Procedures

This study took place at Astoria High School, a ninth through twelfth grade public
high school in a small, rural community on the Oregon coast. The school has
approximately 600 students. About half of these students qualify for free and reduced
lunch. The student body is mostly White with Hispanic/Latino students comprising the
largest ethnic minority at about 10%. For the purpose of this study, freshman students
that had failed one or more classes in the first semester were identified as at-risk and a
letter was sent home with report cards to these students parents or guardians inviting
participation in the study and a follow up phone call was made. Of the 36 letters that
were sent, eight parents responded and agreed to participate in the study. Of these eight,
six students were boys and two students were girls. Two participant students were on an
Individual Education Program (IEP) for specific learning disabilities and one had a 504
Plan for a disability that affected concentration and attention. One of the eight students
lived with both biological parents, four students were living with one biological parent,
one student switched between parent and grandparent living arrangements, one student
lived with a grandparent full-time, and one student was living with long-term foster
parents.
To begin the intervention portion of the study, the researcher, a licensed
professional school counselor at Astoria High School, made contact with participant
parents to discuss the logistical aspects of the study, including coordination of the best
type of weekly communication (e.g. telephone calls, email, face-to-face meetings) and
most convenient times for contact, as well as any initial questions or concerns parents
might have about the study or their childs current educational experience. The school
counselor also discussed students current developmental assets that may directly or
indirectly support academic achievement and provided a strength-focused framework for
addressing student challenges. In addition to parent contact, the school counselor made
initial contact with participant students to discuss any questions or concerns that they
might have about the study and identify developmental assets and strengths that may
support their success at school.
Following initial contacts with parents and students, the school counselor
attempted weekly contacts with parents over the course of the first nine weeks of the
second semester according to their individualized arrangement. The nine-week period is
significant in that it is one quarter of the academic year and one half of the semester.
This time frame is used for grading purposes with teachers posting the most up-to-date
grades for progress reports, quarter grades, and final semester grades, which are posted
on students transcripts. Contacts with parents during the nine weeks were documented
and coded according to type of communication, general theme addressed (i.e. academic,
personal/social, college or career preparation), and subsequent interventions implemented
as a result of the contact (e.g. follow up with student, follow up with teacher, referral to
support resources). A brief narrative of each contact was also recorded to allow for
qualitative analysis and facilitate continuity in weekly discussions. Student grades were
recorded when teachers posted progress reports after about five weeks and again when
grades were posted after nine weeks. The details of contacts and changes to student
grades were analyzed and are presented in the findings section of this paper.
This specific methodology was designed for this study in order to collect data and
gain insight regarding general parent-school counselor communication that was or could
be feasibly implemented in the setting. The design of this study also allowed for highly
individualized communication and targeted intervention, which is common in the practice
of school counseling at Astoria High School. By tailoring this research project
specifically to existing practice, the researcher hoped to not only answer the research
questions within the scope of this study, but also develop parent-school partnerships that
could be sustainable beyond the study should they be found to be beneficial.
Additionally, this research design also lends itself to gaining qualitative feedback from
parents and students that may be useful in guiding future improvement and development
of the schools comprehensive guidance and counseling program.
Findings
The primary research question for this study asked: Is weekly school counselor
communication with freshmen students parents or guardians an effective intervention
strategy for supporting individual freshmen students that had failed one or more classes?
Of the eight students included in this study, five reduced the number of failing grades,
two increased the number of failing grades, and one remained the same, but moved from
the area before the end of the nine weeks. Notably, four of the five students that had
improved were passing all classes at the conclusion of the study. The fifth improved
student had reduced failing classes from four at the start of the study to one. Of the two
that had increased, both had doubled the number of failing grades. Collectively, the
participant group of students began the study with 27 failing grades at the semester grade
report, though at the nine-week report card, this group had reduced the total number
failing courses to 14, including three failing grades at the time of transfer for the student
who moved to another school. If the student that transferred is omitted from these
numbers the pre and post-intervention totals are 24 and 11, respectively. Failing grades
at the five-week progress report totaled 17 collectively including the student that
transferred who accounted for four of the failing courses during that reporting period.
Interestingly, failing grade distribution shifted from semester grades, to progress report,
to nine-week grades with both positive and negative progress amplified over time as
illustrated in Table 1.
STUDENT Fs at 1st Semester
Fs at 5 Week Progress
Report Fs at 9 Weeks
1 4 1 1
2 3 3 6
3 6 1 0
4 4 2 0
5 2 1 0
6 2 4 4
7 3 0 0
8 3 4 3

Total Fs 27 14
Table 1. Distribution of failing courses at grade reporting periods. Green indicates
improvement, red indicates increased Fs, and yellow indicates no change.
This study also sought to examine the types of contact used, general theme of
parent-school counselor communication, and subsequent action taken by the school
counselor. The most common form of weekly contact was by telephone with seven of the
eight parents preferring this form of communication. One parent preferred email,
however the parent would also make telephone calls to the school counselor in order to
follow up on email communication. Five of the eight also had at least one parent-school
counselor in-person meeting over the course of the study. Three of the eight missed one
week of parent-school counselor communication, however all participants maintained
some form of contact for the duration of the study with one week being the maximum
that any participant family missed.
Based on the three domains outlined by the American School Counseling
Associations National Model (2012) for student development (i.e. academic, career, and
personal/social), qualitative themes found in parent-school counselor communication
were analyzed. Seventy percent of communication was primarily focused on academic
topics with the remaining 30 percent emphasizing personal/social development, and none
of the conversations had career development as the primary theme. For six of the eight
participant families, academic development was the most common theme. Notably, of
the three students who did not improve his or her failing rate over the course of study,
two of these students parent-school counselor communication was dominated by
discussion about personal/social issues, and one of these students ultimately transferred
out of district.
Weekly contacts were coded according to follow up action taken by the school
counselor as a result of communication with the students parent. The most common
action taken following communication with a parent was follow up contact with student.
In some cases, multiple actions were taken, for example referral to academic supports and
a meeting with the student. Of note, nearly all contacts resulted in some form of follow
up action. A detailed account of follow up action for each student can be seen in Table 2.


STUDENT
Follow
up w/
student
Follow
up w/
teachers
Follow
up w/
others
Ref. to
academic
supports
Ref. to
community
resources
No
additional
action taken
1 7 3 1 1 0 0
2 5 1 3 1 1 0
3 5 1 0 1 0 0
4 7 0 2 0 2 0
5 2 2 0 2 0 2
6 6 0 1 2 1 0
7 7 1 1 1 1 0
8 6 0 3 0 2 0

Totals 45 8 11 8 7 2
Table 2. Individualized follow up actions taken by the school counselor.
In summary, five of the eight participant students showed gains with their grades
between the first semester grade report and the third quarter grade report, which
accounted for a reduction of total failing grades by nearly 50 percent. Two students
doubled the number of total individual failing grades and one student remained the same.
The most common topic theme was academic in nature, though communication with
parents about personal or social issues accounted for 30 percent of the total contacts.
Parents most frequently preferred phone contact as the means of communication and the
most common follow up action taken was contact between the school counselor and the
student, though a variety of communication methods and follow up actions were found.
Discussion
The findings of this study were consistent with the hypothesis that parent contact
would improve the freshman failure rate within the sample population. Though there are
many factors that influence whether students are academically successful, the gains for
individual students and the reduction of failing grades by almost half suggest the
significant impact regular parent contact with school counselors may have on outcomes
for at-risk freshmen. In addition to the general intervention of weekly parent contact,
individualized follow up by a school counselor likely contributed to student gains.
Notably, students were contacted approximately 80 percent of the time following parent-
school counselor contact and there were 34 additional follow up interventions with
teachers, other involved adults, academic support programs, or community resources,
suggesting that scheduled parent contact may also positively influence follow up actions
by school counselors. In all of these cases, interventions were individualized and guided
by specific student strengths and needs and were coordinated between home and school.
Students that did not make improvements academically appeared to have a high
incidence of personal and social difficulties that may have contributed to a decline in
academic performance. In analyzing weekly narratives and primary theme of parent-
school counselor communication, parents appeared to be more concerned about other
student problems such as substance abuse, peer group, skipped classes, and their childs
social development and decision-making than academics. This theme raises several
possibilities as to why these students received worse grades over the course of the study.
One possibility may be that factors in the students life outside of the scope of this study
progressively had a negative impact on their academic performance, for example the
progression of a substance abuse problem. Another possibility is that as adults in the
students system became progressively organized around problem behaviors, well
intentioned interventions by parents, teachers, and other may have promoted escalation of
problem behaviors and academic failure as first described in Tannebaums article The
dramatization of evil (1938). A third possibility is that students may have fewer
personal and social skills than their peers making coping with initial failures in high
school that much more difficult thus leading to undesirable coping strategies and reduced
motivation to be academically successful. Regardless of the reasons for these students
not making academic improvements, a potential benefit of parent-school counselor
communication is engagement of the students support system to address needs beyond
the scope of school alone, such as supervision after school, participation in pro-social
activities, or involvement in a drug and alcohol treatment program, however parent
contact and school counselor intervention alone are likely insufficient to address
academic failure for these students. Serving students with multiple and complex risk
factors in addition to academic failure is an area for future action research as these
students are most likely to continue to have high rates of failed classes, have additional
problems during their teen years, and ultimately drop out of high school.
While this study was useful in tracking a small number of students and
investigating the role parent-school counselor communication may have on freshman
failure rates, the scope of this study presented several limitations. For one, the sample
size of this study makes it difficult to generalize any findings and the diversity of students
and contextual factors may account for many of the gains or lack there of. Of the 36
students initially identified for this study, only eight, about 22 percent of those recruited,
participated in the study resulting in both a small sample size as well as potentially
skewing results based on parents that may have a higher level of involvement already,
place a higher value on academic success, or are more willing to work with a school
counselor. In addition to the limitations of sample size, this study was not designed to
study the influence of more specific individualized intervention strategies used by the
school counselor, which may account for more of outcomes than the less specific
intervention of simply contacting parents on a weekly-basis. It seems likely that parent-
school counselor communication impacts interventions that the school counselor may
employ with students or in the school system and further research into how this general
intervention may help or hinder students success systemically is one possible direction
for future study. Another direction for future study would be to expand to a longitudinal
study that explores factors influencing student success before high school, uses a similar
individualized and strength-based systemic approach, and collects data on academic
outcomes over the course of high school and post-graduate outcomes. Collecting
ongoing data from students and parents on perceptions about strengths and needs aligned
with academic content areas and the 40 developmental assets would also allow for a more
targeted intervention and sophisticated data analysis.
Despite the limitations of this study, the findings validate both the role of school
counselors intervening with academically at-risk students at Astoria High School and the
importance of engaging the parents of these students. In continuing to develop and refine
the AHS comprehensive guidance and counseling program, it will be worth continuing to
make parent engagement a priority, especially for those students that are at increased risk.
Additionally, it will be beneficial to continue to develop strategies to invite parent
participation in their childs education and provide a range of ways that parents can
communicate with school counselors and other faculty, staff, and community partners.
Students that present with personal and social concerns during the transition from middle
school should be given additional consideration in order to take proactive measures to
promote academic success and reinforce protective factors as responsive interventions
may be less effective with these students. Above all, it will be important to continue to
balance the needs of all students while providing targeted interventions to those
specialized needs, all in partnership with parents and other stakeholders to the end of
maximizing student success.