A Review of the Major School Counseling Policy Studies in the United States: 2000-2014

Jay Carey and Ian Martin conducted a review of the major policy studies concerning school counseling in the United States. The authors located 37 documents disseminated between 2000 and 2014 that were either intentionally written with a focus on policy implications or were frequently used to attempt to influence policy decision-making. Their review is organized by types of policy studies: Literature Reviews, Survey Research, Statewide Evaluations of School Counseling Programs, State Evaluations of School Counseling Practice, Existing Database Investigations of School Counseling, Research Identifying Elements of Exemplary Practice, Studies of Evaluation Capacity and Practices in School Counseling

What are the Implications of Possible Selves Research for School Counseling Practice?

Jay Carey and Ian Martin provide a summary and critical analysis of Possible Selves Theory and its relation to academic achievement. Possible Selves Theory includes a focus on what the student\u27s self-concept is in the future and how this affects motivation in school. In addition, the authors offer insight into interventions using Possible Selves Theory and implications for future practice

Progress toward a cosmic dust collection facility on space station

Scientific and programmatic progress toward the development of a cosmic dust collection facility (CDCF) for the proposed space station is documented. Topics addressed include: trajectory sensor concepts; trajectory accuracy and orbital evolution; CDCF pointing direction; development of capture devices; analytical techniques; programmatic progress; flight opportunities; and facility development

Punch-Drunk

My work is an attempt to synthesize painting and drawing strategies that traditionally have been used to promote political dissent. I am influenced by many artists: Jean Du buffet, Leon Golub, Carroll Dunham, Jim Nutt and Karl Wirsum, whose work has informed my imagery and thinking in relationship to my artistic production. My thesis statement will define how I operate creatively and visually, and will seek to articulate a philosophy of my painting practice. I use different painterly vocabularies, manipulate figurative elements, discover through process, challenge standardized tastes, and use historic tropes to reveal a complex allegory. My paintings are sites where my worldview is enacted materially, through these applied visual strategies. However, this dynamic operates both ways-my material engagement also alters my worldview

Development of a Logic Model to Guide Evaluations of the ASCA National Model for School Counseling Programs

A logic model was developed based on an analysis of the 2012 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model in order to provide direction for program evaluation initiatives. The logic model identified three outcomes (increased student achievement/gap reduction, increased school counseling program resources, and systemic change and school improvement), seven outputs (student change, parent involvement, teacher competence, school policies and processes, competence of the school counselors, improvements in the school counseling program, and administrator support), six major clusters of activities (direct services, indirect services, school counselor personnel evaluation, program management processes, program evaluation processes and program advocacy) and two inputs (foundational elements and program resources). The identification of these logic model components and linkages among these components was used to identify a number of necessary and important evaluation studies of the ASCA National Model

Activities and Role of School-Based Counselors in the US: A National Survey of American Counseling Association Members

This study was conducted to determine: how a US sample of American Counseling Association (ACA) affiliated school-based counselors viewed their role; the extent to which various activities were practiced; and, how demographic variables (e.g., work setting and professional identity) were related to both perceptions of role and practice. Participants (N = 249) completed the International Survey of School Counselors Activities-US (ISSA-US) online, which measured both perceptions of the appropriateness of 42 activities and whether these activities are reported to be enacted. US counselors had a broad definition of their role and showed a high degree of consensus regarding the appropriateness of activities. Grade level proved to be an important determinate of the level of enactment of both group counseling and college and career counseling. The implications for of these findings for redefining the role of school counselors in the US and for international comparative research are discussed

US School Counselor State Licensure Requirements for Program Evaluation

Using qualitative content analysis (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007), we examined the expectations of states in the US regarding program evaluation content for school counselor licensure. Results show that 43 states maintain some form of program evaluation expectations for licensure, up from the 19 identified by Trevisan (2000). Twenty-eight states require licensure tests that purportedly align with CACREP, ASCA, or maintain a state developed licensure test that measures program evaluation content. Twenty-one states explicitly mention alignment of their curriculum with CACREP, ASCA, or both. The depth and scope of the program evaluation requirements that could be identified are ambiguous and unconnected to best program evaluation practices articulated by the evaluation field. We offer recommendations to build the evaluation capacity of the school counseling profession in the US that include refinements in graduate education of school counselors, in-service training for practicing school counselors, and revision of licensing and program expectations to include standards of best practice in program evaluation

Spectral embedding of weighted graphs

This paper concerns the statistical analysis of a weighted graph through spectral embedding. Under a latent position model in which the expected adjacency matrix has low rank, we prove uniform consistency and a central limit theorem for the embedded nodes, treated as latent position estimates. In the special case of a weighted stochastic block model, this result implies that the embedding follows a Gaussian mixture model with each component representing a community. We exploit this to formally evaluate different weight representations of the graph using Chernoff information. For example, in a network anomaly detection problem where we observe a p-value on each edge, we recommend against directly embedding the matrix of p-values, and instead using threshold or log p-values, depending on network sparsity and signal strength.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure