An Investigation of Counselor Effectiveness

The purpose of the researcher was to investigate opinions pertaining to counseling services received in high school as reported by college students and to determine the effect of selected independent variables. The following independent variables were investigated: sex -class membership, size of school, college classification level, students who had vocational classes taught by the counselor and those who did not, and the number of times the student visited with their counselor on an individual basis. The sample of 158 subjects included males and females from five different college classification levels. The instrument was developed by the researcher because no published instrument was found. Six hypotheses were tested. They were tested by appropriate single-factor analysis of variance or t-test. Four hypotheses were rejected. Results of the present study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the mean ratings of males and females for counseling services received in high school. The findings also indicated there were no significant differences among the mean ratings of counseling services received from students of various sizes of schools. Significant differences were found among college freshmen and seniors pertaining to the total instrument. Freshmen rated counseling services received in high school significantly higher than those of other classification levels and college seniors rated counseling services received significantly lower. Significant differences were also found pertaining to four components of the instrument. In the areas of information about college and scheduling, college freshmen and sophomores rated counseling services received in high school significantly higher while college seniors and graduates rated counseling services received in high school significantly lower. In the area of testing and test interpretation, college freshmen rated counseling services received in high school significantly while college seniors and graduates rated counseling services received in high school significantly lower. The findings also indicated college sophomore rated counseling services received in high school pertaining to career decision making significantly higher while college seniors and graduates rated counseling services received in high school significantly lower. Those students who had vocational classes taught by their counselor rated counseling services received in high school significantly higher than those who did not. Students who visited with their high school counselor more frequently rated counseling services received higher than students who visited with their counselor less frequently or not at all.