Conducting Intervention Research to Identify Efficacious and Effective Practices in School-Based Counseling

Abstract

Each year, nations enact public policies with significant influences on the work of school counselors. Whether such impacts are manifested within the broader context of the educational paradigm (e.g., a greater schoolwide focus on students’ social-emotional needs) or more specific to the field (e.g., calls for increases for the hiring of more school counselors), these decisions tend to be influenced by a blend of local, regional, and national needs, public rhetoric, and budgetary constraints. There is a question, then, as to whether school-based counseling research informs policy or whether policy informs school-based counseling research. Too often, it is a “top-down” approach which guides public policy and its influence on school counselors’ work in educational settings, rather than the influence of rigorous research and robust findings originating within the school counselor community itself. Therefore, in this chapter we provide a primer on conducting intervention research to identify the impact of school-based counseling endeavors. We address (a) the historical foundations of policy in school-based research in the United States, (b) the basics tenets and processes of experimental and quasi-experimental methodological approaches, (c) examples of international research representing these research designs, (d) general considerations when conducting intervention research in school settings, and (e) concluding thoughts regarding the future relationship between school counseling research and public policy.