Graduation Year

2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Psychological and Social Foundations

Major Professor

Debra Osborn, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Yi-hsin Chen, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Herbert Exum, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Sarah Kiefer, Ph.D.

Keywords

School Counseling, School Counselors, Accountability Measures, Accountability Practices

Abstract

This study focused on school counselor accountability practices. The role of the

school counselor is changing and the need to be more accountable is now here. This study

attempted to answer several critical questions regarding school counselor accountability.

It examined the degree to which school counselors use accountability measures, to what

extent they believed certain accountability practices were deemed helpful to their school

counseling program, and what they believed their barriers were. Accountability is a “hot”

topic in present school counseling literature; but little research has been done up to this

point investigating these issues related to school counselor accountability nor school

counselors’ perceptions and beliefs about them. This study attempted to delve into those

perceptions and beliefs.

Participants were members of state school counseling associations from across the

United States. Three hundred seventy-five school counselors participated. Of those,

70.2% were currently using accountability practices. A total of 47.4% of the participants

report presently being required to implement accountability practices. The most

frequently reported barrier to accountability practices was that it was “too time

consuming.” The most frequently reported type of assistance desired from professional

organizations or university programs was training. Support was reported most frequently

as the type of assistance desired from school systems. Results from other analyses are

also included. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for further research are

provided.

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