Resource Center: Science & Practice

What's New from EdITS

COPSystem (web-based) Site Registration

The COPSystem is now available as a convenient web-based career assessment package.

Administer assessments, view results and provide users with post-assessment resources to make testing faster and easier than ever.

To begin a free trial at your site, please complete our registration form.

Career Guidance Solutions

COPSystem Career Measurement

The COPSystem Career Measurement Package includes all of the materials you need to administer, score and interpret the COPS Interest Inventory, CAPS ability battery and the COPES work values survey.

Interpretation of results is organized around groupings of occupational clusters which represent the world of work.

Learn More About Support Materials -
Career Guidance Made Easy!

Wall Charts and Pocket Charts  help identify the right occupation for your client.
The Career Briefs Kit provides specific job information in an easy and accessible format for all ages.
The Job Handbook is a useful resource for young adults who want a fun guide to help them prepare for the world of work.

Best Practices Commentary: Promising Strategies for Preventing School Dropout

Publication:  Journal of Counseling and Development (2010)

Article: The School Counselors Role in School Dropout Prevention

Author:  White, S.W., and Kelly, D.F.

Summary Overview:
The authors discuss ideas on how to decrease school dropout rates from a development perspective.  They also include several statistics that describe the problem. For example, even though current national graduation rates have improved from 72% to 74% in 2004, this still means that 1 in 4 students is not graduating from high school.

They argue that it is important to conceptualize dropping out as the “culminating event in a process of alienation from school that is the result of both negative forces (risk factors) and a lack of sufficient support (protective factors).”

Successful programs and initiatives may be designed by school counselors themselves.  The authors reported that the weakness of such programs tends to be its long-term viability. Without consistent support from teaching and administrative staff, efforts to identify students with high rates of absenteeism and other signs of withdrawal may be more difficult.

Even if this is accomplished, the question still remains:

What can be done to increase academic support, academic instruction, and parental/peer involvement? 

Additionally, initiatives may not be evaluated often enough to identify weaknesses and implement changes to increase successful outcomes for those most at risk.

Increased parent involvement is related to student success, yet counselors have reported challenges to increasing parental involvement and promoting an increase in positive parental attitudes toward learning and academics. In most instances, time and resources make these changes difficult.

Main Findings and Future Implications

When warning signs appear, early intervention is likely to reduce the chances that a student will eventually dropout. However, much research has pointed to the strong relationship between low-socioeconomic status and higher rates of school dropout.   

Some of the early warning signs related to dropout are not surprising, and include disruptive or aggressive behaviors as early as kindergarten, substance abuse before 9^th grade, and poor academic performance.  Social development may suffer, and efforts to increase student success that focuses on this aspect of academic life has been directed toward increasing problem solving, cooperation, responsibility, and listening skills (see Gerler et al., 1990: Succeeding in Middle School: A multimodal approach; and, Ruben, 1989: Preventing school dropouts through classroom guidance).

Reference
     White, S.W., and Kelly, D.F. (2010). The School Counselors Role in School Dropout Prevention. Journal of Counseling and Development, 88, 227-235.

Additional Reading:
     Gerler, E. R., Drew, N. S., & Mohr, P. (1990). Succeeding in Middle School: A multimodal approach. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24, 263-271.
     Ruben, A. M. (1989). Preventing school dropouts through classroom guidance. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24, 21-29.