School Counseling Program Evaluation:
Parental Involvement
Table of contents
Executive Summary...……………………1
Introduction to the Report....……………..2
Purpose of the Evaluation………..2
Audiences for the Evaluation
Report………………………….....2
Limitations of the Evaluation….....2
Overview of Report Contents….…2
Focus of the Evaluation...………………...3
Description of the Evaluation
Object…………………………….3
Evaluative Questions Used to Focus
the Study………………………....3
Information Needed to Complete
the Evaluation…………………....3
Brief Overview of Evaluation Plan and
Procedure………………………..……..3-4
Presentation of Evaluation Results……...4
Summary of Evaluation
Findings……………………...…..4
Interpretation of Evaluation
Findings……………………….....4
Conclusions and Recommendations.…..5-6
Criteria and Standards Used to
Judge Evaluation Object…...……5
Judgments about Evaluation
Object…………………………....5
Recommendations………….....5-6
References……………………………….6
Appendices……………………….......6-10
2017-2018 Evaluation Report
November 2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Parent involvement is key to the development and
implementation of a comprehensive school
counseling program. In this report, parent
involvement component of the school counseling
program was evaluated. Based on the data collected it
was found that there are no specific procedures to
communicate and collaborate with parents at the
school that was evaluated. While there are procedures
being developed to increase parent involvement, the
findings reveal that these efforts are fairly recent and
are not the result of a comprehensive assessment.
This report offers the following recommendations to
address the concerns established in this report:
1. Implement a school counseling program open
house event in order to specifically showcase
the school counseling program.
2. Develop multiple channels of communication
with parents, this can include, developing a
school counseling calendar that includes major
activities, events, and program development
meetings.
3. Develop semester or end-of-the-year report to
inform parents about the services available,
services delivered, and intervention outcomes,
this could be in the form of a newsletter.
4. Due to the limited data collected and analyzed
in this evaluation report, a more extensive
program evaluation is recommended, in order to
acquire an exhaustive report.
1
 INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORT
Purpose of the Evaluation
The main purpose of this evaluation report is to develop practical knowledge and skills to
evaluate school counseling and other programs. The second purpose of this evaluation is to
assess the parental involvement component of the school counseling program. This evaluation
focuses on how the school counseling program collaborates and communicates with students’
parents. Parent involvement plays an important role in ensuring student success and
achievement. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) (2012) has established that a
comprehensive school counseling program must include parent collaboration. It is with this
precedent, that this evaluation was formulated and completed.

Audiences for the Evaluation Report

This program evaluation report has been developed to provide information and insight about parent
collaboration and communication procedures within the school counseling program at Valley High
School. The information consolidated in this report is intended to be relevant to the following
groups or individuals, parents, school counselors, and school administrators.

Limitations of the Evaluation

The program evaluation was conducted at Valley High School and the subject of the evaluation is
the school counseling program. Therefore, the findings and recommendations are limited to this
school counseling program and school site. In addition, due to time constraints and lack of some
type of data, the findings are limited to the data that was collected.

Overview of Report Contents

In this report you will find a description of the evaluation project in order to establish the
context. This report includes a description of the evaluation procedures, which describes how the
data was collected, and analyzed. This report also includes the major findings of this evaluation,
judgments about the school counseling program and recommendations for future actions.

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 FOCUS OF THE EVALUATION
Description of the Evaluation Object
The school counseling program at Valley High School was designed with the purpose to prepare
all students to become a member of a global society. The school counseling program is intended
to serve all students at Valley High School. The school counseling program provides academic,
social/emotional, and career/college resources and support. Finally, the school counseling
program also creates a positive environment and college-going culture in which students can
achieve their goals. The school counseling program delivers various interventions and activities
(Appendix A), to prepare all student at Valley High School.
Valley High School serves approximately 2300 students in grades 9-12 in Santa Ana, California.
Most of the students (approximately 97%) are Hispanic and approximately 39% identify as
English Learners. All students are enrolled in Free and Reduced Price Meal Program, and 12.1%
of students receive special education services.

Evaluative Questions Used to Focus the Study

The following questions served as the focus of this study:
1. What structures are in place to systematically communicate with parents, about the

services available?

2. Are services and interventions developed in collaboration with parents?

Information Needed to Complete the Evaluation

To complete the evaluation the following information was required: 1)Process data, more
specifically the number of parents that participated in school counseling program meetings,
activities, and events, 2) contact frequency data, in other words, the number of times and dates that
the school counseling program communicated with parents, 3) documents describing the school
counseling program meetings, activities, and events in which parents participated in, and finally
4) perception data from parents, school counselors, and administrators.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF EVALUATION PLAN AND

PROCEDURES
Based on the evaluative questions and the information needed to complete the evaluation it was
determined that the design that would be used to collect and analyze data would be a case study
design. The reason this design was chosen is because of the convenience and access to school
counselors, and because the purpose of this evaluation was to develop an understanding of how
parents are involved in the development of the school counseling program. Relevant documents
were collected and analyzed. Interviews with the school counselors were conducted as well

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 (Appendix C). Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. Themes will be discussed in
the results section.
For a more detailed information about the evaluation data collection steps see Appendix B.

PRESENTATION OF EVALUATION RESULTS

Summary of Evaluation Findings
Most of the data collected in this evaluation was the result of interviews of school counselors
conducted at the school site. The findings of the evaluation are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1
Evaluation Findings
Themes Found in interview Themes found in documents
Parents are not invited to school counseling Services are based on students
program development meeting. social/emotional, academic, and
career/college development.
School counselors understand the importance Information is not delivered in an engaging
of parent collaboration and communication manner. Flyers and handouts to parents contain
and its relation to the ASCA National Model. information but it is not organized in a concise
manner.
Parent communication is limited to parent Most of the information distributed to parents
link calls, or automated calls. is about students at risk of failing.
The frequency of communication is low.
School counselors report that most parents
have very busy schedules and it is difficult to
get them to come to the school.
School counselors are aware of all the
services provided to students, parents are not.
Most of the services are centered on the
college readiness of students.
School counselors focus is including parents
in the implementation of services, not the
development.
Interpretation of Evaluation Findings
After compiling all the data and searching for themes. It was determined that the school
counseling program at Valley High School is currently attempting to develop procedures to
include parents in implementation of the school counseling program. The school counselors
understand that to increase student success and achievement, they must collaborate with parents.
However, they also expressed the challenges in getting parents involved in the implementation of
the school counseling program. Furthermore, the findings reveal that it there is a limited amount
of communication channels, most of the communication to parents is done through automated
calls.

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 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Criteria and Standards Used to Judge Evaluation Object
The criteria used to judge evaluation object is based on the ASCA National Model’s (American
School Counselor Association, 2012) school counselor competencies. The first states that school
counselors should collaborate with stakeholders such as parents to ensure student success. The
second criteria is that part of the school counselor direct services must include consultation and
collaboration with parents. And finally, the third criteria established is that school counselors must
have the ability report program results and share those results with appropriate stakeholders, in
this case parents.

Judgments about Evaluation Object

The judgments about the evaluation object have been summarized in Table 2.
Table 2
Strengths and Limitations of the school counseling program at Valley High School.
Strengths Limitations
Individual collaboration and Most parents are not available during school hours to meet
consultation with parents. with school counselors. Additionally, parents may not know
that they have the ability to set up a meeting with school
counselor. Finally, if the presenting concern is only addressed
individually, this is not an effective use of the limited time
school counselors have.
Various interventions/activities Parents are not aware of the services that students are
to address students’ receiving or participating in. Knowledge and skills learned are
social/emotional, academic, limited to the school and may not translate to the home
and career/college because parents are unaware of the services provided.
development.
Parent Center at school site. Many services and information sessions are delivered to
parents at the Parent Center. However, the school counselor
do not participate or provide services to parents at the Parent
Center.
Parent Link Communication. Most information about student concerns and school
counseling program events is distributed through an
automated phone message. Using only one form of
communication limits the audience, in other words, not all
parents will receive the information.

Recommendations
Based on the findings, some recommendations to enhance parent involvement in the development
of the school counseling program are: 1) Implement a school counseling program open house event

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 in order to specifically showcase the school counseling program, 2) develop multiple channels of
communication with parents, this can include, developing a school counseling calendar that
includes major activities, events, and program development meetings, 3) develop semester or end-
of-the-year report to inform parents about the services available, services delivered, and
intervention outcomes, this could be in the form of a newsletter, 4) due to the limited data collected
and analyzed in this evaluation report, a more extensive program evaluation is recommended, in
order to acquire an exhaustive report.

REFERENCES
American School Counselor Association (2012). ASCA National Model: A framework for
school counseling programs (3rd ed.). VA: Author.

APPENDICES
Appendix A
Valley High School Counseling Program Logic Model

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 Appendix B

Program Evaluation Data Collection Steps

Consider
Develop or
sampling;
What types of What designs select a design
What information Who will you
evidence or (that will help to collect
Evaluation do you need to collect info
outcomes will be you answer the necessary
Questions collect to answer from? How
most credible to question) are information
the question? will you
stakeholders? most feasible? (sampling, unit
collect the
of study)
information?
1. What Perception data, and If -Descriptive Descriptive Information
structures are number of times communication case study Case Study will be
in place to school structures are -Descriptive collected from
systematically counseling program effective at cross-sectional school
communicate communicates communicating counselors,
with parents, with students and to parents, is and
about the parents about their relevant administrators.
services services. information to
available? school
counselors and
administrators.
2. Are Perception data Parental -Descriptive Descriptive Information
services and about the level of involvement and case study Case Study will be
interventions parental collaboration is -Descriptive collected from
developed in involvement in important for cross-sectional parents,
collaboration intervention and school administrators,
with parents? program planning. counselors. and school
counselors.
Survey will be
utilized to
collect
information
3. How is Perception All stakeholders: -Descriptive Descritive Information
service and data about the Retention rates case study Case Study will be
intervention implementation -Descriptive collected from
measured of data driven cross-sectional school
outcome data services. Existing counselors,
used to program documents. administrators.
inform future Information
actions? will be
collected in
interviews.

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 Appendix C
Interview Protocol for Parent Collaboration and Communication
Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview.
This interview is designed to assess the school counseling program’s processes to implement
parent collaboration and communication procedures. The data from this interview will contribute
to the school counseling program evaluation project.
Overall Description of Participation
Participation in the interview is requested one time only during the 2017-2018 school
year. Interviews will be administered at the school counselor school site and at the convenience
of the school counselor.

Length of Participation
Interviews will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Risks and Benefits of Participation

There are little to no risks associated with participation in this interview. The interview will be
voice recorded and will be transcribed for reviewing purposes. You, the interviewee will have
the opportunity to review the interview transcription. Your participation will be a valuable
addition to the information collected for developing an understanding of the school counseling
program.

Volunteer
Participation is on a voluntary basis. The choice to participate in this interview is up to you. If
you decide to participate, you may change your mind at any point during the interview.

Confidentiality Statement
Your privacy is very important to the interviewer. All interview recordings and transcripts will
be kept confidential. The following steps will be taken to ensure this confidentiality: Responses
will be given a numerical identifier, which will be used for organizing data, data analysis, and
reporting findings. All voice recordings will be erased from all storage including recording
device and computer.

Statement of Fair Treatment and Respect

The interviewer wants to make sure you receive fair treatment and respect. You may contact the
California State University, Long Beach Program Evaluation Professor, Jacob Olsen, at

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 jacob.olsen@csulb.edu, if you have questions about how you are treated as an interview
participant.

Informed Consent Agreement

By continuing, you acknowledge you have read or it has been read to you the foregoing
information. You agree that you understand the purpose, process, confidentiality procedures,
risks and benefits of this interview. You understand the use of your responses as data will be
used to develop this project. You understand that you can withdraw at any time without giving
reasons and that you will not be penalized or questioned on why you have withdrawn. You
consent voluntarily to participate as a participant in this interview.

Interviewee Initials: ________

Date: __________
Interviewer Initials: ________
Date: __________

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 Directions Prior to Starting the Interview:
I am a graduate student from the School Counseling Master's Program at CSULB and I am
currently an intern at Valley High School. I am conducting an evaluation on the school
counseling program for a class assignment. The interview questions seek to acquire information
about parent collaboration, communication with stakeholders, and school counseling program
outcome reporting. You will be asked a series of 5 questions. These questions aim to provide
more information about your methods for collaborating and communicating with stakeholders. I
ask that you answer the questions to the best of your ability. If you have any questions about the
interview, please let me know. This interview should take 10-15 minutes. Your responses as a
school counselors are highly appreciated it.

Questions:

1. How do you include parents’ perspective when developing the school counseling program?

2. How do parents know about the services provided by the school counseling program?

3. How often do you communicate with all parents about what the school counseling program
is currently doing, services offered, upcoming events?

4. What kind of programs are implemented at Valley High School to involve parents in their
students’ academic, social/emotional, and career/college development?

5. At the end of year, do you share your school counseling program outcomes with all
stakeholders, particularly parents?

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