Module 3
Now is the time to create the program outcomes your CSCP will seek to accomplish. Your team will later determine who will develop and implement the interventions to achieve the program outcomes. (but not yet!)
Developing strong and measurable program outcomes can be quite challenging and quite rewarding: You are developing more clarity about how you intend to serve students, parents, staff, and/or community
Return to pages 42-43 in the Framework to ensure your team is clear about the three types of data typically used to state program goals and then later collected to demonstrate whether program outcomes have been achieved: A. Process - now being referred to as Participation data by ASCA, B. Perception data, and C. Outcome data.
Focus on the outcomes you want to impact. The Framework (p.29-30) provides your team with instructions on how to develop program outcomes that address the needs the team has identified. Then use the SMART goal template - Framework, p.91 - to develop your program outcome statements. Your focus here is specifically on the Outcome(s) to be achieved.
The Responsive Counselor also provides your team with an overview of how to establish program goals.
The team will later - once you have identified the intervention to be delivered and how it will be delivered - be able to indicate the participation goals - how many students - and perception data - student perception of their involvement & attainment of goals.
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Download the pdf document Identifying Evidence-Based Counseling Interventions (EBSCC 2019). Page 5 differentiates immediate, proximal, and distal outcomes.
Though the desired outcome may be a distal outcome (e.g. increased graduation rates), you are encouraged to focus on immediate outcomes (e.g. assignments submitted in classes each week) and then proximal outcomes (e.g. increase in classes passed in a semester).
Data for immediate and proximal outcomes are more easily collected and provide more opportunities for short-term interventions.
Distal outcomes are often influenced by a variety of factors outside the control of the counseling program, and immediate outcomes (assignment submission) and proximal outcomes (classes passed this semester), if achieved, will increase the probability that students will achieve the distal outcome (graduation). Additional benefits of focusing on immediate and proximal outcomes are:
Data for immediate and proximal outcomes are more easily collected.
Discussion of immediate and proximal outcomes provides the counseling team the opportunity to do a deeper analysis of the “vital behaviors” that contribute to the achievement of the proximal and the distal outcomes.
This deeper analysis then leads to the development of interventions that address the “vital behaviors.”
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We now provide examples of program outcomes, with the first two examples designed to address the same student need: graduation rates, specifically the rate of students on-track to graduation at the end of the ninth grade year. Students on-track to graduation at the end of the ninth grade year is data being collected and reported by school districts to ODE.
Example 1 - High School. A program outcome might be stated as “Over the past three years, 70% of ninth graders were on-track for graduation by the end of the ninth-grade year. The CSCP will develop and implement programs/strategies that will increase the number of ninth graders on-track to graduate to 75% starting with the class of 2026.
Once again, this distal outcome can be broken out into immediate and proximal outcomes and lead to outcomes such as this outcome: Following presentations by counselors, 100% of ninth graders will pass a quiz on the school’s graduation requirements.
Example 2 - Middle School. The team may decide that “on-track to graduation by the end of the ninth grade” is a goal that should be first addressed by interventions delivered at the middle school. Research indicates that when students develop individual education plans such as the Education Plan and Profile, attendance and academic achievement improves. Your team can later download several documents that overview the efficacy of personalized education plans in achieving positive outcomes. Though the distal outcome might still focus on ninth grade on-track to graduation data, a proximal participation outcome might be that 100% of seventh graders will have completed their Education Plan and Profile and 100% of seventh graders will report knowledge of the career path they are interested in (perception data). Outcome goals can then target increasing the number of students passing eighth grade classes, decreasing the number of student discipline referrals, etc.
A real-life example of middle school outcomes assessment is this video of students and a teacher at Lost River Middle School sharing about their use of YouScience during the 2022-2023 academic year. Though this video does not indicate how taking the aptitude assessment impacted students’ grades or other behaviors, you can see how it might.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F949JuW4Ts
Example 3 - Elementary School. A program outcome might be stated as “Over the past three years, 70% of students who requested mental health services were referred to and connected with community-based mental health at school. The CSCP will develop and implement programs/strategies/partnerships that will increase the number of students who are connected to mental health services to 85% within 4 years by increasing mental health partnerships available at school and referral systems for students and families.”
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While all of your program outcomes might be important, some might be more pressing or critical than others. The process of prioritizing your program’s outcomes requires your team to assess the potential benefits to your students associated with each outcome. Ideally, you will prioritize those program outcomes that will benefit the highest proportion of the student body or of a subset of students. Your team’s beliefs and district and school’s priorities will also guide how you prioritize your program outcomes.
Return to Module 2 and review the information on the Equity Lens. The CSCP team will want to continue to center equity as it reviews the student and system needs assessment data and then prioritizes that data.
Program Development Template Module 3
If you developed multiple program outcomes, what processes might your team need to utilize to determine the priority for each of the outcomes?
How familiar is your team with the three types of data used to discuss student outcomes? What steps might you take if the team needs some professional development about participation data, perception data, and outcome data?