Tuesday, September 26, 2023
2:00 - 4:00 PM (PDT) at Berkeley Way West 1204 and via Zoom
Open to GSE faculty, students, and community.
Request a zoom link from convenors@bear.berkeley.edu
Abstract:
The U.S. onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought immediate and unprecedented disruption to California secondary education. High school students in California have endured varying degrees of uncertainty, hardship, and trauma, with the full extent of impacts on students not yet known. California high school counselors, faced with the dilemma of how to support student needs effectively and equitably during COVID-19, have looked to the state as well as professional organizations for guidance on best support practices. Multi-tiered support frameworks, such as Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and its school counseling-specific derivative, Multi-Tiered, Multi-Domain System of Supports (MTMDSS) have emerged as prominent pandemic response recommendations and are being implemented in school districts throughout California. The implementation and use of MTSS/MTMDSS by school counselors presupposes a belief in these systems. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study aimed to explore and measure California high school counselor beliefs about the importance of MTMDSS (Tier 1) Universal Supports since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 113 California high school counselors through the researcher-developed Universal Supports Importance Scale (USIS) survey instrument and from 6 follow-up semi-structured interviews. Both quantitative and quantitative findings suggested that the counselors studied had high levels of belief in the importance of MTMDSS Universal Supports; however, enhancements in the items design of the USIS are recommended to capture a more complete range of school counselor beliefs. Results of an IRT-focused validation study of the USIS instrument, based on evidence drawn from the 2014 Testing Standards, displayed strong evidence for overall quality of valid and reliable score interpretation, offering promise for future diagnostic and formative uses..
About the speaker:
Ryan Carter, Ed.D., is a school counselor with over 20 years of experience in the field. He has served as a counselor, teacher, instructional consultant, and educational leader at diverse institutions throughout the Bay Area. As a faculty member in his current school district, Dr. Carter served as Counseling Coordinator for a decade where he helped lead multiple initiatives to redesign the district’s school counseling model, bringing it into alignment with national standards and competencies, as well as California statewide priorities. His leadership has also informed the continuous development of school district policy across a range of domains, including academic integrity, grading, discipline, and equitable access to student services. In addition to his work in secondary education, Dr. Carter currently serves as a research fellow for the Innovation in Applied Education Policy (IAEP) Center at San José State University.
Brent Duckor, Ph.D., is professor in the Department of Teacher Education at San José State University. He is a core faculty member in the Ed.D. Educational Leadership program at the Lurie College of Education. Dr. Duckor currently serves as the Director of the Center for Innovation in Applied Education Policy (IAEP) at San José State University, which offers technical assistance to California's system of support providers, including school districts and county offices of education.