Counseling in middle school education

This meta-analysis investigated the practical significance of school counselor-led
social emotional learning (SEL) interventions on outcomes for students in Grades 6–12.
The sample includes 28 studies involving 3,794 middle and high school students. The
treatment group was comprised of a total of 2,032 students, who received interventions
led by a certified school counselor. The control/comparison groups were derived from a
sample of 1,762 middle and high school students who did not receive the school
counselor-led intervention. The meta-analysis included a diverse sample of students,
with ethnicity reported as 589 (15.52%) African American, 52 (1.37%) Asian, 1,162
(30.63%) Hispanic, 1,267 (33.39%) Caucasian, 11 (0.28%) Native American, 21 (0.55%)
Pacific Islander, and 177 (4.66%) Multi-racial/Other. Of the studies included in the
meta-analysis, the ethnicities of 412 (18.86%) students were not reported. A total of 12
studies were conducted at the middle school level, 10 at the high school level, and 6
studies reported a mixed setting of Grades 6–12. The sample included almost equal
representation of 1,883 (49.63%) males and 1,847 (48.68%) females, and the genders of
69 (1.82%) students were not reported.
The overall unweighted Cohen’s d effect size (ES) of the school counselor-led
interventions was .312 (95% CI [.173, .452]). The ES for overall cognitive outcomes (d
= 0.380) was slightly larger than for overall effective role functions outcomes (d =0.377)
and affective outcomes (d = 0.356). The smallest ES reported for overall variables was
for behavioral outcomes (d = 0.228). The largest ES for a specific student outcome measure was found for standardized achievement test scores (d = 0.612) (Vernez &
Zimmer, 2007). Moderator analyses were conducted and are explored in the results and
discussion. The results address the current gap in school counseling outcome research by
broadening future research directions for comprehensive school counseling programs
(CSCP) to incorporate SEL initiatives aimed for middle and high school students.

The purpose of the current outcome study was to investigate the difference in grade 9 completion rate and student engagement between grade 9 students in the treatment group who received the Student Success Sills (SSS) classroom program (Brigman & Webb, 2010) and grade 9 students in the comparison group who did not receive the SSS classroom program. The sample consisted of grade 9 students enrolled in Intensive Reading classes, a required course for all high school students in the state of Florida who are below reading proficiency. School A served as the treatment group (n=98) and School B served as the comparison group (n=99). Certified school counselors in the treatment group implemented five, 45 minute SSS lessons and three booster lessons after being trained in the manualized use of the program and other related study procedures. A quasi-experimental pretest posttest research design was employed to
examine the impact of the SSS classroom program on grade 9 completion rate and student engagement. The unit of analysis was individual grade 9 students. Grade 9 completion rate was measured by academic credits. Student engagement was measured by attendance rate and the Student Engagement in School Success Skills (SESSS) instrument.