Middle
school students are in a stage of transition to early adolescence that
is characterized by unique developmental needs. Students in this stage
of development are undergoing rapid physical maturation and asserting
their independence. These changes, along with the increased importance
of peer relationships and the struggles these young people can encounter
with redefining relationships, can result in increased levels of
experimentation with at-risk behaviors (National Middle School
Association, 2002) and high levels of conflict between them and their
parents/guardians (Allison & Schultz, 2004). During this challenging
time, middle school students need stability and involvement from their
parents and guardians as well as strong partnerships between family and
school to support their holistic development (Billig, 2002). Parental
involvement plays a “significant role in the quality of transition as
experienced by students (p. 239)” (Akos, Shoffner & Ellis, 2007) and is
“particularly key at this period of development given the multitude of
changes that can occur (p. 195)” (Lord, Eccles & McCarthy, 1994).
However, the middle school years mark the time where family engagement
in their students’ education decreases dramatically (Davis & Lambie,
2005). Because research suggests that family involvement in their
students’ school experience is crucial to students’ success in school,
the National Middle School Association (2002) encourages educators to
reach out to and include parents and guardians in their efforts to
support middle school students during this important period of
transitions in their lives. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA,
2005) emphasizes the importance of collaborative relationships between
school counselors and families to support early adolescents’ development
and achievement.
School counselors are uniquely qualified, due to their training and
expertise in collaboration, human development and communication, to
initiate and nurture the partnerships between family and home that are
needed to support middle school students. School counseling programs
provide assistance, information and services to students and families
that can facilitate these relationships. However, school counselors
should be aware of the challenges they may encounter in their efforts to
establish these partnerships as well as some of the reasons why the
level of family engagement tends to decline during the middle school
years. These issues include (a) inaccurate and often negative
perceptions of the school counselor’s role and functions held by
parents/guardians and students; (b) parents/guardians’ beliefs that they
do not have the expertise or information to help and support their
students; and (c) systemic barriers within many middle schools that
result in a lack of coordination of communication between school and
home (Davis & Lambie, 2005).
For these reasons, it may be helpful for the school counselor to
consider creative approaches they can apply toward their efforts to
include and inform parents and guardians. With the increased emphasis on
the use of technology for the purposes of information dissemination and
education, school counselors may want to consider creative uses of
technology to aid in the development of supportive partnerships with
parents/guardians. Dimmitt and Carey (2007) described the utilization of
e-mail, Web sites and newsletters for this purpose. However, an
additional technological tool that may assist the school counselors’
outreach efforts is the school counseling program CD-ROM. The purpose of
this article is to (a) explore the challenges school counselors may
encounter in their efforts to enhance family engagement in middle school
and (b) describe how the creation of a school counseling CD-ROM can be
used as part of an ongoing, multifaceted process of reaching out to
families.
Potential Challenges in Establishing Family-School Engagement
The developmental stage of middle school students involves many levels
of transition, most notably the academic, personal and social transition
from elementary school. Strong home and school supports are crucial to
positive student outcomes during transitional processes (Turner, 2007).
Dimmitt and Carey (2007) asserted that a comprehensive effort on the
part of all stakeholders in the educational process is needed to ensure
successful transitions for students. However, Davis and Lambie (2005)
presented evidence that demonstrates how caregiver engagement
significantly decreases precisely at the time when strong family support
is especially important to students, namely at the time of transition
from elementary to middle school.
Perception of School Counselor and School Counseling Program
Although school counselors are trained in the role of collaborator and
thus in an optimal position to lead outreach efforts to families (Davis
& Lambie, 2005) and provide programs that support successful transitions
to middle school (Akos, Shoffner, & Ellis, 2007), one important obstacle
they may encounter is the perception students and families may have
regarding the school counselor role. ASCA, in its e-mail message to
members during the National School Counseling Week in February, 2007,
stated that students and parents “still do not understand the work of
school counseling.” Research suggests that parents and students have a
view of the role of the school counselor that is not congruent with
accepted models. Many students remain confused as to the counselor’s
role or have negative perceptions of school counselors, especially with
regard to confidentiality issues (Remley & Albright, 1998). In their
study of parents’ perception of the effectiveness of school counselors
in college advising, Chapman and DeMasi (1991) found that most parents
gave school counselors low ratings on overall effectiveness,
satisfaction and performance. These authors concluded that “school
counselors have a problem of image (p. 277)” and that a substantial
minority of parents in their study did not use the services provided
through the counseling program. Akos and Trier’s (2005) findings
underscored the existence of this public perception. The authors
described their use of film excerpts that depict roles currently
described in school counseling literature with students in a school
counselor preparation program for pedagogical use. The students had
negative reactions to the media representations of school counselors but
also expressed the belief that these representations were “typical”,
“stereotypical”, and “very real”. The participants in this study felt
that most others have negative stereotypes of school counselors.
School counselors need to appreciate the existence of this public image
when they consider how they will market their school counseling programs
to middle school families, thereby increasing the likelihood that
families will take advantage of the program services and view the school
counselor as an ally in their students’ educational and developmental
process. Chapman and DeMasi (1991) stressed that parental awareness and
perception of school counseling services play an important role in the
community support and funding for school counseling programs. Dimmit and
Carey (2007) emphasized that “orientation to the role and functions of
school counselors at the secondary level can enhance service provision
(p. 230).”
Parents/guardians’ Lack of Information to Support Students
Parents/guardians of middle school students report that they lack the
information and expertise to support their students academically and
socially/emotionally. Billig (2002) asserted that although
parents/guardians want to continue to be involved during middle school,
they do not receive information from the schools as to how they can help
their students, such as information on course selection, grading
procedures, and basic facts about middle school. Amato (1994) found that
middle school parents were uninvolved in the academic aspect of their
students’ education partly because they did not have information
regarding curriculum and new programs, such as the math program, at
school. She also concluded that parents were largely unaware of how to
address the personal problems their students were experiencing and that
they lacked a basic understanding of the issues the students were facing
as well as knowledge of effective strategies to help them. Lord and
colleagues (1994) agreed that parents may lack an understanding of the
issues confronting early adolescents and what they need from the
significant adults in their lives.
Dimmit and Carey (2007) stated that providing families with the
information they need to support their students academically, socially
and emotionally is one of the ways middle school counselors can best
serve their students. These authors stressed the importance of the
efficient communication of information regarding the general nature of
the school setting, academic expectations, disciplinary procedures and
school counseling program services and curricula. School counselors are
also well prepared and positioned to educate families about the unique
developmental needs of early adolescents and to communicate information
to parents/guardians as to how they can effectively support their
students academically, socially and emotionally.
Communication Problems between School and Home
Communication become more complicated in middle school due to the larger
setting and increased numbers of students and teachers. Middle schools
are more likely to be departmentalized and fragmented than elementary
schools, posing a potential systemic barrier to communication between
home and school (Davis & Lambie, 2005). A lack of coordination and
uncertainty about the school hierarchy can result in parents receiving
mixed messages, having unclear ideas about whom to contact with
questions or concerns, or receiving inadequate help (Billig, 2002).
Parents’ perception of the quality of communication and coordination of
information in the middle school may contrast significant with their
experiences in the elementary school, where the student’s classroom
teacher is likely to serve as a contact person for school-home
interactions. School counselors can take a leadership role in working to
improve school-home communication by providing accurate contact
information to parents, serving as a facilitator and contact person for
family communication with the school, and assisting in the coordination
of school-home communication.
The Use of Technology in Enhancing Family Engagement
The internet is used by at least 73% of American adults and 87% of
American teens, with the majority of these users expecting to find
current news and accurate information regarding products and services (Rainie,
2006). Given these statistics, it is not surprising that school
counselors are increasingly using technology such as e-mail and Web
sites to publicize their school counseling program and disseminate
information to families (Dimmit & Carey, 2007). Van Horn and Myrick
(2001) advocated that technology can be an important tool for
effectively communicating the role of the school counselor as well as
for publicizing the services school counselors provide to the school
community. They called for school counselors to use technology to
promote “public awareness about the role and functions of a school
counselor” (p. 125). It has also been suggested that technology can be
used to improve service delivery (Sears, 2002) and that it can assist in
allowing the school counseling program to become a more integral part of
the school (Sabella & Booker, 2003). Additionally, innovative and
creative uses of technology can allow the school counselor to
specifically address the barriers to family engagement that exist in
middle school.
However, school counselors seem to be not making good use of technology
as a method for disseminating information about their roles and
programs. Research has shown that still only a minority of school
counselors use technology for counseling related tasks (Holcomb-McCoy,
2005); results indicate that the most common use of technology is that
of VCRs and monitors as well as work processing for typing letters and
reports (Carlson, Portman & Bartlett, 2006). School counselors report
that they are least likely to use such applications as webpage creation
in their professional settings (Holcomb-McCoy, 2005). An examination of
the content of school counseling Web sites conducted by Milsom and
Bryant (2006) suggested that even in the schools with an active school
counseling program Web site, the content and language on the site did
not typically accurately reflect the role of the counselor as stated by
ASCA and that school counselors are “not making good use of Web sites as
a method for disseminating information about their programs” (p. 214).
Practicality of CD-ROMS in Counseling
These findings suggest the need for counselors to use innovation and
creativity in their efforts to reach out to families of middle school
students as well as the need for suggestions regarding content of the
materials they use in this process. Baltimore (2003) described the
creation of interactive CD-ROMs for use in counselor education; the use
of CD-ROMs has also been described as a tool for training and
supervision (Daire & Rasmus, 2005), for aiding practicum and internship
site supervisors (Manzanares, O’Halloran, McCartney, Filer, Varhely &
Calhoun, 2004), and for fostering school counselor inter-professional
collaboration (Shoffner & Briggs, 2001). This is an attractive medium
for the professional school counselor to use for the communication of
information to families because (a) there are free templates available
which make creating a CD-ROM feasible even for individuals without
advanced knowledge of technology, (b) CD-ROMS can be easily customized
to fit the needs of any population, (c) CD-ROMS are easy and inexpensive
to reproduce and disseminate, and (d) CD-ROMS are creative and
interactive alternatives to paper newsletters or brochures, which may
increase the likelihood that families read and retain the information
presented.
CD-ROM “business cards” which inform the public about products, services
and employees are often disseminated at trade shows and similar venues
and are becoming increasingly common in business. Although many
businesses exist which specialize in the creation of CD-ROM business
cards, it is possible for individuals without advanced training in
technology to create a CD-ROM business card or program brochure using an
application such as Microsoft Publisher. Microsoft Publisher has
numerous Web templates with which the user can create a Web site that
can be moved on to a CD-ROM and replicated. For Macintosh users, the
iApple program is a software tool that makes the creation of a CD-ROM
feasible for individuals who are beginners to Web site design. The
CD-ROM can contain original images, clip art, links to video and audio
clips, and links to word documents and other Web sites.
Suggested Content for a School Counseling Program CD-ROM
Milsom and Bryant (2006), in their examination of school counseling
departmental Web sites, outlined six categories for their data analysis
based on the ASCA (2005) National Model. These authors evaluated
school counseling Web sites according to (a) their use of appropriate
program descriptors, (b) descriptions of school counselor roles, (c) the
presence of a mission statement, (d) reference to a comprehensive,
developmental counseling program, (e) the inclusion of information
regarding the school counselor’s credentials, and (f) reference to the
various domains of counseling services provided. These categories can
serve as a guide for professional school counselors interested in
creating a school counseling program CD-ROM to use regarding the content
that can be included. Including information from each of these
categories while tailoring the design of the CD-ROM to fit the needs of
the particular population of the school can allow the school counselor
to directly address the issues can impede the school counselor’s efforts
to serve as a facilitator of family-middle school partnerships.
Professional descriptors and role statement.
Lambie and Williamson (2004) argued that professional school counselors
should be aware of how their use of language to describe their
profession influences the way stakeholders will view their roles and
functions. The authors advocated for the use of the term “professional
school counseling department” instead of the term “guidance department”
to accurately communicate the nature of services they provide. Johnson
(2000) asserted that the continued use of the term “guidance counselor”
by professional school counselors is detrimental to the promotion of
school counselor professional identity and does not accurately describe
the work of a practitioner in a comprehensive, developmental school
counseling program. Using terminology and descriptors that accurately
reflect the nature of the school counselor role and program on the
CD-ROM can help in addressing and correcting the negative perceptions
that may prevent parents/guardians from seeking services and viewing the
school counselor as a partner in their support of their student’s
development. Milsom and Bryant (2006) and Lambie and Williamson (2004)
stressed the need for school counselors to communicate clear definitions
of the counselor role and for their definitions to accurately reflect
all components of their job. On the CD-ROM, lists of roles (e.g.,
individual and group counseling, classroom guidance, consultation,
coordination) can be included to give parents/guardians a comprehensive
picture of the scope of services offered. Moore-Thomas and Lent (2007)
suggested that counselors might include a description of and orientation
to services within their computer-based interventions to prepare middle
school students for counseling and ensure that their expectations about
services better match the realities of the counseling experience. These
descriptions can be enhanced by links to guidance curricula information,
images, audio and video. The importance of the communication of a clear
school counselor role statement has been emphasized by Fitch, Newby,
Ballestero & Marshall (2001) and Murray (1995). The CD-ROM should also
contain a school counseling program mission statement that clearly
communicates the goals and objectives of the program (Johnson, 2000) as
well as reference to the role the program plays in the overall
educational mission of the school.
School counselors’ credentials.
Milsom and Bryant (2006) found that only 8% of the school counseling
program Web sites they evaluated contained information regarding the
school counselors’ credentials (e.g., licensing, certification, or
educational background). Parents/guardians who have an accurate
understanding of the type of preparation and qualifications held by the
school counselors may be more likely to view the school counselor as a
professional qualified to help them with their concerns. On the school
counseling program CD-ROM, this information can be provided, along with
an embedded picture or the creative use of video and/or audio to
introduce the counselor. This can be a more personal, inviting and
interactive method of reaching out to parents/guardians than the
traditional newsletter or memo.
Helpful information for parents/guardians.
Information can be included on the CD-ROM that can help
parents/guardians support their students’ development. Hyperlinks to
helpful websites can be included that are relevant to the needs of the
program’s specific population; examples of topics may include
test-taking and homework help, community resources, college and
scholarship information, and special issues such as substance abuse,
bullying, internet safety and communication. Links to the school
handbook and other documents that describe school policies and
procedures as well as descriptions of subject curricula can be included.
The school counseling program CD-ROM also addresses the communication
problems that can occur in the middle school. Parents/guardians who are
frustrated by decentralized communication and a lack of a clear idea as
to whom to contact when they have specific concerns can find a link to
an overall annual calendar with important school dates, including school
counseling program functions, as well as contact information for all
teachers and administrators.
Customized information and design.
A
school counseling program CD-ROM can be tailored and customized in
design and content to fit the needs of the specific population the
school counselor serves. For example, Sciarra and Whitson (2007)
discussed specific implications for the professional school counselor in
working with Latino students and their families. These authors
emphasized the importance of communication with parents, especially
regarding the preparation process for postsecondary schooling, in spite
of the language difficulties and work obligations that may prevent these
parents from being physically present in the school. A CD-ROM can
contain information in Spanish regarding communication with their
children, the process of college application, financial aid, and high
school curriculum and course selection. Presentation and information can
be tailored according to special language needs and cultural factors for
any specific population. The middle school counselor may even wish to
create different CD-ROMs for the various grade levels in a school, with
some common information as well as information especially relevant to
specific grade levels, such as transitioning from elementary school in
the 6th grade, or transitioning on to high school after 8th
grade.
Implications for School Counselors
The first step in creating a school counseling program CD-ROM is to
decide what content would be most helpful for the population of the
school. The PSC might choose to include the input from teachers and
administrators, such as in the form of a school counseling advisory
board, especially when deciding on possible links to subject curricula,
standardized testing information, school calendars, or other
subject-specific topics. In planning the design of the CD-ROM, the PSC
should draw a Web site tree, which is a diagram of the link layout
desired for the CD-ROM. An example of a possible website tree is
depicted in Figure 1.
The home page should include a school counseling program mission
statement as well as a reference to the nature and scope of the program.
This page can be used as a template for additional pages and can contain
links such as “meet your counselor,” “school counseling program,” and
“helpful information.” These additional pages can be enhanced with
original photos, stock images, video and audio, hyperlinks to helpful
Web sites, and links to documents. When preparing the materials to be
included on the CD-ROM, it is helpful to gather these items in one
folder and to keep all html and PDF files in one location.
Another advantage of the CD-ROM which makes it a particularly attractive
medium to address the potential barriers to middle-school family
relationships is the variety of opportunities that exist for its
dissemination and presentation. Moore-Thomas and Lent (2007)
specifically advocated for school counselors to show technology-based
counseling orientations during general student orientations to the
school. The school counseling program CD-ROM may also be presented at
parent open-houses and distributed to families that are new to the
school; administrators, teachers and students can view and interact with
the CD-ROM at the beginning of the school year. The low cost of
reproduction of CD-ROMs makes it feasible for distribution to large
groups. To make the product even more attractive and interesting, the
CD-ROM can be reproduced on to mini-CDs in colored cases; the counselor
could also choose to enhance its presentation by creating a CD-cover
from a downloadable template. It is not hard to imagine a middle school
student feeling excited at being given a personal copy of a CD in an
interesting case and eager to view its contents.
Conclusions
Middle school students, during this stage of transition in their lives,
have unique developmental needs and they can benefit from family support
and family engagement in their education. School counselors, as leaders
and collaborators in the school, must make concerted efforts to reach
out to parents/guardians during this period where family engagement
typically declines dramatically. School counselors may experience
significant obstacles in their efforts to engage families and foster the
supportive school-home relationships that middle school students
require. These obstacles include (a) inaccurate perceptions of the
school counselor role and effectiveness on the part of parents/guardians
and students, (b) families’ perception that they lack information as to
how they can support students, and (c) the communication barriers that
can result from the middle school structure.
School counselors are challenged to implement creative methods of
reaching out to families, as families’ perceptions of the school
counseling program and their level of engagement in the school can
affect how counselor expertise is used, the extent to which students
seek counseling services, and the support of the school counseling
program (Chapman & DeMasi, 1991). School counselors can follow trends in
business and industry by using interactive technology to inform and
engage stakeholders. Creating a school counseling program CD-ROM that is
tailored to meet the needs of the specific population(s) of the school
enables the school counselor to reach out to families and students while
addressing the barriers that exist to family engagement in the middle
school. The CD-ROM is (a) easy for counselors without advanced knowledge
of technology to create with the use of Web site templates and software
applications such as Microsoft Publisher or iApple, (b) simple and
inexpensive to customize, reproduce and disseminate in a variety of
settings, and (c) an interesting, engaging, creative and personal way of
fostering important school-family relationships. Dimmit and Carey (2007)
describe the need for the middle school counselor to engage in
broad-based efforts to engage families and support students through
transitions, such as participating in parent nights and classroom
presentations as well as creating newsletters and brochures. A school
counseling program CD-ROM is another tool in this multi-faceted
communication process can that help school counselors connect with
families.
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Author's Biography
Correspondence
regarding this article should be sent to: Sara Meghan Walter,
Department of Child, Family & Community Sciences, University of Central
Florida, Orlando, Florida, 32816-1250. Telephone: (914) 263-0059.E-mail:
walter_meghan@hotmail.com
