Collaboration Between Counseling Services and an Academic Program: An Exploratory Study of Student Outcome

This study assessed the progress of students involved in a collaborative early warning intervention conducted by counseling services and a teacher preparation program. Results indicated that counseling services increased both students' academic and social integration and their confidence in their ability to teach and perform the duties of a teacher. Findings and implications are discussed. ********** Effective college counseling services today include extensive student outreach, deep integration with the institution's academic mission, and evidence of ongoing contributions to student academic success (Archer & Cooper, 1998; Davis & Humphrey, 2000). One of the ways in which counseling services can better assist colleges and universities in meeting their aims is through prevention initiatives designed to enhance the retention of students. Student retention is a long-standing challenge that institutions continue to address (Braxton, Bray, & Berger, 2000). Research has found that retention rates increase when students are academically and socially integrated into the university or college environment, when they have positive regard for their academic performance, and when they value the supportive relationships they have established at the institution (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1983, 1991). College and university counseling services can positively affect each of these predictor variables by collaborating with a cademic programs to increase student retention and success. In this study, the role of counseling services in increasing student academic and social integration was explored. Specifically, this study involved a partnership between the faculty coordinator of a multiple-section Introduction to Education course, who identified students who were at risk of academic failure, and the Counseling Education Department, which provided customized counseling services to the at-risk students to increase their academic and social integration. Expanding the role of traditional counseling services, the intervention examined here emphasized prevention and interagency collaboration based on Tinto's (1975, 1993) model of college student retention. Tinto's (1975, 1993) model of college student retention described a process in which students undergo changing commitments and experiences that affect their integration into the educational institution and, ultimately, their decision to withdraw from or to continue in the institution. The underlying assumption of the model is that students enter an institution with certain specifiable background characteristics and with a measurable level of initial commitments. Students interact with the college environment, and they become (more or less) integrated into the academic system over time (Stage, 1989; Tinto, 1993). Interactions between individuals and the academic system, along with social interactions, continually modify goals and institutional commitments in ways that lead to persistence or to varying forms of dropout (Stage, 1989; Tinto, 1993). As Stage noted, "Theoretically for two students of similar backgrounds and the same levels of initial commitments, a higher degree of integration into the system for o ne would mean greater subsequent commitment to the institution and to the goal of college completion" (p. 387). This model of college student persistence and withdrawal, with its core constructs of academic and social integration, has long been considered the most comprehensive and empirically valid (Shurr, Ruble, Palomba, Pickerill, & Moore, 1997; Stage, 1989). According to Tinto's (1993) model, it is the interface between college students' predispositions (e.g., self-image, social skills) and their college experiences that influence academic and social integration (Shurr et al., 1997; Stoecker, Pascarella, & Wolfle, 1988). Thus, college counseling must consider each student's unique inventory and provide individualized programming focused on student growth and development. …