According to the American Psychological Association (APA, 2015), trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event, which can lead to difficulties with emotional regulation, social relationships, and the development of physical symptoms. Traumatic experiences may include physical or sexual abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence,…

Non-classroom settings are often the most violence-prone areas within a school. This study investigated the impact of an interdependent group contingency on the disruptive behaviors of students in grades K-6 in an urban school cafeteria. Nine female noontime aides and National School and Community Corps staff members implemented the Lunchroom…

Professional School Counselors (PSCs) are trained to be leaders in school reform, collaborators with other educators, and advocates for all students. While PSCs provide academic, career, and personal/social interventions for the student body as part of a comprehensive school counseling program the needs of students with disabilities are often…

This is an exploratory study that makes use of survey research methods and a convenience sample (N = 222) to examine how urban school social workers' perceived knowledge of neighborhood and community risk and protective factors affect their levels of self-reported effectiveness in practice tasks. Using hierarchical multiple regression, the…

The purpose of this researcher-school collaborative study was to examine factors which might be intervenable by urban high school counselors in assisting at-risk students. There were two primary objectives. The first was to examine the degree to which urban adolescents' academic competence predicts cumulative grade point average (GPA). The second…

The purpose of this article is to provide middle level educators with an orientation to the theoretical constructs and tenets of Choice Theory (Glasser, 1998) as both a preventive and remedial framework for supporting the development of students exhibiting school disciplinary behavioral problems. The following three topics are addressed: (1)…

With the current emphasis on accountability in kindergarten through twelfth-grade education, greater demands have been placed on school social workers. In fact, many federal, state, and school officials are demanding the use of evaluative outcome research that demonstrates the potential impact of supportive services. The present study examined the…

The realities and needs of urban students, families, and educators have outgrown traditional individual counseling models. The American School Counselor Association's National Model and National Standards and the Education Trust's Transforming School Counseling Initiative encourage professional school counselors to shift roles toward implementing…

To address the problem of fighting in four urban middle schools, school and family counselors collaborated to provide school-based multifamily counseling as an alternative to the mandatory 3-day external suspension program. Supported by district leaders and local school principals, the program was successful in reducing fighting recidivism rates.…

Schools in the 21st century are facing a multitude of complex and multifactored problems (Paisley & McMahon, 2001), including poverty, violence, and poor academic achievement. The intensity of students' needs has led some to question whether school counseling programs are actually comprehensively meeting the needs of all students (Green & Keys,…

Urban, African American male adolescents experience disproportionately higher rates of discipline referrals, suspension, and expulsion, which have been attributed to numerous ecological factors, including cultural conflicts and misunderstandings between the student's culture of origin and school. Efforts to reduce discipline problems must…