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