Virginia Counselors’ Picks: The Most Effective career Development Practices for Grades K-5

Dr. Michele Goodman Seibert

-a significant part of the career development process

-a lifelong process that includes early childhood-a process that occurs from early childhood

throughout the life span

Elementary Career Development

Virginia’s College and Career Ready Initiative (2010) –VDOE

President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign (2009)

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009- “progress toward college and career ready standards”

Virginia’s State School Counseling Standards (2004)

How is it relevant today?

Goal for grades K-5: “Students will investigate the world of work in order

to make informed career decisions.”

Virginia Counseling Standards

Statement of the Problem

What was used?Instrumentation-21 Question Survey combining the following:

Florida School Counselor’s Survey 2000◦ Demographics◦ Assess specific career

development activities and practices

◦ Chosen because it was successfully used in previous studies

◦ ( Osborn & Baggerly, 2004)

School Counselor Self Efficacy Scale◦ Adapted from the

Academic/Career subscale◦ Measure school counselor self

efficacy related to elementary career development

◦ SCSE could be used as an outcome measure for School Counseling Education Programs

◦ (Bodenhorn & Skaggs, 2005)

Public Elementary School Counselors across the state of Virginia

106 of 133 city and county divisions were contacted

1,083 schools 1,178 email addresses were obtained

Who was surveyed?

Electronic web based survey

1,178 elementary school counselors contacted through email

Survey Monkey Gold Plan with enhanced security (SSL)

Procedures

Who responded?

◦ -1178 emails were sent March 2012◦ -6 bounced back (incorrect email address) (.51%)◦ -19 (1.62%) opted out of receiving emails◦ -729 did not respond (63.23%)◦ -424 did respond (36.77%)◦ -387 met the criteria for the survey

◦Criteria: Part time or full time elementary school counselor for 2010-2011 school year

Who answered? Demographics

Female Male0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

400

24

94.30%

5.70%

Female

Male

Demographics: Education

Bache-lor's

Master's Ed.S. Ed.D. Ph.D0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

5

395

13 5 5

Highest Degree Received

3.1%

93.4%

1.2%

1.2%1.2%

Demographics: EthnicityEthnicity Percentage Number

Caucasian 82.10% 345

African American 15.50% 65Asian 1.00% 4Biracial 0.70% 3Hispanic 0.20% 1

Native American 0.20% 1Not Listed 0.20% 1

* Four participants skipped the question

Demographics: School Location

53.20%28.10%

17.30%

1.40%

SuburbanRuralUrbanOther

N=225

N=119

N=73

* Skipped by 1 participant

N=6

Demographics: School RegionSchool Region

Northern VA 36.60% 142Central VA 14.69% 57Tidewater 13.66% 53Western VA 11.09% 43Valley 9.80% 38

Northern Neck 6.45% 25Southwest 5.93% 23Southside 1.81% 7Skipped 8.49% 36

Total of 388 answered/ 36 skipped (8.5%)-considered NMAR

421 answered the question and 3 skipped the question (.71%) total eligible to complete the survey n=387

Range =330-336 (87.5%-89.1% largest difference =1.6%.Grade levels appeared to be equally represented.

Experience: # of years as a practicing elementary school counselor

377 Responded

Range 1-35 years Mean 11.30 years Median 10 years Mode 5 years (n=27)

2 Skipped Question

At this point in the survey 377 counselors responded

10 skipped the question 8 of the 10 that skipped

stopped the survey completely

Adjusted total 379

Elementary Career Development Training activities completed within the past year

Count

y/ C

ity In

-Ser

vice

Wor

ksho

p w/ C

EU

Confe

renc

e

Schoo

l In

Servic

e

Colle

ge C

redi

t Cla

ss

Wor

ksho

p w/o

CEU

Other

None/

No re

spon

se0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.650.90%

29.00%22.40%

18.20%

6.00%

21.10%

8.70%13.50%

Question 11: In order to be more effective at my school more training could be helpful

Answer Options

Response Count

Response %

Yes, a lot 77 20.5%

Yes, some 227 60.5%

I have enough

48 12.8%

Yes, very little

14 3.7%

No, none 9 2.4%

Training received on elementary career

development in counselor education program.

No specific training

Information as part of a 3 credit hour class

Independent Study (3 credit hours)

One 3 credit hour class

Other

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

117

165

3

81

22

31.12

43.89

0.8

21.55

5.86

Response % Response Count

Would more time be useful to implement career development?

Answer Options Response Count

Response %

4-5 hours/class 18 4.88%

2-3 hours/class 74 20.06%

1 hour /class 106 28.73%

Not sure 88 23.85%

No, all time was provided

83 22.50%

369 responded 10 Skipped

Total hours spent on career development grades K-3

Mean: 8.49 hours

Mode: 2 hours

Median: 5 hours

Range: 0-70

Outliers: 126, 200, 420 hours/ 319 responded and 60 skipped the question

Total hours spent on career development grades 4-5

Mean: 11.54 hours

Mode: 2 hours

Median: 6 hours

Range: 0-100 hours

Outlier: 200 hours/ 327 responded/52 skipped

Res

ult

sResearch question 1: What career development practices are currently being implemented by Virginia Elementary school counselors?

Classroom Career

Exploration (93.29%)

Used print materials(85.9%)

Online career exploration programs(70.3%)

Career Development activities in rank orderActivity % yes

Classroom Career Exploration 90.59%

Print Materials 84.21%

On line Career Exploration Programs 66.76%

Completed a Career Search w/students

62.33%

Introduced Career Clusters 61.22%

Guest Speakers 52.08%

Hands On Career Exploration Activities

50.14%

Individual Career Exploration 48.76%

Distributed Community Career Related Materials

42.94%

Activity % yes

Provided career exploration materials to parents

41.83%

Career Day or Career Fair 39.62%

Informed parents of career development school counseling standards

37.68%

Informed teachers of ways to incorporate career development in the classroom

35.74%

Student Career Dress Up Day 30.75%

Involved parents in a career exploration activity with students

26.87%

Career Exploration Field Trips 21.9%

Career Exploration CD ROMs 17.46%

Job Shadowing Opportunities for students

6.65%

Research Question 2:Over the 2010-2011 school year, to what extent do you believe that you met the Virginia Counseling standards: Grades K-3

Not Aware2.5% (n=9)

None.3% (n=1)

Some25.8% (n=92)

Most37.0%

(n=133)

All 33.1N/A 1.4%

(n=5)

357 responded / 22 skipped the question

Research Question 2: Over the 2010-2011 school year, to what extent do you believe that you met the Virginia Counseling standards: Grades 4-5

Not Aware1.4% (n=5)

None.3% (n=1)

Some24.4% (n=85)

Most31.8.0% (n=111)351 Responded / 28 skipped the question

What Activities are being used by Counselors with the Highest Self Efficacy?

Used online career exploration programs

Informed parents of career development school counseling standards

Informed teachers of ways to incorporate career development into the classroom

Top 3 Career Activities conducted by counselors indicating “all standards were met”: K-3 All standards were

met◦ Classroom Career

Exploration (101)◦ Using Print Materials (98)◦ Completed online career

exploration programs (82)

4-5 All standards were met◦ Classroom Career

Exploration (106)◦ Using Print Materials (99)◦ Completed online career

exploration programs (89)

These results matched the top 3 career activities used overall from research question 1:-Classroom Career Exploration : 90.59% (n=327)-Using Print Materials: 84.21% (n=304)-Completed online career exploration programs: 66.76% (n=241)

Summary, Conclusions, Implications, Future Research

-8 regional statistics combined for student enrollment 2010-2011 school year

Each region was given a percentage based on number of students in each region

Responses were comparable to the overall student population in grades K-5 in the 2010-2011 school year.

Overall the study represented 1/3 of elementary school counselors

Population Representation

Demographics: School RegionSchool Region

Northern VA 36.60% 142Central VA 14.69% 57Tidewater 13.66% 53Western VA 11.09% 43Valley 9.80% 38

Northern Neck 6.45% 25Southwest 5.93% 23Southside 1.81% 7Skipped 8.49% 36

Total of 388 answered/ 36 skipped (8.5%)-considered NMAR

Web Survey- ◦Dillman et al. (2009) some internet users

prefer to complete questionnaires by mail◦Mixed mode methods may be best

Student Feedback and Outcomes◦ Lack of student data◦Did not measure results of information gained

by students during career development activities

Limitations

Approximately 30% of Virginia elementary school counselors may not actively pursue the goal to meet career development standards.

School counselors may not be held accountable for meeting state standards for career development (affecting transition to the middle school)

Assists counselor educators to prepare students to meet the state and national standards in particular for career development at the elementary level.

Implications

Review and Revise Career Development Standards

K-3 (6 standards) 4-5 (4 standards) EC1 & EC2 focus on concepts, behaviors, and

their relation to the future EC8 refers to a “belief” including the changing

workplace and lifelong learning Are these concepts too complex? Can they be measured in elementary school?

Recommendations: State Level

Use the demographic data collected to analyze the SCSE scores to determine if any relationship exists between: ◦Years of experience◦Professional development activities attended◦Education on career development in counselor education

program◦School location

Are counselors given the time and resources to meet these competencies such as computer lab access, time to work with students individually, etc.

Future Research

Survey counselors, parents and teachers to determine if parents and teachers implement career information activities that are disseminated to them by the counselor.

Identify what online career exploration programs Virginia Elementary School counselors are using, frequency of use, and grade level use.

Are there ways to increase the variety of career development activities implemented? ( Mentoring instead of Job Shadowing, etc.)

Future Research