Establishing Moral Education Programs: A Priority for Guidance

People accept the general idea that there should be “instruction in the schools that deals with morals and moral behavior.” The program described in this article presents one possible model for moral instruction. Counselors were not involved directly in the program because of funding limitations, but counselors can use the program to stimulate moral education activities.     

The Impact of More Fully Implemented Guidance Programs on the School Experiences of High School Students: A Statewide Evaluation Study

Relationships between the statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance programs and the school experiences of high school students were explored. Data from 22,964 students attending 236 Missouri high schools were analyzed by using hierarchical linear modeling. Schools with more fully implemented model guidance programs had students who were more likely to report that (a) they had earned higher grades, (b) their education was better preparing them for their future, (c) their school made more career and college information available to them, and (d) their school had a more positive climate. Positive program effects were found after removing differences due to school enrollment size, socioeconomic status, and percentage of minority students in attendance. Results highlight the important roles school counselors play in promoting the central educational goals of their schools and support a comprehensive guidance program focus for university counseling faculty who train school counselors.     

Norman C. Gysbers: A Proponent of Comprehensive School Guidance Programs

Norman C. Gysbers has been a major contributor to the field of counseling and guidance for more than 30 years, not only through scholarship, but also through leadership. Gysbers is best known for his work in comprehensive school guidance and for his many national leadership positions. In this article, he discusses both his life and the evolution of counseling and school guidance programs.     

Cooperative Guidance and Instructional Programs for Leadership Preparation

This article outlines a sequential series of leadership programs, from elementary school to college level, that will serve to integrate the guidance and instructional processes. Leadership is viewed as one of the four main categories of talent: “academic, creative, kinesthetic (e.g., crafts, athletics), and psychosocial (e.g., leadership).” It is suggested that potential participants for leadership training might be identified by screening and nomination, case study, program planning and placement, and follow-up and evaluation. A four-front program of counseling-instructional activities including individual counseling, group counseling, seminars, and advanced classes is described. It is hypothesized that the interaction of teachers and counselors in actual curriculum building will lead to genuinely individualized educational programming.     

The Systems Approach: A Technique for Establishing Counseling and Guidance Programs

Schools and agencies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate program effectiveness and be accountable in terms of cost to the consumer. Systems methodology, developed for use in other fields, may have the potential for program development in counseling. This article discusses some of the ways in which systems technology may be directly employed in a counseling setting.     

A Focus for Public School Guidance Programs: A Model and Proposal

This article represents an attempt to provide an adequate theoretical basis for the development of guidance programs. Three important questions essential to any planning of guidance programs are discussed: (1) scope of responsibility, (2) developmental timing, and (3) focus of guidance activity. A model is proposed in an attempt to conceptualize the relationship between these three important questions of emphasis. The basic problem of the purpose of guidance programs is discussed, and a proposal relevant to the model and the assumed purposes is made. The proposed objective focuses on the environment of the learner, in an effort to prepare him to actively and effectively appropriate and apply new knowledge and skills. The implications that such an objective has for the role of the guidance specialist, as well as for education in general, are discussed.     

Helping Seventh Graders Be Safe and Successful: A Statewide Study of the Impact of Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Programs

The researchers examined the relationships between statewide implementation of comprehensive guidance and counseling programs and indicators of safety and success for seventh graders. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data from 22,601 seventh graders attending 184 Missouri schools and 4,868 middle school teachers. After researchers controlled for differences between schools due to socioeconomic status and enrollment size, students attending middle schools with more fully implemented comprehensive programs reported (a) feeling safer attending their schools, (b) having better relationships with their teachers, (c) believing that their education was more relevant and important to their futures, (d) being more satisfied with the quality of education available to them in their schools, (e) having fewer problems related to the physical and interpersonal milieu in their schools, and (f) earning higher grades.     

Follow-up of Dropouts From Developmental Programs: A Supplemental Program Evaluation Approach

A potentially useful program-evaluation approach obtains information from program dropouts. This method was applied to university students who dropped out of four developmental programs offered by a student counseling center. Of 44 students telephoned, 29 were successfully reached by student paraprofessionals using a structured interview format. The results contain general implications for developmental programming and provided useful input for three of the programs.     

An Empowerment Evaluation Model for Sexual Assault Programs: Empirical Evidence of Effectiveness

Using an empowerment evaluation approach, the Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention (SARP) Evaluation Project brought together university researchers, public health evaluators, state funders, and program staff to provide evaluation training and consultation to all state-funded rape prevention and victim services programs in Michigan. In this paper, the specific activities of the SARP project are described, and process and outcome data are presented that address the effectiveness of this empowerment evaluation approach. Based on subjective reports from program staff and objective data obtained from state funders, results suggest that this evaluation model was successful in helping 90% of the prevention programs and 75% of the victim services programs successfully develop and launch program evaluations. One-year follow-up data indicate that 90% of the programs had sustained their evaluation efforts after the formal work of the SARP project had ended.     

Evaluation of Crisis Intervention Programs and Personnel: A Summary and Critique*

ABSTRACT: Many of the suicide prevention centers that developed throughout the country during the last decade have evolved into general crisis intervention services. At the same time, they have stimulated the development of a wide variety of agencies that utilize nonprofessional volunteers who, primarily through telephone contact, provide helping services to people in crisis. This paper presents a critique of three particular problem areas relating to the use of volunteer personnel, along with a summary of research aimed at providing new technologies for their solution. Methods have been developed for rating on-the-job performance of crisis intervention workers, based upon criteria that are thought to have general application to crisis intervention centers. Efforts to describe personality characteristics of volunteers are reported, along with suggestions for the direction of additional investigations. Finally, the issue of assessing the outcome of crisis intervention cases is summarized. A four-phase conceptualization of the crisis intervention process is proposed, and appropriate measures of outcome at each point in the process are suggested. The overall significance of this type of research is discussed in terms of the need for standards by which to evaluate crisis intervention services.     

Expanding the Horizontal Call: A Typology of Social Influence on the Call to Ministry

This research examines the social actors and interactions that facilitate seminary students' sense of calling. Drawing from 36 in-depth interviews with first year Masters of Divinity students, we introduce six ideal typical social others who play a formative role in the early stages of a call to ministry: instigators, exemplars, interpreters, affirmers, challengers, and codiscerners. Together, these findings demonstrate that the call to ministry, while deeply personal, emerges through social interactions that facilitate and make plausible a person's sense of calling and that sustain it over time. Extending Richard Pitt's conceptualization of the “horizontal call,” this paper argues that social others help evoke and solidify—not merely legitimate—a personal sense of call. This research also highlights differences in the social structuring of call by gender. Despite considerable gains in the ordination of women, we find that many still face obstacles to experiencing and embracing a call to ministry.