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Article Excerpt
The authors conducted a Delphi study to identify important research questions regarding school counseling. During 3 consecutive rounds of e-mail queries, an expert panel of 21 school counseling educators and practitioners were asked to identify the goals of school counseling research, develop specific research questions, and rate the importance of the questions. The highest rated research questions concerned school counseling interventions that have an impact on academic achievement and the effects of school counseling programs on student outcomes. The panel's final list of 42 research questions can help counselor educators, graduate students, and practitioners develop research projects that most effectively meet the needs of the field.
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The need for school counseling practice to be grounded in solid research and the related paucity of this research have been ongoing themes in the field's professional literature (Bauman et al., 2002: Borders & Drury, 1992: Gerler, 1985; House & Hayes. 2002: Remer. 1981: Whiston & Sexton. 1998; Wilson. 1986). Research is crucial because it identifies best practices, supports accountability, demonstrates the impact of school counseling on student outcomes, and helps professionals in the field develop their knowledge base (Cramer. Herr, Morris. & Frantz, 1970: Deck, Cecil, & Cobia, 1990; Dimmitt. 2003; Erpenbach, 1984: Myrick, 1984). With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act (2002), developing a school counseling research agenda has new urgency, because public school professionals will be required to demonstrate that they are implementing evidence-based interventions and counselor educators will need to train school counselors in rigorous program evaluation, research. and data use skills (Carey, 2003). In this era of standards-based education and professional accountability, research demonstrating that school counseling programs and interventions are making a difference in the academic outcomes of students is fundamentally necessary and invaluable to the profession.
The Center for School Counseling Outcome Research at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (hereafter referred to as the Center) was developed to facilitate the development of the profession's research base by identifying critical research questions: evaluating existing research evidence: communicating the implications of research findings to practitioners: identifying outcomes that are most critical for evaluating, identifying, and developing good outcome measures; developing new research approaches; and coordinating multisite research efforts across the field (Center for School Counseling Outcome Research, 2003). As its initial project, the Center conducted a Delphi study to help the profession develop a research agenda through the identification of significant research questions. Currently, the counseling profession does not have an accurate picture of the possible range of relevant research questions and lacks an assessment of the relative value of different questions. We believed that the identification of a finite list of important research questions would help counselor educators, researchers, doctoral students, and funding organizations target research efforts on the questions that would be of most benefit to the profession. Identification of a coherent research agenda would allow maximal effectiveness and efficiency in an era of scarce resources.
University-based school counselor education programs have a particularly important role in leading research efforts to address critical questions in school counseling. Several authors have suggested that university-public school research partnerships are needed to address critical research needs (Fields & Hines, 2000; Hayes, Paisley, Phelps, Pearson, & Salter, 1997; House & Hayes, 2002). The identification of specific critical research questions can help focus and direct the efforts of such partnerships. Similarly, even in the absence of partnerships, most of the current research activity in the field of school counseling is conducted by counselor education faculty and doctoral students. We reasoned that establishing the most critical questions would help both faculty and doctoral students establish programmatic research initiatives. Furthermore, the research education of doctoral school counselor education students would be enhanced by the identification of the field's most cogent questions.
We also believed that the identification of critical research questions would benefit master's-level school counselor education programs by helping to more clearly define the knowledge base that school counselors now need in order to be successful in their work. The research and program evaluation standards established by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001, Sec. II. K.8) state that it is important for counselors to have grounding in research that informs practice. We anticipated that the identification of the critical research questions in the school counseling field would lead to improvements in the research training of prospective school counselors.
The crucial need for more research in all areas of school counseling has been identified in the professional literature (House & Hayes, 2002; House & Martin, 1998; Remer, 1981; Whiston & Sexton, 1998). Very few studies, however, have asked school counselors and school counselor educators to identify the most important research questions for the field. Deck et al. (1990) conducted a survey to assess the opinions of leaders in the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) about research issues. When asked about what types of research were appropriate for school counselors to conduct, 97% of the sample (N = 116) said evaluation of program effectiveness was appropriate. 91% said assessment of counselor effectiveness, 87% said pre- and postassessment of interventions, 81% said follow-up studies of graduates, 78% said attitudinal surveys, 67% said case studies, 60% said structured interviews, and 49% said comparative studies using experimental and control groups (Deck et al., 1990). As is evident, almost all of these types of investigation involve site-specific evaluation rather than wide-scale research.
In another study, Bauman et al. (2002) asked 129 school counselors about their research interests. The research topics most often rated very important by school counselors were, in order, peer pressure, divorce and family issues, aggression/violence/gangs, substance use and abuse, bullying, depression, dropouts, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Participants most...
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