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School Counselor Multicultural Counseling Competence Assessed By State School Counselor Licensure Examinations, Qi Shi, John Carey

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

This study is the first systematic examination of how school counselor multicultural counseling competence (MCC) is addressed in state licensure examinations of school counselors. Results offer preliminary support to the notion that state licensure examinations indeed address some important aspects of MCC as identified by Holcomb-McCoy (2004). Yet considerable variability exists across examinations in the percentage of content devoted to these commonly addressed areas. Quantitative content analysis shows there are several important aspects of school counselor MCC are not being tested in state examinations. Discussions and implications are provided.

The Critical Need For Peer Clinical Supervision Among School Counselors, Pamelia E. Brott, Lorraine Dekruyf, Jung H. Hyun, Christopher R. Lafever, Sarah Patterson-Mills, Mariama I. Cook Sandifer, Victoria Stone

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

The ongoing need for clinical supervision of practicing school counselors in the United States has reached a critical point. Given the acute mental health needs of children and adolescents, staggering caseloads, and pandemic repercussions, school counselors often receive insufficient clinical support. Clinical supervision is necessary to safeguard against burnout, promote ethical practice, and encourage continual skill development for school counselors worldwide. Unfortunately, there remains a lack of available clinical supervision, trained supervisors, and practice-based strategies for providing consistent quality supervision for post-master’s school counselors. The authors present a rationale for peer clinical supervision of practicing school counselors in the US …

School Counselor Educators’ Reactions To Changes In The Profession: Implications For Policy, Evaluation, And Preparation, Jennifer Betters-Bubon, Emily Goodman-Scott, Olamojiba Bamgbose

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

In this transcendental phenomenological study and related data analysis (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Moustakas), authors explored school counselor educators’ perceptions regarding recent changes in the profession. Through six focus groups, participants (N = 29) shared their experience, resulting in four themes: (a) range of reactions to changes in the field, (b) school counseling is less valued in the counseling profession, (c) inconsistent school counselor educator identity, and (d) ardent advocacy. Authors discuss implications for school counselor preparation, identity, policy, and advocacy within an ecological framework and the need for additional national and international research.

Key words: counselor education, …

A Call For A Humanistic Stance Toward K–12 Data Science Education, Victor R. Lee, Michelle H. Wilkerson, Kathryn Lanouette

School of Education Articles

There is growing interest in how to better prepare K–12 students to work with data. In this article, we assert that these discussions of teaching and learning must attend to the human dimensions of data work. Specifically, we draw from several established lines of research to argue that practices involving the creation and manipulation of data are shaped by a combination of personal experiences, cultural tools and practices, and political concerns. We demonstrate through two examples how our proposed humanistic stance highlights ways that efforts to make data personally relevant for youth also necessarily implicate cultural and sociopolitical dimensions that …

The Complex Effects Of Picturebooks On English As A Foreign Language Reading, Shiyi Shen, Ting Huang

School of Education Articles

While effects of picturebooks on reading were examined in higher grades (e.g., high school students) (Ajayi, 2009), little is known about the emerging English as Foreign Language (EFL) Kindergartens to 4th graders (i.e., K-4) students in China. Language institutes are critical phenomena for EFL K-4 education in China (Shi, 2019). Aiming to test the hypothesis that picturebooks have positive effects for reading, this study adopted within-subjects and between-subjects design to examine the effects of picturebooks on EFL reading comprehension of K-4 students in a language institute in China. Thirty-two participants were assigned into two groups to complete multiple choice and …

Moving Beyond Free: A College Affordability Compact For The Next Generation, David H. Feldman, Christopher R. Marsicano

Arts & Sciences Articles

"Free college programs have proliferated at the state and local levels over the past decade, focused primarily on the nation’s community colleges. President Biden’s $1.8 trillion American Families Plan includes funding to make community college tuition free for participating states, and the idea of federally supported tuition-free four-year public college education is also back in the spotlight. It is easy to see why: “free college” fits on a bumper sticker, and it offers a simple message that signals to low-income families and first-generation students that achieving a valuable postsecondary credential is possible for them. This can lead families to prioritize …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Rise Framework When Implemented With Second Grade Students Reading Below Grade Level: A Program Evaluation, Heather France Gentry

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Ensuring that students are reading on grade level by third grade is a critical factor that is correlated with future success both in the classroom and in future career and earnings potential for each child (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012 ; Sum et al., 2009). National data focused on the number of students reading below grade level depicts an alarming number of students who are not meeting grade-level benchmarks for reading (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). When students struggle to meet grade-level expectations in reading through participation in instruction within the regular classroom, a pull-out intervention program is often …

A Program Evaluation Of Fundations In A Private Urban Elementary School, Megan Storey Hallam

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Early reading skills are strongly associated with long term academic and life achievement. Despite the recognized importance of literacy, indicators point to a literacy crisis in the United States. Research and policies have highlighted the necessity of selecting reading programs with documented effectiveness and implementing them with fidelity. This mixed methods program evaluation investigated the extent to which the Fundations reading program is being implemented with fidelity at a private urban elementary school and if there has been a change in student reading performance since introducing the program. This study also explored teachers’ perceptions regarding program strengths and challenges along …

A Program Evaluation Of A Secondary Co-Teaching Professional Development Program, Donice Davenport

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Most students with disabilities in public schools are served in inclusive environments by teams of special and general education teachers working together to support their access to the curriculum and their disability related needs. This program evaluation sought to understand the knowledge, skills, and efficacy of a group of co-teachers following their participation in an in-service secondary co-teaching professional development program which focused on effective use of the station teaching, parallel teaching, and alternative teaching models to deliver specially designed instruction in co-taught classrooms. The program evaluation was based on Stufflebeam’s CIPP model of program evaluation and used a mixed-methods …

It’S All About The Climb: Problem-Based Learning In The Arts & Sciences, Alexis Harvey

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a method of instruction that challenges students to answer questions in a practical manner using their understanding of learned course content. The question at the heart of this study concerns if and how faculty in one institution are currently using PBL. I used an exploratory descriptive case study to research the perceptions of Arts & Sciences (A&S) faculty on the use of PBL as an instructional approach to support the academic learning of students. The use of PBL is suggested in the university’s general education requirements, and yet may not be familiar to the all Arts …

What's In A Name? Selected Secondary English Teachers' Experiences Of Engaging In Formative Assessment, Sarah P. Hylton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Formative assessment’s evolution over the last 50 plus years has led to the ubiquitous use of the term and ostensibly its practice, yet very little research has specifically addressed teachers’ experiences of formative assessment, particularly in the realm of secondary English. This study’s goal, therefore, was to gain insight into how teachers experience engaging in formative assessment. By exploring their experiences, this descriptive phenomenological study sought to discover what meaning selected teachers ascribe to formative assessment and to thereby elevate teachers’ voices in the formative assessment conversation. This research question guided the study: What are secondary English teachers’ lived experiences …

A Program Evaluation Of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In Two Elementary Schools, Ashley Reyher

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This program evaluation assessed fidelity of implementation and teacher perceptions of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) in two elementary schools in Virginia. SWPBIS is a prevention framework that seeks to proactively address behavior in schools through proactive systems and practices. SWPBIS is founded on prevention science and research that compels schools to address student behavior in order to avoid future social problems. The fidelity of implementation of this program was assessed through quantitative and qualitative measures, seeking to answer evaluation questions related to the extent that the core features of SWPBIS related to leadership, practices, and use of …

Exploring The Role Of Virtual Reality Perspective Taking On Teachers’ Cognitive Empathy: An Action Research Study, Dong Bin Shin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Empathy is an important instructor variable that improves learning outcomes by creating a safe learning environment (Herbek & Yammarino, 1990). Advancements in virtual reality technology and 360-degree videography allow individuals to empathize with others through a perceptual illusion called embodiment (Bertrand et al., 2018). The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to explore the effect of virtual reality perspective taking (VRPT) on teachers’ cognitive empathy. Additional goals included examining how teachers’ beliefs about cognitive empathy impacted teacher-student interactions and teaching practices. Lastly, the study sought to understand teachers’ perceptions regarding the efficacy of VRPT as a viable, professional …

Online Faculty Development: Disorienting Dilemmas In Learning To Teach Online, Katalin Wargo

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation explores how faculty development for online teaching in higher education might facilitate transformative learning and the transfer of instructional practices across teaching modalities. The first manuscript examines how the essential constructs of transformative learning are promoted in online faculty development and which elements of faculty development help to foster transformative learning. The second manuscript describes a case study that emerged from a university faculty development seminar to prepare instructors to teach online. The purpose of this study was to examine how, if at all, the Online Faculty Development Seminar changed five participants’ perspectives of teaching. This study found …

Beyond Borders: Hallmarks Of Effective K-12 Teaching Online, April D. Lawrence, Judi Harris

School of Education Book Chapters

This synthesis of relevant research and practice publications examines, explains, and illustrates the fivefold hallmarks of effective online teaching in K-12 learning contexts. These attributes of online K-12 teaching excellence include technologically-informed pedagogical content knowledge, or TP(A)CK; student-focused, curriculum-based, contextually-sensitive pedagogical practice; awareness and astute implementation of current online teaching standards; and demonstrated teacher presence, caring, and engagement online. All of these aspects of effective online teaching combine to catalyze and support engaged, communal, and digitally responsible student learning online. The authors acknowledge that the empirical literature base for effective online teaching in K-12 learning contexts, while growing, is still …

Activities And Role Of School Counselors In West Virginia: A Comparison To A National Sample, Lijuan He, Barb Brady, John C. Carey

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

A national study of school counselor role and professional activities (Fan et al., 2019) was replicated using a West Virginia (WV) school counselor sample to determine if WV’s unique context and state policies would reflect a difference in how counselors perceive their roles and conduct professional practices. The comparison between WV sample and its national counterparts showed that school counselors grade level is robustly related to professional practice, with high school counselors demonstrating different levels of work focus than middle and elementary counselors. The WV sample did not demonstrate any practically significant differences from the previously collected national U.S. sample …

An Interview With Dr. Trish Hatch: An Advocate For School Counseling Policy, Jan L. Gay

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

Dr. Trish Hatch has served as a leader in school counselor policy and advocacy for over 30 years. As a co-author of the ASCA National Model, Dr. Hatch has worked tirelessly to establish school-based policies to promote the profession of school counseling at the district, state, and federal levels. This interview serves to provide readers with insight on the importance of advocacy and understanding how to navigate political systems to affect policies that influence the profession of school counseling.

A Systematic Literature Review Of School-Counsellor-Led Group Counselling Interventions Targeting Academic Achievement: Implications For Research And Practice, Sam Steen, Qi Shi, Jennifer Melfie

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

This article reviews group counselling interventions conducted by school counsellors that aimed to improve academic achievement. A total of 12 studies met these criteria. The studies that used comprehensive/comparative tests and GPA as academic achievement outcome measures had moderate to large effect sizes. Secondly, this review broadly examined whether a protocol or group manual was used, the number of group sessions, and demographic information of the group leaders and students. Implications and recommendations for future research are provided including exploring more international articles.

A Review Of Program Evaluation In School Counseling: Improving Comprehensive And Developmental Programs, Amanda D. Rumsey

Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation

This book review includes a detailed overview and discussion of Michael S. Trevisan and John C. Carey’s book: Program Evaluation in School Counseling: Improving Comprehensive and Developmental Programs, New York, NY: Routledge, 132 pages, $124.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781138346574. The review includes strengths and potential issues regarding the text’s value and uses in graduate programs and school counseling practice. Overall, the book is a great resource and would be helpful knowledge for anyone working in the context of school counseling.

“All Is Quiet In Arlington”: The Desegregation Of Arlington County Public Schools And How We Remember It, Ella Benbow

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Brown v. Board of Education overturned the long-enforced “separate but equal” doctrine forcing school systems to decide exactly how much they would comply with the holding that segregated public schools were no longer constitutional. Several states, Virginia among them, relied on pupil placement boards to deny the transfer of many Black students to primarily white schools. Some localities’ violent resistance to any desegregation is still reflected in the prevalent de facto school segregation 66 years after Brown. My thesis examines the reaction of Arlington County, a small, liberal area just outside Washington, D.C. that boasts about being the first integrated …

W&M’S Memorials To Benjamin S. Ewell, Terry L. Meyers

Arts & Sciences Articles

"As far as I can tell, Benjamin S. Ewell, the College’s sixteenth president (1854-1888), has been memorialized at William and Mary more than any other person. That is not surprising given his long tenure as president, his dedication to the College, and his titanic efforts on its behalf, especially in the decades after the Civil War..."

Leaning On One Another: An Exploration Of The Relationship Among Social Connection, Alcohol Use, Resilience, And Loneliness In Lgbtq+ College Students, Nathaniel Mason

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This research study served to examine casual inferences within the relationships between social connectedness, drinking, resilience, and loneliness for both LGBTQ+ and heterosexual-identifying college students. The literature reviewed identified there is likely a relationship between these constructs whereby social connectedness was expected to significantly predict drinking (in a negative direction), and the relationship was mediated by the presence of resilience or loneliness. A total of 253 full-time college students between the ages of 18 and 28 were surveyed , 135 of which identified as LGBTQ+. The participants completed the Social Connectedness Revised (SCS-R), revised version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale …

Bullying In Student Affairs: Our Little Secret, April Joy Palmer

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The intent of this narrative dissertation was to uncover how staff members in divisions of student affairs experience bullying, how it has affected their trust for the profession and their colleagues and supervisors, and how the power dynamic within workplace bullying has an effect on the experience for professionals. It is important to recognize bullying does exist in student affairs, an area focused on positive development and growth for students, and to understand more about the effect of bullying in student affairs on staff. Bullying experiences can result in good student affairs professionals leaving the profession. The frameworks used in …

Antimicrobial Sensitivity Testing: The Search For Antibiotics, Amanpreet Kohli

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Life Science | Biology

Examining agar plates, students determining the effectiveness of antibiotics for fish pathogens.

Case Of The Stressed-Out Larva: A Study Of Climate Change Effects On Oyster Cellular Physiology, Annie Schatz

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Advanced Biology | Chemistry | Oceanography

Using a jigsaw puzzle approach, students will piece together the results of three molecular measures to understand how warming and acidified waters affect the health of oyster larvae.

Marsh Migration Mania!, Emily Goetz

Reports

Grades: 6-12 Subjects: Life Science | Environmental Science

In this lesson, students investigate sea-level rise and migration of saltmarsh invertebrates in a "ghost forest."

Sunny-Side-Up: Temperature & Lobster Egg Development, Abigail Sisti

Reports

Grades: 6-12 Subjects: Biology

This lesson allows students to use math and science to characterize the effects of temperature on lobster egg development. Students will measure features of lobster eggs at different time points and plot how they change across development. This development will be compared between lobsters from different environments, and students will be asked to draw conclusions about how these differences may relate to lobster performance and climate change.

Fish Census: Monitoring Finfish Populations In Chesapeake Bay, Rachel Dixon

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Life Science | Biology | Oceanography

In this activity, students will utilize data collected from a scientific survey to explore where different fishes live in a coastal estuary, and how their populations change over time.

Migrating To Motherhood: The Story Of Female Blue Crabs In Their Ecosystem, Alex Schnieder

Reports

Grades: 6-12 Subjects: Life Science

This lesson guides students through an investigation of the migratory patterns of blue crabs, their life stages, ecosystem use by life stage, harvest, and human impacts to their population.

Watercolors: Relating Properties Of Light To Organic Matter And Ecosystem Production, Derek Detweiler

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Chemistry | Biology | Oceanography | Environmental Science

Using properties of light, students will determine the source and composition of dissolved organic matter in estuaries influenced by different land types its subsequent relationship with ecosystem production.