The Transformative Individual School Counseling Model: An Accountability Model for
Urban School Counselors
Author(s): Robert Eschenauer and Stuart F. Chen-Hayes
Source: Professional School Counseling , FEBRUARY 2005, Vol. 8, No. 3, SPECIAL ISSUE:
PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING IN URBAN SETTINGS (FEBRUARY 2005), pp. 244248
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42732465
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Robert Eschenauer,
Ph.D., is an assistant
professor and Stuart F.
Chen-Hayes, Ph.D., is
an associate professor at
Lehman College of the
City University of New
York, Bronx.
E-mail :
robert. eschenauer@
lehman.cuny.edu
The Transformative Individual
School Counseling Model:
An Accountability Model for
Urban School Counselors
The realities and needs of urban students , families
, goals became the focus of ASCA's National
tional
and educators have outgrown traditional individual
Model for School Counseling Programs (Dahir,
counseling models . The American School Counselor
2001; Erford et al.; Green & Keys; Paisley &
Association's National Model and National
McMahon, 2001; Perusse & Goodnough, 2004).
Standards and the Education Trust's Transforming
Developing school counseling program accountaSchool Counseling Initiative encourage professional
bility models has been addressed in the literature
school counselors to shift roles toward implementing
(Borders, 2002; Green & Keys, 2001; Hughes &
James, 2001;
Otwell & Mullis, 1997; Stone &
comprehensive developmental school counseling
programs focused on systemic change to overcome
Dahir, institu2004). Accountability in the counseling profession, however, is not new. In 1970, Arbuckle
tional K-12 school barriers. This article reconceptualizes individual counseling as a collaborative
act of
wrote a seminal
article that resulted in a spate of artiadvocacy and accountability used by professional
cles promoting accountability (Baker, 2001). What
school counselors and researchers to close achievement
is unique about the current accountability mandate
and opportunity gaps. The Transformative
is the Indivispecificity of attention to academic outcomes
dual School Counseling model utilizes a (Carey
functional
& Boscardin, 2003; Colbert & Colbert,
behavioral assessment approach to define problems;
sys2003; Green
& Keys; Johnson, 2002; Perusse &
temic y solution- focused, and narrativeGoodnough,
counseling
2004). The focus of this article, thereapproaches to address problems; and single-case
study
fore, is to
reconceptualize the role of individual
designs to document the effectiveness of interventions.
counseling performed by urban professional school
counselors as a tool to advocate for and demonstrate
accountability in closing K-12 achievement and
evolve in its role in K-12 educational settings.
The The evolve
The effort
profession
to redefine
effort professional
in its to roleschool
redefine
coun-of school in K-12 professional counseling educational school continues settings. coun- to
seling is evidenced by the American School
Counselor Association's (ASCA) National Model
and National Standards and the Education Trust's
opportunity gaps (Johnson).
THE SCOPE OF THE NEED FOR A NEW
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING MODEL IN
URBAN SCHOOLS
National Center for Transforming School
Counseling initiatives. Also, these preceding initiaAlthough individual counseling cannot meet the
tives were due, in part, to the increased calls for needs of all students in K-12 urban schools, it can
accountability in education and increased attention
remain a vital component of a school's comprehento the access, equity, and success for every studentsive program (Campbell & Dahir, 1997; Gysbers &
(ASCA, 2003; Bailey, Getch, & Chen-Hayes, 2003;
Henderson, 2000; Myrick, 2003; Newsome &
Erford, House, & Martin, 2003; Green & Keys,Gladding, 2003; Paisley & McMahon, 2001). There
2001; Gysbers, 2001; Stone & Dahir, 2004). As are
a a number of concerns, however, regarding indiprecursor to the changes in professional school
vidual counseling in the schools. These concerns
counseling, the introduction of educational staninclude the overemphasis on individual counseling
in K-12 schools, the lack of research data and
dards to improve curricula, raise achievement, and
serve as a measure for the assessment of outcomes
accountability for individual counseling outcomes in
has changed the image and functioning of K-12
K-12 school settings (Whiston, 2003; Whiston &
schools in the United States. As a result, the idea Sexton,
of
1998), and how individual school counsel
aligning the professional identity of a school couning is conceptualized to address achievement and
seling program with the educational mission and
opportunity gaps. Burnham and Johnson (2000)
philosophy of the school became critical, and educasuggested that there might be an overreliance on
244 ASCA I PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING
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individual counseling because it is consistent with
traditional counselor education training and/or
because it is a convenient and comfortable way to
work with students. However, in today's climate of
accountability in urban schools, neither of these reasons is an adequate justification.
Individual counseling is part of a comprehensive
counseling program that needs to be aligned closely
with the educational mission and philosophy of K12 schools - educating all students to high levels of
academic, career, and personal/social success.
Within this framework, a greater emphasis is placed
on interventions that benefit all students, such as
undefined period of time and seemed to make no
progress. A related issue is that many urban school
counselors lack knowledge and the skills to implement many types of interventions. They tend to
conceptualize solutions in terms of what they know
how to do instead of what is really required in the
given situation.
The ethical codes of both the American Coun-
seling Association (1995) and ASCA (1998) address
the professional responsibility of counselors to stay
abreast of current research and trends in profession-
group counseling and developmental school coun-
al counseling. In addition, best practices require that
school counselors not only use empirically validated
interventions and models, but that they also do their
seling lessons (Perusse & Goodnough, 2004).
own research to evaluate interventions used in their
Individual counseling should be used when group
work. A problem in this regard is that school coun- Individual
counseling or developmental school counseling lessons are not appropriate. Providing an urban student with individual counseling during the school
day lessens critical instructional time. In environments where high-stakes testing influences much of
what occurs, teachers and administrators are justifiably reluctant to release students for activities that
have not been empirically tested for effectiveness
selors traditionally have not linked research and
practice and have taken a rather negative view of
counseling is part of
research (Deck & Cecil, 1990; Green & Keys, 2001;
Lundervold & Belwood, 2000; Lusky & Hayes,
a comprehensive
2001; Whiston, 2003).
This situation must be changed if today's school
counseling program
counselors are to respond to the accountability man-
dates to demonstrate through data the effectivenessthat needs to be
of their contributions to the school's mission
(Baker, 2001; Green & Keys, 2001).
What is the purpose of individual school counseling and how does it differ from mental health coun-
seling? Should individual school counseling be
(Hughes & James, 2001; Lapan, 2001; Otwell &
aligned closely with
Mullis, 1997; Stone & Dahir, 2004; Whiston &
Sexton, 1998). Whiston and Sexton addressed
the the
educational
offered to any students routinely ? What are appro-
need for counselor educators to take a more active
priate goals for individual school counseling? What
role does research play in individual school counseling interventions? What outcome measures should
be utilized to evaluate individual school counseling
interventions? Addressing these questions within the
because the results of research are not easily deciphered by students unfamiliar with research designs
philosophy of K-12
and statistical language. School counseling students
need to be given the tools to understand research
K-12 school's conceptual framework or mission -
articles early in their training and then opportunities
role in producing good consumers of research mission and
schools - educating
facilitating student learning and development - dif-
to practice using those tools in the majority of their
fers significantly from an agency- based mental health
coursework.
perspective. Mental health models conceptualize
social-emotional functioning as ends in themselves.
Many school counselors, school psychologists, and
school social workers currently use a mental health
perspective in their roles in K-12 schools. This
explains in part why some K-12 students are in indi-
vidual school counseling "forever" and why school
counseling goals from a mental health perspective
are vague and tangential to an academic success and
learning focus.
A consequence of defining individual counseling
all students to high
The remainder of this article will focus on the
levels of academic,
Transformative Individual School Counseling
(TISC) model, which was created by the authors as
career; and
a means to illustrate accountability and to justify
time-limited counseling interventions used primarily
personal/sodai
to close achievement and opportunity gaps in urban
schools.
success.
THE TRANSFORMATIVE INDIVIDUAL
SCHOOL COUNSELING MODEL
within an educational framework is that one has to
The TISC model bridges the practitioner-researcher
rethink how problems are defined and solutions or
gap while responding to the need for accountability
interventions formulated. Over 25 years ago, the
data. Rather than accepting the dichotomy of pracpoint was made that many problems in the field titioner/researcher,
of
the TISC model defines professional school counselors as school counselor-researchpsychotherapy remained problems because they
were not formulated in a way that led to a real soluers whenever they are engaged in individual counsel-
tion (Watzlawick, 1978; Watzlawick, Weakland,ing.
& Combining these perspectives places the school
Fisch, 1974). This also may apply to counseling and
counselor in a unique position of using data for
explain why students remained in counseling for an
accountability purposes while contributing to evi8:3 FEBRUARY 2005 | ASCA 245
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Step 1: Paradigm shift from mental health perspective to school and academic perspective
Step 2: Problem definition - for example, functional behavioral assessment can be used to
contextualize and operationalize a problem
Step 3: Implementation of intervention
■ Use of solution-focused, narrative, or systemic interventions with other stakeholders as
resources and allies
« Short-term counseling interventions used to maximize student ability
Step 4: Evaluation of individual counseling data using single-case research design
Figure 1. The Transformative Individual School Counseling model.
In environments
where high-stakes
testing influences
mudi of what
occurs, teachers and
administrators are
justifiably reluctant
to release students
for activities that
have not been
empirically tested
for effectiveness.
denced-based best practices. Both Brady
and and
Belwood (2000) noted that in the past, "intuO'Hern (2003) and Dimmitt and Careyition,
(2003)
authority, and tenacity" served as the basis of
noted that outcome studies must be repeated
withclinical
judgment regarding the choice of treatment
in specific multicultural contexts to extend
andevievaluation of its results (p. 93). Such an
denced- based best practices. This model presents
approach would not meet today's accountability
opportunities to do this in urban settings, and
it also
standards.
In 2002, Foster, Watson, Meeks, and
is applicable to suburban and rural contexts.Young
Figure
(re)introduced single -case experimental
1 includes the steps in the model.
designs to school counselors and stated that "school
The first step in this model involves a paradigm
counselors can easily take advantage of the singleshift for school counselors trained in mentalsubject
healthresearch paradigm to conduct outcome
models. Individual counseling is now to be defined
research and answer questions regarding the effecwithin an educational framework with goals that
are of school counselors' interventions" (p.
tiveness
consistent with the school's philosophy and mission
147). This approach would provide professional
statement. The next step involves problem definition.
school counselors with a vehicle for documenting
Problems must be defined contextually intheir
operaefforts to achieve their intended outcomes and,
tional terms. This is particularly importantbetter
whenyet, fulfilling the ASCA National Standards.
working with urban children and adolescents
CASE to
EXAMPLE OF TISC MODEL IN
(Crone & Horner, 2000). A powerful technique
URBAN SCHOOL SETTINGS
assist in defining a problem is functional behavioral
assessment (Scott, Nelson, & Zabala, 2003). A functional behavioral assessment is a collaborative team
The following example illustrates the use of the
effort that involves collecting data from both indi-TISC model within a K-12 urban school setting. A
rect and direct sources in order to conceptualize thethird-grade African American boy diagnosed with
context and function of a behavior. By contextualiz-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was
ing behavior, one is able to gather informationreferred for counseling because of his frequent class
regarding antecedents, behaviors, and consequencesdisruptions. The academic performance of this
that can lead to the formulation of hypotheses as toyoungster was consistently below average in both litthe purpose or function of the behavior for the par-eracy and math. His disruptive behaviors were operticular individual (Crone & Horner, 2000;
ationally defined and were described as "talking out
Gresham, Watson, & Skinner, 2001; Scott et al.;
loud," "not being prepared to work," and "not fol-
Sugai, Lewis-Palmer, & Hagan-Burke, 2000). This
lowing directions." The counseling intervention
information then can be utilized to formulate inter- plan for this youngster had the following overall
ventions that are customized for the individual
goals: to function within the classroom and to
(Crone & Horner).
improve academic performance in literacy, math,
The third step of this model involves the impleand other subjects. Counseling was done inside and
mentation of the intervention. The intervention
outside of the classroom setting. The counseling
strategies should be implemented by either the
implemented outside the classroom focused on his
teacher, counselor, other specialist, parent, or stuunderstandings or self-narrative about his ADHD.
dent. The intervention strategies utilized in the
Like so many other youngsters with this disorder, he
TISC model are systemic (ASCA, 2003), solution
translated this to mean that he was a "bad boy," but
focused (Murphy, 1997), and narrative (Winslademany
&
times he was not aware of what he had done
to earn that title.
Monk, 1999). And finally, the last step of the model
involves evaluation of the intervention. Lundervold
246 ASCA I PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING
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The counselor then set additional goals: (a) to
improve the boy's understandings of ADHD as a
the collection and organization of data about their
disorder that was separate from his identity, and (b)
individual counseling. By monitoring their individ-
to help him identify how this disorder specifically
affected him so that compensatory strategies could
ual school counseling performance, school counselor-researchers use the TISC model to improve
be developed. In addition, he needed training in
social skills (e.g., modulating the volume of his
from such investigations benefit both individual stu-
voice, learning how to appropriately ask for help,
learning about personal space). Shaping procedures,
dents receiving the service and the larger school
community. The authors encourage urban school
data-based professional practice. The outcome data
a behavioral technique, were used to develop new
behaviors. In the class setting, the counseling
counselor-researchers to collect and publish their
data regarding interventions through national programs such as the ASCA journal ( Professional School
Counseling ) and the University of Massachusetts'
focused on his organizational and self-monitoring
skills to keep him on task. He also was taught strategies to avoid responding to inappropriate provoca-
National Center for School Counseling Outcome
tion from others.
Research publications. I
His third-grade teacher, an African American
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