A descriptive study of urban school counseling programs

Professional School Counseling, Feb, 2005 by Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Natasha Mitchell

Measure

The Urban School Counselor Questionnaire was developed to determine urban school counselors' perceptions of their experiences and roles in the schools. The items were developed based on the literature pertaining to school counselor roles, functions, and responsibilities (e.g., Baker, 2000; Gysbers & Henderson, 2001; Muro & Kottman, 1995; Mytick, 1993, 2003; Schmidt, 1999). Alter the development of the items, feedback on the content and format of the questionnaire was solicited from four school counselor educators working at colleges or universities in urban areas. As a result of their recommendations, format, content, and wording changes were made to the initial questionnaire. The items on the revised questionnaire were divided into two sections: (a) Demographic Information and (b) School Counseling in an Urban School District. The Demographic Information section included items that asked the participants to identify their current job position, school setting, type of school, highest earned degree, ethnic background, gender, years of experience, and accreditation status of graduate program attended.

The second section (School Counseling in an Urban School District) consisted of 10 items that required participants to give such information as the number of students enrolled in their school, the number of students in a caseload, the ethnic makeup of the school population, the most prevalent issue or concern for students, the second most prevalent issue, and the percentage of time spent implementing counselor-type activities.

RESULTS

Percentage of Time Urban School Counselors Allocate to Counseling Interventions and Nonguidance Duties

Counseling. Eighty-five participants indicated that they engaged in counseling services. The percentage of time devoted to counseling ranged from 3% to 90% (M = 36.42, SD = 21.45). Of those surveyed, 61 of 102 counselors devoted between 10% and 50% of time on counseling (both group and individual).

Consultation. Consultation with teachers was the most frequent consultation service. The percentage of time spent on teacher consultation ranged from 1% to 70% of the time with the average at 14.12% (Mdn = 10, SD = 13.55). The percentage of time spent on parent consultation ranged from 0% to 50% of the counselors' time with the average at 10.83% (Mdn = 10, SD = 8.15). Time spent on consultation varied widely among the participants. Fifty-one participants spent between 0% and 10% of their time doing parent consultation whereas another 17 spent between 20% and 30% of their time working with parents.

Coordination. The participants of this study spent a relatively small percentage of their time coordinating. The percentage of time ranged from 0% to 70% and 78 participants reported that they spent between 0% and 10% of their time coordinating. The average percentage of time was 8.72 (SD = 10.97, Mdn = 10).

Administering tests. The participants in this study reported that they spent between 0% and 30% of their time administering tests. The average amount of time reported by the participants was 3.19 (SD = 5.99) and the mode was 0. Seventy-two participants reported that they spent between 0% and 5% of their time administering tests.