Florida's School Counseling Framework - Florida Department of ...

Chapter 6
Standard Fourteen: Program Evaluation
The evaluation of the school counseling
program is ongoing and annual.
The school counseling program is assessed
periodically using program standards as the
evaluation measure.
There is a growing demand for the accountability of
all school programs, and school counseling is not
excluded. Evaluation data must demonstrate that
the investment of staff and funds into the program
is making a difference, which can also help to fund
expansion of the program.
Competency-based school counseling programs
provide an answer to the question “How do students
benefit from school counseling programs?” The
student is the primary client and the program
is evaluated on the competencies (knowledge,
skills, and attitudes) that the students acquire. An
evaluation design is driven by key questions asked
by stakeholders and program developers and
implementers, such as the following:
◊ Does the school district have a written comprehensive
school counseling program?
◊ Does the program meet the program
standards?
◊ Is the program being fully implemented?
◊ To what extent are the program design plan
and implementation strategy achieving the
objectives?
◊ Have students become competent in the
content areas?
Evaluation is a process that begins with the
development of questions to be answered by the
evaluation and ends with making and acting on
the recommendations generated by the findings.
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(A sample form, School Counselor Performance
Appraisal, is included in Appendix F.)
The evaluation:
◊ Is based on explicitly stated standards
◊ Uses data to answer the evaluation
◊
questions
Draws conclusions after analyzing the
data and the context in which the data was
gathered
◊ Answers questions about the effectiveness
of the whole school counseling program and
of the individual components of the program
◊ Becomes the basis for making decisions
about future program improvements and
directions
The written program should be carefully examined
and verified through documentation. If the document
has been written but not implemented, that fact
becomes evident as the evaluation process unfolds.
Counselors and administrators will use the results
to make modifications to the program and to
compare the implemented program with the program
standards. Administrators and policy makers will
utilize the evaluation to make decisions about the
content, quality, and effectiveness of the services
and to allocate financial and staffing resources for the
program. The evaluation results should be reported
to:
◊
◊
◊
◊
Students, parents or guardians, and teachers
who have been recipients of the program
Counselors and others involved with the
implementation of the program
Administrators, superintendents, and school
board members who administered or set
policy for the program
Financial or personal supporters of the
program