Does the Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC) Make a Difference?

1. Does the Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC) Make a Difference? California Association of School Counselors (CASC) Presentation March 30, 2007

2. Presenters This research was sponsored by California Counselor Leadership Academy (CCLA) and Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Dr. Kathryn C. Reilly and Dr. Randy V. Campbell California State University, Los Angeles

3. Principal's Comments* Student Support Personnel Team* School Climate/ Safety* Student Results* Major Achievements Measurements Community Partnerships/Resources Volunteer Involvement Focus for Improvement Keeping You Informed* Overall Clarity and Congruency* SPARC - Eleven ComponentsFirst Step SPARC - Six Components*

4. The Evaluation Questions • How useful is the Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC) in achieving its goals? • What is the effect of the SPARC on the behaviors and attitudes towards student support personnel in California? • Have the roles and responsibilities school counselors changed as a result of the SPARC?

5. The Design of the Evaluation • To determine changes in attitudes and behaviors • Initial focus groups in three regions of the state with SPARC raters • Preliminary survey after refining questions • Final 10 focus groups to validate the survey questions • Pilot survey tested with 6 key individuals • Survey administered through zoomerang

6. Method • Email sent out to 144 support personnel • This represented 12 counties which contain 367 school districts • 122 surveys returned with 119 useable (82.6% response rate)

7. Results Summary of responses to the survey

8. Survey Respondents

9. Type of Schools

10. Who wrote the SPARC?

11. Usefulness of SPARC in achieving its goals

12. Goal of Self-Evaluation

13. Goal of Promoting the Program

14. Goal of Preparing Reports

15. Goal of Implementing ASCA Standards

16. Ways of Sharing SPARC within the School

17. Ways of Sharing the SPARC Outside of the School

18. Behaviors/Attitudes changed within School (all respondents)

19. How Behaviors/Attitudes changed within School (all respondents)

20. Behaviors/Attitudes changed within School (Best in West/Diamond)

21. Behaviors/Attitudes changed Outside School (all respondents)

22. How Behaviors/Attitudes changed Outside School (all respondents)

23. Ways of Sharing the SPARC Outside of the School (Best in the West/Diamond)

24. Changes in Role and Responsibilities of School Counselors (All Respondents)

25. How Roles and Responsibilities of School Counselors Changed (All Respondents)

26. Changes in Roles and Responsibilities of School Counselors (Best in the West/Diamond)

27. Availability of Financial Resources

28. 39 Additional Comments • Positive = 49% • Suggestion = 36% • Negative = 15%

29. Discussion • Stakeholders bought into evaluation process • All sections of the SPARC were useful in achieving its goals • Student Results section was most useful in meeting all four goals • Trend is that Behaviors/Attitudes toward Support Personnel changed over time within but not outside school

30. Discussion (continued) • Not clear if the Roles/Responsibilities of School Counselor changed due to SPARC • Counselors wrote the SPARC without financial resources • SPARC shared extensively within schools but not outside of schools

31. Recommendations • Establish communication loops for SPARC feedback within and outside of schools • Highlight Student Results section of the SPARC • Use the SPARC to continue the transformation of the roles and responsibilities of school counselors • Plan a future study with larger samples to assess impact of SPARC

32. Additional Comments?

33. Contact Information Dr. Kathryn C. Reilly kreilly@calstatela.edu Dr. Randy V. Campbell rcampbe@calstatela.edu

34. SPARC Resources To obtain more information about the SPARC, please go to LACOE’s website at: www.sparconline.net