California School Counselor - Winter 2008 - (Page 17)

research The Reality of Research Applied to a Non-Traditional High School By Laura Wanlin, Graduate Student, St. Mary’s College Attending graduate school provides a student with theories and ideas. However, it is only in the actual ﬁeld of work that a person is able to apply that knowledge and ﬁnd the real results. St. Mary’s College counseling program gave me the opportunity to implement the knowledge I have gained when I was given the chance to be part of a collaborative action research team during the School Counseling Practicum course. Our research was directed towards AB 1802 and the eﬀects the legislation has had on students at a continuation high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. At ﬁrst the task was daunting; not only were we going to venture into a continuation school where we weren’t certain how we would be received, we were also taking on the huge task of doing research, conducting surveys, and analyzing our data. Our team distributed a pre-existing survey (created by graduate students at the University of San Diego’s Center for Student Support Systems) about the eﬀects of AB 1802 meetings between the school counselor and each student. The biggest challenge we faced was gaining the students’ acceptance and willingness to participate in such a survey. When discussing this continuation school, it is important to note the unique culture and atmosphere of the school. Students attend for various reasons, the most common being credit deﬁciencies or behavioral issues at the comprehensive schools. The school’s mission statement is to foster a learning environment that specializes as to mention his newfound hope to a graduate and pursue college—two g goals that many of the students at g this school may never achieve. t As evidenced through our research, it has become apparent that r sometimes the most unsuspecting s audience is the one that will actually a provide researchers with the most p interesting and useful information. i We realize the responses of 33 W students are not encompassing of how students at all continuation high schools necessarily feel; however, this is an excellent place to begin further exploration. I only wish our research project would have allowed us more time to get to know the students, understand what it is they need from their school and counselor, and continue to establish the resources to help them achieve their goals. ■ in meeting the students’’ needs on an i i h d d individual level. The focus is to allow the students to leave the continuation school with awareness and respect for themselves and those around them. Due to this population, we immediately knew resistance would be a hurdle for our team because, along with the atmosphere and stipulations of the school, the AB 1802 survey we distributed was created with the typical comprehensive high school student in mind, not for a student attending a continuation high school. Despite the resistance we encountered, we did manage to receive 33 completed surveys of the 50 that we distributed (66 percent return rate). The results gained are not a deﬁnitive description of all the students at this school, but we did see the usefulness in their honesty and openness. Some students did take the survey seriously, while others found it a way to respond with inappropriate jokes. However, the overall results were impressive: not only did many seem to answer truthfully, there were also a few students who seemed to be signiﬁcantly transformed by the meeting they had with their counselor. One student went so far The California School Counselor | winter 2008 1:17:01 PM 377967_American.indd 1 4/14/08 17 http://www.aicag.edu

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of California School Counselor - Winter 2008

California School Counselor - Winter 2008 Contents Presidential Perspectives Jackie’s Jottings Executive Director’s Report Creating Possibilities Through Language The Six C’s Orange County Counselors Form Book Review Legislative Update Research CASC’s 2008 Leadership ASCA Announces Hughes Middle School Memory Tips for School, Work and Life California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Releases Statistics on Pupil Personnel Services Credentials Technology Tips Pics, Clicks and Technics Calendar Index to Advertisers

California School Counselor - Winter 2008

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