PERSONAL AND SOCIAL EDUCATION

Personal and Social Education

Personal and Social Education

Introduction

This study explored elementary school counselors' perceptions of importance and implementation for state standards in support of academic achievement. Results indicate that Academic and Personal/Social standards are important to achievement with no statistical difference between the standards. Further, counselors implement Personal/Social standards at slightly higher levels in their programs compared to Academic standards. Counselors consistently rated principles of character and qualities of effort, hard work, and persistence as most important and of highest implementation. This article also discusses implications for elementary school counseling practice.

Practitioner-Focused Research

Important trends in educational reform are challenging school counselors to demonstrate a measurable contribution in the area of student academic achievement. The 2001 No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) calls for educators, including school counselors, to be involved in efforts to close the achievement gap through increased accountability (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Leaders in the school counseling profession continue to write extensively on the importance of school counselors utilizing data to clearly demonstrate how their programs promote and enhance academic achievement (Dahir & Stone, 2003; Gysbers, 2004; Isaacs, 2003; Johnson & Johnson, 2003; Lapan, 2001; Paisley & Hayes, 2003).

A full appreciation of the contributions school counseling programs make to student academic achievement proves difficult for several reasons. First, outcome research directly linking school counseling programs to academic achievement is limited. Only one recent program, the Student Success Skills (SSS) model, has been researched repeatedly and has shown promise in improving standardized test scores for elementary and middle school students (Brigman, Webb, & Campbell, 2007; Campbell & Brigman, 2005; Webb, Brigman, & Campbell, 2005). Second, school counseling programs comprise much more than just academic interventions, making it difficult to determine which specific components contribute to student achievement (Brown & Trusty, 2005). Third, the responsibility of shaping student academic achievement is the primary goal of the classroom teacher, leaving school counselors underrepresented in important conversations regarding education reform. Fourth, confusion continues to surround the role of the school counselor, leading to a perception that school counseling programs are not viable resources for supporting academic achievement (Lieberman, 2004; Zalaquett, 2005). Finally, pressure from high-stakes testing has created an overemphasis on interventions that exclusively focus on improving students' academic competence (e.g., test scores, grades, graduation rates), resulting in a failure to appreciate programs and services that strengthen areas of academic success for all students.

One of the most important aims of primary education is to help children adapt to social life healthily. The foundations of the socialization process, beginning at birth and lasting as long as the person lives, are laid during the primary education ages. Primary school children acquire many of their social skills from their parents, peers, close environment and teachers.

Social skills are defined as communicating, understanding other people, acting according to social environments, making friends, displaying acceptable behaviours, expressing oneself, dealing with problems and establishing a good relationship with the environment (Gresham and Elliot, 1990; Guerrero and Jones, 2003; Marlowe, 1986; Yüksel, ...