A national study conducted with the members of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) database examined school counselors' utilization of online technologies. The researchers also explored beliefs and practices and examined mitigating factors such as school counselors' background, training, and experience. Training impacted…

The 12 diversity dimensions of the ASCA Ethical Standards (ASCA, 2010) provided a framework for examining whether a statewide sample of high school counseling websites (N = 312) had content for diverse students and their families. Many websites offered little content related to those dimensions, and content was especially low for some groups…

The School Counseling Program Report Card--Student Version is a program evaluation tool designed to capture high school student perceptions of school counseling services. This article describes the initial instrument development process. Exploratory factor analysis (N = 305) yielded a 22-item instrument with three subscales that mirror the ASCA…

A statewide evaluation of school counseling programs in Utah high schools explored which features of the ASCA National Model were related to student educational outcomes. The authors used hierarchical linear regression and Pearson correlations to examine relationships between program characteristics and student outcomes. School counseling program…

A statewide evaluation of school counseling programs in rural and suburban Nebraska high schools investigated which features of the ASCA National Model were related to student educational outcomes. The authors used hierarchical linear regression and Pearson correlations to explore relationships between program characteristics and student outcomes.…

Results connect the implementation of the college and career counseling components of a comprehensive school counseling program and lower student-to-school-counselor ratios to a reduction in suspension rates and disciplinary incidents for Connecticut high school students. Principal ratings of college and career counseling services provided in…

This study explored relationships among school counseling practices, secondary school demographics, and student outcomes in the state of Rhode Island during a 2-year period. The results showed strong and consistent correlations between increased amounts of school counseling services and positive student outcomes. Schools with higher percentages of…

The data from this study details the challenges to implementing comprehensive school counseling programs in Wisconsin high schools. Results suggest that current professional development training practices may be ineffective in assisting high school counselors to implement key components of the ASCA National Model in their schools. This article…

The six statewide research studies presented in this special issue use a variety of designs, instrumentation, and measures. Nevertheless, they can be integrated at the level of results to shed light on some important questions related to effective practice in the field of school counseling. In fact, one can argue that, when separate studies that…

Despite the repeated call to increase the number of practitioner research manuscripts being published in counseling publications, practitioner research accounts for less than five percent of all manuscripts published. This article describes the challenges faced by practitioners seeking to publish their research, defines practitioner research, and…

School districts are in the process of adopting the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to identify and remediate academic and behavioral deficits. As an integral member of the school behavior team, school counselors must use data on individual interventions to contribute to the data-based decision making process in RTI. This article presents…

To investigate the current practices of schools and school counselors working with students with chronic illness and the protocols for providing these services, the authors conducted a mixed design, grounded theory study, with an eye toward pinpointing any trends or patterns in service provision. They identified a collaborative, developmental,…

This article illustrates standards blending, the integration of core academic and school counseling standards, as a culturally alert responsive services strategy to assist in closing the achievement gap while also enhancing employability skills and culturally salient career competencies. The responsive services intervention described in this…

This study explored elementary school counselors' perceptions of importance and implementation for state standards in support of academic achievement. Results indicate that Academic and Personal/Social standards are important to achievement with no statistical difference between the standards. Further, counselors implement Personal/Social…

Young adolescents (ages 11-14), typically in the middle school grades, face life tasks involving connections and belonging with their peer group along with the development of their individual identity (Henderson & Thompson, 2010). Learning to negotiate through these developmental tasks, they face myriad relational challenges. This article explores…