Mary E. Walsh

A Conceptual Framework for Counseling Psychologists in Schools

This article explores how contemporary developmental psychology, specifically developmental-contextualism, provides a conceptual framework for practice and research by counseling psychologists who work with schools. Developmental-contextualism articulates how human development (a) is affected by context, (b) involves bio-psycho-social levels, (c) occurs during the life span, and (d) includes strengths and deficits. The authors delineate how these four developmental principles, in conjunction with the traditional strengths of counseling psychology, can guide the application of effective interventions with school-aged children and their families.

Interprofessional Collaboration for Children and Families: Opportunities for Counseling Psychology in the 21st Century

As societal forces affect the well-being of children, youth, and families, professionals are changing the ways they practice and the settings in which they work In this article, the authors point toward interprofessional collaborations and integrated service systems as promising reform efforts that present opportunities and challenges for counseling psychologists. The authors describe the history and commitments of counseling psychology that position the profession to meet these challenges and the changes in focus and roles necessary to do so. Finally, efforts underway at Boston College are described as one exanlple of counseling psychologists engaged in interprofessional collaboration within schools.

A New Model for Student Support in High-Poverty Urban Elementary Schools Effects on Elementary and Middle School Academic Outcomes

Efforts to support children in schools require addressing not only academic issues, but also out-of-school factors that can affect students’ ability to succeed. This study examined academic achievement of students participating in City Connects, a student support intervention operating in high-poverty elementary schools. The sample included 7,948 kindergarten to fifth-grade students in a large urban district during 1999–2009. School- and student-level treatment effects on report card grades and standardized test scores in elementary through middle school were estimated. Propensity score methods accounted for pre-intervention group differences. City Connects students demonstrated higher report card scores than comparisons and scored higher on middle school English language arts and mathematics tests. This study provides evidence for the value of addressing out-of-school factors that impact student learning.

An Introduction Counseling Psychologists and Schools

Leaders of education reform efforts are increasingly recognizing what classroom teachers have long known: The social and emotional issues that children bring to school significantly affect academic achievement. Contemporary education reform efforts are challenged by what have been referred to as the “new morbidities”—poor nutrition, unsafe sex, drug and alcohol abuse, familial and community violence, teenage pregnancy and parenting, lack of job skills, inadequate access to health care, and homelessness (Dryfoos, 1990; Lerner, 1995). Children who live in poverty; who fear violence in their school, home, or neighborhood; whose attachments to parents have been seriously disrupted; andwho lack the social skills required for productive interactions are severely challenged both academically and socially (Eckenrode, Laird, & Doris, 1993; Furstenberg, Cook, Eccles, Elder, & Sameroff, 1999; Schmitz, Wagner, & Menke, 1995; Warner & Weist, 1996). Improving academic achievement is a complex process, and schools cannot accomplish the goals of education reform alone (Riley, 1998). In an effort to provide coordinated, comprehensive services to children, public schools have recently begun to implement novel collaborative arrangements with community agencies and resources. Emerging school-community partnerships span in-school and out-of-school time, cross professional boundaries, focus on programmatic as well as individual interventions, and address strengths and deficits.New sources of funding for these partnerships allow professionals to collaborate in new models of service and resource delivery (e.g., an increase of

The Boston College-Allston/Brighton Partnership: Description and Challenges

800million during the past 3 years for the Twenty-First Century Learning Centers federal program). The Surgeon

Children's Conceptions of Career Choice and Attainment: Model Development.

Over the last decade, universities have increasingly begun to recognize their responsibility to address the issues and problems confronting society. Many universities are responding to this challenge by developing formal partnerships with communities. This article describes a specific partnership between Boston College and its local contiguous community. It outlines the development of the partnership from a simple school-university engagement between a school principal and a school of education faculty member to a complex set of relationships involving (a) multiple disciplines and professions; (b) a set of complicated projects; (c) multiple funders; (d) a large number of faculty, students, practitioners, and community members; (e) multiple institutions interacting at multiple levels; and (f) many kinds and levels of outcomes. The centrality of the processes of colearning and interprofessional collaboration is highlighted. The factors contributing to the success of the partnership, as well as the ongoing challenges it faces, are examined. The partnership has led to a deepened understanding on the part of both the university and community regarding the research-practice relation.

School–University Partnerships: Reflections and Opportunities

This article describes a model of children’s conceptions of two key career development processes: career choice and career attainment. The model of children’s understanding of career choice and attainment was constructed with developmental research and theory into children’s understanding of allied phenomena such as their understanding of illness, violence, and ethnicity. The proposed model articulates aspects of career development during childhood that have not been addressed in extant vocational models. Six levels of development of vocational reasoning are described, ranging from magical, association-based thinking to reasoning that involves the dynamic interaction of influences at the individual, relational, and systemic levels.

Developing an Extended Services School: A School-Community-University Partnership

Universities and schools have a long history of partnering with one another to achieve a range of educational goals in Americas schools. For many years, the needs of the universities were the primary impetus for partnership. Universities needed practicum sites for student teachers and other educational professionals, as well as participants for the research of university social science faculty. In more recent years, the balance has begun to shift dramatically so that the needs of schools are increasingly driving the formation of school–university partnerships. This article briefly describes the recent history, development, and major foci of school–university partnerships. After identifying a relatively neglected area of school–university partnerships, the article describes an existing partnership that addresses this area in order to illustrate the potential and opportunities for partnership. Finally, this article closes with a discussion of the challenges and potential benefits of school–university partnerships.

Social and Contextual Issues in Interventions with Children and Families

For the past several years, faculty and students from Boston College have been engaged in a school-community-university partnership committed to improving the life chances of children and families in the local community. The development of this partnership has a complex history involving many aspects of the both the university and the community. In this paper, we describe the nature of the partnership (i.e., its purposes and goals), the process through which this partnership developed, its goals and achievements, and some of its key learnings regarding what factors best facilitate the development of a successful partnership.

Seven Years of Participant Research

Children and families face unprecedented challenges to their health, positive development, and—most basically—survival. They are confronted by problems of poor nutrition, drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sex, violence, school failure, under-achievement, school dropout, crime, teenage pregnancy and parenting, and lack of job preparedness (Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1995; Dryfoos, 1990; Johnston, O’Malley, & Bachman, 1996; United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). In addition, there are challenges to their health (e.g., lack of immunizations, inadequate screening for disabilities, insufficient prenatal care, and lack of sufficient infant and childhood medical services) (Hamburg, 1992; Huston, 1991). Moreover, one-fifth of our nation’s youth are poor and face the sequelae of persistent and pervasive poverty (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 1995; Huston, 1991; Huston, McLoyd, & Garcia Coll, 1994; Schorr, 1988, 1997). Feelings of despair and hopelessness may often pervade the lives of youth whose parents have lived in poverty and see themselves as having little opportunity to do better, that is, to have a life marked by societal respect, achievement, and opportunity (Lerner, 1993b, 1995; McKinney, Abrams, Terry, & Lemer, 1994; Schorr, 1988, 1997).