Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Michael Vinella

Abstract

A K–12 public school district in the northeastern United States implemented its own clinical in-school counseling program (CISCP) to help at-risk students in Grades 7–12 who were experiencing a crisis. The problem was that the district was unaware of whether the CISCP is helping its students through their crises. The study was important as it provided insightful data into the CISCP’s perceived effectiveness to meet the students’ needs. The purpose was to examine the perceived program effectiveness of the CISCP in helping its at-risk students in Grades 7–12 through their crises. Through a program evaluation using the developmental evaluation model, this study addressed the research question about the CISCP’s successfulness in supporting at-risk students in Grades 7–12 through their crises. To gather data, Likert-scaled surveys from students (n=10) were gathered ex post facto and semistructured interviews were completed with seven key program administrators. Directed by the developmental evaluation where the evaluator is part of a collaborative team that attempts to adapt effective principles to a local context, data analysis led to the main conclusion that the CISCP is effective in providing the at-risk students in the program the help that they need to get them through their crises. The results of the study support positive social change by identifying how to better meet the needs of the at-risk students and it also may help a doctoral student in the future who is performing a developmental evaluation at the local setting.

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