Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) and Student Outcomes in Elementary and Middle Schools

Abstract

This study evaluates the relationship between the Recognized American School Counselor Association Model Program (RAMP) designation and students’ achievement and attendance outcomes in elementary and middle schools. We used data from 2009 through 2015 from Wake County Public Schools, the largest school district in North Carolina. Our analyses use a school fixed effects approach to assess how student outcomes change when a school receives the RAMP designation. Results indicate that RAMP boosts student attendance, particularly in middle schools, but has limited to no effect on student achievement.

Student‐to‐School Counselor Ratios: A Meta‐Analytic Review of the Evidence

“…A primary step is the improvement in operationalizing the school counselor ratio variable. Along with more precise measurement (Akos et al, 2019), Engberg and Gilbert (2014) and Cronin (2018) offered insight into avenues of research as they conceptualize ratios as a nonlinear variable or in quintiles. The wisdom of this approach allows ratio metrics to be more flexible, accounting for the theory that changes in school counselor ratios are likely to be different if moving from 200 to 400 students per counselor than from 400 to 600 students per counselor.…”

“…Furthermore, we do not definitively understand the relationship between dosage and modality on quality of service. Although some research suggests comprehensive programs (Lapan, Gysbers, et al, 2012) or Recognized ASCA Model Programs are associated with positive student outcomes, there is great variability in school counselor approaches (Akos et al, 2019; Wilkerson et al, 2013). Comprehensive program guides, such as Recognized ASCA Model Programs, do not specify particular interventions, and diverse school culture and student populations might require variant and culturally relevant interventions and social justice advocacy.…”

School Counselor Perceptions of a Comprehensive School Counseling Model and Implications for Practice

“…Varying degrees of success demonstrate the useful nature of the CSCP as they are implemented in different ways across the country. In one of the largest school districts in North Carolina, for example, researchers realized that Recognized ASCA Model Programs (an ASCA-Model program with a focus on data-driven decision making and evaluation of outcomes) or RAMP continue to make positive contributions in the area of student engagement in attendance, but, the model in and of itself evades big differences in the total school population (Akos, Bastian, Domina, Muñoz de Luna, 2019), a sensible outcome as schools often make big differences in individual students' lives, but it remains difficult to quantify the outcomes in organizations the size of a school district. Studies of school counselor ratios, which vary across the United States from a low of 300:1 to over 1000:1, yield complex results owing to a variety of factors above and beyond school counselors individually that contribute to the success or lack of in the achievement of students at any particular school.…”

Educator–Counselor: A Nondual Identity for School Counselors

“…The ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2019) contains a series of strategies and activities intended to operationalize the direct and indirect services generally provided by school counselors, including appraisal and advising, collaboration, consultation, counseling, instruction, leadership and advocacy, and referrals. All of these strategies and activities are vital foci that contribute to the school climate and outcomes (see Akos et al, 2019). This said, without a coherent frame for how these strategies and activities pertain to a unified school counselor identity, the profound confusion about the utility of school counseling both within and outside of the profession is not surprising (Blake, 2020; Patton, 2019).…”