A needs assessment and evaluation of the Brooks Composite High School guidance program

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Date
1993
Authors
Rommens, Janet L
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 1993
Abstract
It has been determined that a guidance and counselling department must be an integral part of the educational process in secondary schools. The goals of a guidance and counselling department have been constructed to assist students in effectively dealing with the educational, career, and personal/social issues that they face. To be effective, guidance and counselling departments must take a team approach and work with students, parents, teachers, counsellors, school administrators, and representatives of community agencies to ensure that the programs and services being offered are effective. To determine the effectiveness of a guidance and counselling department, it is recommended that this department administer needs assessments and evaluations at regular intervals to determine if the students' needs are being recognized and addressed. That is the purpose of this study. The needs assessment and evaluation addressed students' concerns about the guidance and counselling department at Brooks Composite High School. Section A discussed the students' perceptions about the knowledge, approachability, and availability of the guidance and counselling department. In Sections B, C, and D, the students evaluated the importance of the services being offered, and then the students rated the performance and delivery of these services. Section B discussed the educational services being offered. Section C dealt with the career services being offered, and Section D examined the personal/social services being offered. Detailed analyses of the results revealed that there was a positive relationship between the actual and perceived roles of the counsellors and the guidance and counselling department. The department is seen to be meeting students' needs in availability, awareness, approachability, and appointment scheduling. From the same analysis, it was concluded that students see a need for improvement ~n two major areas. Firstly, students saw a need for improved access to counsellors during scheduled class time. Secondly, it was apparent that many students were unaware of the full spectrum of services offered by the guidance and counselling department. Students perceived their greatest needs from those services listed in the educational section followed by the career, and personal/social sections respectively. In fact, other than in individual personal counselling, students did not rate the personal/social section as an important program component when compared with the education and career sections. Administrative tasks such as registration, post-secondary information, graduation requirements, program planning, and credit records ranked highest respectively. Furthermore, the students confirmed that counsellors do well in these activities. Thus, students clearly perceived counsellors in the traditional role of performing school-related administrative tasks.
Description
ix, 92 leaves ; 28 cm.
Keywords
Brooks Composite High School (Brooks, Alta.) , Educational counseling -- Alberta -- Brooks -- Evaluation , Vocational guidance -- Alberta -- Brooks -- Evaluation , Needs assessment -- Alberta -- Brooks -- Case studies
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