Evaluating Counselor Effectiveness Fact or Fallacy--Counselors Relate Equally Well to All Students.

In order to investigate counselor effectiveness in urban secondary schools, guidance personnel developed a ninth grade and a twelfth grade Counseling Accountability Questionnaire. Data collected were processed for city-wide and individual school results. Items dealing with help received and the reaction of students to their relationship with counselors were tallied as to student responses by sex, race, achievement level, plans after high school, and the number of interactions with counselors. Results show two trends: (1) minority students responded more positively than others; and (2) noncollege-bound students responded more positively than college bound. Little consistent difference was evident based on sex and on achievement level. Implications of the resulting data include the following: (1) individual counseling programs can be studied from the students' point of views, (2) staff development programs for counselors can be more efficiently planned to meet student needs; and, (3) student priorities concerning counseling services can be readily identified. (Author/SES)