. Advocacy.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:40 Gene Eakin

4:41

Lori DeKruyf:
I tell my students that professional school counselors “wear” a Sherlock Holmes hat with two brims—they are both educational leaders and mental health professionals all at the same time--and have training that is unique in the building. Helping administrators and others understand the sort of training we have is important. Advocacy!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:41 Lori DeKruyf

4:41

Liana Heitin:
Here’s a related question, but specific to elementary school.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:41 Liana Heitin

4:41

[Comment From Lisa KoeneckeLisa Koenecke: ]
How do we educate major stakeholders about the importance of School Counselors at the elementary levels?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:41 Lisa Koenecke

4:43

Gene Eakin:
Lisa Koenecke

Chris Sink and Heather Stroh wrote an article in the Professional School Counselor journal and Lori is typing the name of the article that addresses the role of the elementary school counselor in increasing academic achievement.

For everyone, Google Evidence-Base for school counseling and you should get a three page pdf that provides the evidence base for many aspects of school counseling.>

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:43 Gene Eakin

4:43

Lori DeKruyf:
The title of the article is “Raising achievement test scores of early elementary school students through comprehensive school counseling programs”

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:43 Lori DeKruyf

4:45

Liana Heitin:
An excellent resource, thanks for sharing.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:45 Liana Heitin

4:45

[Comment From GuestGuest: ]
We struggle with holding students accountable to deadlines (so as to prepare them for college and life), but also showing grace to them as they are learning things like responsibility, time management, and accountability to deadlines. Do you have any suggestions on how to walk that line? What’s most beneficial to students as we help shape them into young men and women?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:45 Guest

4:46

Lori DeKruyf:
There’s a good article about teaching self-regulation in the newest ASCA School Counselor magazine. “Self Regulation Leads to Student Success.”

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:46 Lori DeKruyf

4:46

Lori DeKruyf:
They had some excellent suggestions!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:46 Lori DeKruyf

4:47

Lori DeKruyf:
Among them are incoprorating the development of SR into existing curricular strategies

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:47 Lori DeKruyf

4:47

Gene Eakin:
I would add to Lori’s comments on teaching self-regulation that we need to do a better job of teaching students the soft skills such as self-regulation. Check out the book How Students Succeed which reminds us that have an explicit curriculum for these social-emotional skills is better than not addressing them.>

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:47 Gene Eakin

4:48

Liana Heitin:
Here’s a great question about time management (a MAJOR challenge for counselors):

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:48 Liana Heitin

4:48

[Comment From SeanSean: ]
How should high school counselors divide their time? With a number of additional responsibilities, how do they reserve enough time for college counseling?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:48 Sean

4:48

Lori DeKruyf:
And modeling and requiring reflection.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:48 Lori DeKruyf

4:48

Lori DeKruyf:
It soo needs to be integrated into regular curriculum!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:48 Lori DeKruyf

4:49

Lori DeKruyf:
Every one in the building needs to see themselves as a particiipant in career education

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:49 Lori DeKruyf

4:50

Lori DeKruyf:
This takes behind the scenes relationship building with staff. It takes administrative support. It takes systemic involvement!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:50 Lori DeKruyf

4:50

Lori DeKruyf:
You can’t lone ranger this one!

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:50 Lori DeKruyf

4:50

Gene Eakin:
Sean,
Always an ongoing battle. One point I would offer is that you check out the NOSCA work on counselors and administrators working together on college counseling. Once admins see what you can do to effect college going, they will support your efforts to do more of that. I also believe small and large group work with college counseling is very useful.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:50 Gene Eakin

4:52

Liana Heitin:
Here’s one from Amy:

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:52 Liana Heitin

4:52

[Comment From Amy Gleason CarrollAmy Gleason Carroll: ]
Quite a few in the school counseling field have written theoretical and descriptive studies of interventions to increase student success. However, few studies document the efficacy of such interventions. I am particularly interested in increasing student academic success and college acceptance and persistence. This leads to two questions 1) Who in the school counseling field is conducting efficacy studies now? 2) Which interventions are promising to be studied?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:52 Amy Gleason Carroll

4:53

Lori DeKruyf:
Amy: There is a special issue coming out this spring of Professional School Counseling that will have some stories from the field about various approaches that are working. In general the journal is a terrific resource for just this. Also google the Center for School Counseling Outcome Research at UMass.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:53 Lori DeKruyf

4:54

Gene Eakin:
Amy Gleason Carroll,
Unfortunately we do not have as much outcome research being produced by school counselors as we need to have and yet if you do some digging into the literature, you will find some good work being done often in doctoral dissertations on college going self efficacy and motivational interviewing with middle school students for example.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:54 Gene Eakin

4:56

Liana Heitin:
And a question from Laura on college retention.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:56 Liana Heitin

4:56

[Comment From Laura AchkarLaura Achkar: ]
Is there a correlation between high school students enrolling in AP courses and a higher retention rate amongst these students who go on to college?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:56 Laura Achkar

4:57

Gene Eakin:
Laura Achkar,
I do not know what the research will show about AP engagement and students staying in college though one would speculate that having the advanced skills would improve college retention and graduation.>

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:57 Gene Eakin

4:58

Lori DeKruyf:
Ditto.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:58 Lori DeKruyf

4:58

Liana Heitin:
From Jo Ann:

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:58 Liana Heitin

4:58

[Comment From Jo AnnJo Ann: ]
I am a school counselor for 6th graders. The teachers would like to develop a program that teaches the students to have personal responsibility. Any ideas?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:58 Jo Ann

4:58

Lori DeKruyf:
JoAnn--are you familiar with BAM! Boys Advocacy and Mentoring ?

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:58 Lori DeKruyf

4:59

Lori DeKruyf:
It’s an EXCELLENT strengths-based group for boys in the 5th and 6th grade.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:59 Lori DeKruyf

4:59

Lori DeKruyf:
My hunch is it would be helpful for what you’re trying to do.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:59 Lori DeKruyf

4:59

Lori DeKruyf:
It’s published by Rutledge.

Thursday January 10, 2013 4:59 Lori DeKruyf

5:00

Liana Heitin:
Wow, you two are a wealth of resources. Lots of questions about testing. Here’s one.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:00 Liana Heitin

5:00

Gene Eakin:
Jo Ann,

I am sorry that I do not have an immediate reference but believe there must be some classroom lessons one can access. Every school counselor can access all of the lessons in the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program. I think if you Google Missouri Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance, you can go to the site that allows you to download all 360 lessons k-12.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:00 Gene Eakin

5:00

[Comment From Stephanie hooverStephanie hoover: ]
Can you please address how schools can balance teaching for the tests and teaching soft skills? And our role in that?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:00 Stephanie hoover

5:02

Lori DeKruyf:
Stephanie: When teachers understand the connection between soft skills and academic success they’re more likely to welcome you to their classrooms or to collaborate with you on curriculum that addresses both.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:02 Lori DeKruyf

5:02

Gene Eakin:
Stephanie Hoover,
I believe that the role of the school counselor given our value system is that we continue to advocate for the role of the soft skills and our teaching those soft skills and I am now seeing some of the literature supporting the importance of the soft skills such as in the book Ready, Willing and Able plus How Children Succeed.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:02 Gene Eakin

5:05

Liana Heitin:
From Gwen, on SEL:

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:05 Liana Heitin

5:05

[Comment From Gwen PongraczGwen Pongracz: ]
Do you see Social Emotional Character Development as an effective tool for improving school culture and climate?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:05 Gwen Pongracz

5:05

Gene Eakin:
Hi Erin Mason from DePaul!!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:05 Gene Eakin

5:05

Lori DeKruyf:
Gwen: Yes!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:05 Lori DeKruyf

5:07

Liana Heitin:
:) Any more on that?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:07 Liana Heitin

5:07

Gene Eakin:
Gwen Pongracz,

I have always been a believer in Character Development and was aware of some of the research supporting the role of character development lessons, etc. in changing school climate as well as academic achievement. AND in How Children Succeed, the author indicates that we still need to develop a stronger research base on what works and what does not. He questions what has been done and indicates that there often is not the evidence-base for those programs. He is a believer that we need to focus on character still.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:07 Gene Eakin

5:09

Liana Heitin:
Here’s a followup to an earlier answer about confusion on counselor’s roles:

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:09 Liana Heitin

5:09

[Comment From Dengting BoyantonDengting Boyanton: ]
what do you think is the role of school counselor, then?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:09 Dengting Boyanton

5:10

Lori DeKruyf:
Dengting: As I said earlier, I see professional school counselors as wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat with two brims—they are both educational leaders and mental health professionals all at the same time.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:10 Lori DeKruyf

5:11

Lori DeKruyf:
No-one else in the building has the same training you do. You are in a sense the hub in a wheel with many spokes.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:11 Lori DeKruyf

5:11

Gene Eakin:
Dengting Boyanton,

Before I share my thoughts, I want every school counselor attending this session to join their state association and begin to advocate that all school administrators must have coursework on comprehensive school counseling. We school counselors cannot do what we need to do without admin support.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:11 Gene Eakin

5:11

Lori DeKruyf:
Yes!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:11 Lori DeKruyf

5:12

Lori DeKruyf:
SCs are in a position to collaborate with all the players in a school.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:12 Lori DeKruyf

5:12

Gene Eakin:
Dengting,
We in Oregon have begun that advocacy initiative given that the one issue that is most often raised by school counselors is that they do not have admin support to do the ASCA Model.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:12 Gene Eakin

5:12

Lori DeKruyf:
Teaming with teachers is critical--they are your eyes and ears. Teaming with administrators is critical so that your job description fits your training.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:12 Lori DeKruyf

5:14

Liana Heitin:
From another new counselor:

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:14 Liana Heitin

5:14

[Comment From GuestGuest: ]
I am an intern from Capella University working at an elementary school in Oklahoma. The program I am in requires that we complete a needs assessment of our site’s counseling program. Any suggestions for areas of focus?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:14 Guest

5:15

Liana Heitin:
(And as you’re typing, I just have to share this comment from a reader to Gene about admin)

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:15 Liana Heitin

5:15

[Comment From Jan LemonJan Lemon: ]
That was a great comment by Gene. I have a Ph.D. minor in Educational Leadership and the section on school counseling in the textbooks were all about a half of a page.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:15 Jan Lemon

5:15

Lori DeKruyf:
Capella intern--best wishes! Yes--find out what your site’s school improvement plan is focused on.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:15 Lori DeKruyf

5:16

Gene Eakin:
Jan Lemon,
Thanks. I do think there is only one state now requiring that in order for admins to be licensed that they need coursework on school counseling and though I may not live long enough to witness it, I hope the day will come that in all 50 states, admins must do so.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:16 Gene Eakin

5:17

Lori DeKruyf:
Capella: How does what the school counseling department does or doesen’t (!) intersect with the school improvement plan?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:17 Lori DeKruyf

5:18

Liana Heitin:
And one about both testing and the Common Core:

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:18 Liana Heitin

5:18

[Comment From Bethany BartonBethany Barton: ]
What do you recommend for those (Middle) Schools who utilize counselors for testing...and that is all those counselors do starting April 1st? Increased testing coming with Common CORE... Morality issues with not being able to service students in need.. Crisis mode happens with the wrong people needing to take action.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:18 Bethany Barton

5:19

Gene Eakin:
GENERAL COMMENT TO ALL ELEMENTARY COUNSELORS: All of us most advocate for elementary school counselors and help our various publics understand the necessity for elementary school counselors. Most public do not understand school counseling and do not understand why we need counselors in elementary schools. It is our job as school counselors to continue to inform our various publics of why we need elementary school counselors.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:19 Gene Eakin

5:20

Lori DeKruyf:
Bethany: = (
I think I’d work on helping your administrator see that s/he is perhaps not getting the biggest bang possible for his/her buck.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:20 Lori DeKruyf

5:20

Liana Heitin:
Gene--this is a major theme I’ve found in my reporting as well. Can you give a few reasons why elem counselors are so critical?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:20 Liana Heitin

5:21

Lori DeKruyf:
Bethany--Using a master’s level MHP for testing--not a good use of district funding!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:21 Lori DeKruyf

5:21

Gene Eakin:
Bethany Barton,
I highly respect your referencing that this is a moral issue if not a legal-ethical issue. I believe that as a profession we need to continue to advocate that school counselors not be the test coordinators. There has been good work done in many areas to address this and I wish we had more time to share examples.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:21 Gene Eakin

5:22

Lori DeKruyf:
Research indicates that students who are behind socially/emotionally and academically at the elementary level tend to stay behind. Early interventions are critical!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:22 Lori DeKruyf

5:23

Lori DeKruyf:
Consider the research on the efficacy of Head Start!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:23 Lori DeKruyf

5:23

Gene Eakin:
Why Elementary School Counselors,
The Oregon Education Investment Board publicly indicates that 40% of our students enter kdg not ready to take full advantage of learning opportunities and k-3 teachers will talk about the behavioral issues. Some the research is very clear about the impact that elementary school counselors have in working with that 40% and in decreasing behavioral referrals.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:23 Gene Eakin

5:23

Liana Heitin:
Just a few minutes left, everyone, so get those last questions in!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:23 Liana Heitin

5:24

Liana Heitin:
Here’s a technical one about the ASCA National Model.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:24 Liana Heitin

5:24

[Comment From Liz JonesLiz Jones: ]
Hello -- I work in a Regional Services Center providing consulting services to area School Counselors who are ready to implement the ASCA Model. In the student led conferencing comment; did School Counselors lead the advisory or small group sessions or teachers? I’m familiar with Teachers utilizing this approach to increase student/parent involvement.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:24 Liz Jones

5:25

Lori DeKruyf:
Liz: Teachers did, but were initially trained by school counselors. An alumnus of my program is successfully doing this in a school in Newberg, Oregon as well.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:25 Lori DeKruyf

5:25

Gene Eakin:
Amber Alakel: Hi there!!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:25 Gene Eakin

5:25

Liana Heitin:
Here’s one to sort of wrap things up, from Erin Mason.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:25 Liana Heitin

5:25

[Comment From Erin MasonErin Mason: ]
How are school counselors held accountable for the success of students? They are not teachers so how can they deliver results?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:25 Erin Mason

5:26

Lori DeKruyf:
Erin--this has to do with how school counselors are being evaluated.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:26 Lori DeKruyf

5:26

Lori DeKruyf:
Too often they’re evaluated with the same tool used for teachers. Not appropriate!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:26 Lori DeKruyf

5:27

Lori DeKruyf:
Several districts in Oregon have developed ASCA-focused school counselor evaluations. Salem-Keizer has a dandy!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:27 Lori DeKruyf

5:28

Liana Heitin:
And one last question. It’s another about advocacy--a topic I know you both like. :)

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:28 Liana Heitin

5:28

[Comment From Angie NessAngie Ness: ]
How can we effectively advocate for school counselors in schools/districts that do not have any counseling staff especially at the elementary level?

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:28 Angie Ness

5:28

Gene Eakin:
Erin Mason,
Though some school counselors may prefer not being held accountable for student success, I think that we are also seeing that as more school counselors are learning how to collect data to show the efficacy of their interventions and finding out that what they do does make a difference, they are more comfortable with collecting that data and sharing that data. The work of Stone and Dahir with MEASURE and many the efforts from the NCTSC have worked on helping school counselors collect and use data.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:28 Gene Eakin

5:29

Lori DeKruyf:
Angie--I think it comes down to using data. Comparing longitudinal outcomes between school with and without would be fascinating.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:29 Lori DeKruyf

5:29

Lori DeKruyf:
I think Sink and Stroh’s 2003 article does this.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:29 Lori DeKruyf

5:30

Gene Eakin:
Angie Ness,

Use the research that is available on all of the benefits that accrue to elementary schools that have counselors who know how to do comprehensive school counseling. See again the Chris Sink and Heather Stroh study.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:30 Gene Eakin

5:30

Lori DeKruyf:
Also dig in to what the Center for School Counseling Outcome Research at UMass has in the way of research on this.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:30 Lori DeKruyf

5:31

Liana Heitin:
Unfortunately that’s all the time we have for today. Please make sure to check out the Quality Counts article on school counselors and other support staff.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/10/16staffing.h32.html?intc=EW-QC13-TOC

And the rest of Quality Counts:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2013/01/10/index.html?intc=EW-QC13-EWH

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:31 Liana Heitin

5:31

Gene Eakin:
If this is the end: Hope everyone feels their time has been well spent and sorry we could not field more questions.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:31 Gene Eakin

5:31

Liana Heitin:
A big thanks to both Lori and Gene for this insightful hour. And thanks also to all of you for participating.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:31 Liana Heitin

5:31

Lori DeKruyf:
Stay the course, all! May the Force be with you!!

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:31 Lori DeKruyf

5:31

Liana Heitin:
Thank you all! Have a great day.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:31 Liana Heitin

5:32

Bryan Toporek:
Thanks, Liana! That’s a great place to wrap up.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us for today’s chat, “How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success,” sponsored by Talk About It.” A special thanks to our two great guests, Lori and Gene, and our excellent moderator, Liana.

We’ll have a transcript of today’s chat up on this same page within the hour. If you know anyone who couldn’t make it today, please feel free to share this page with them! Thanks, and have a great rest of the week.

Thursday January 10, 2013 5:32 Bryan Toporek

5:32

How School Counselors Contribute to Student Success

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. ET

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With the advent of the Common Core State Standards, there’s been more focus than ever on increasing students’ college- and career-readiness. And while school counselors may not provide direct academic instruction, they undoubtedly play a sizeable role in ensuring students are successful both during and after their K-12 experience.

In this chat, Gene Eakin, the school counseling program lead at Oregon State University, and Lori DeKruyf, director of the school counseling program at George Fox University, discussed the many ways counselors are integral to both social-emotional and academic learning. They answered your questions on how schools can balance teaching students the three R’s and “soft skills” such as grit, motivation, and self-regulation, which some experts claim are more critical to student achievement.

Guests:
Dr. Gene Eakin, Ph.D. is the School Counseling Program Lead at Oregon State University and teaches classes at both the M.S. and Ph.D. levels. He is a veteran school counselor with 28 years part- or full-time experience at the high school level. He is an American School Counselor Association site-based trainer on enhancing intrinsic motivation and the advocacy chair for the Oregon School Counselor Association. He has done advocacy workshops for school counselors and school counselor educators and is involved in efforts to increase funding for school counselors.

Dr. Lori DeKruyf, Ph.D. served as as a high school counselor for many years and now teaches and supervises the next generation of professional school counselors in the Graduate Department of Counseling at George Fox University in Portland, Ore. She holds a Ph.D from Oregon State University in counselor education and supervision and an M.Ed. in school counseling from Western Washington University. She also serves on the editorial board for Professional School Counseling, the flagship journal of the American School Counselor Association, and on the board of directors for the Oregon Career Information System.

Liana Heitin, associate editor, Education Week Teacher, moderated this chat.

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• Counselors, School Support Staff Toil Amid Scant Resources (January 10, 2013)