Running head: ADVOCACY INTERVENTION

Advocacy Intervention Parts 2-5

Chelsey Thomas
Seattle University

ADVOCACY INTERVENTION

Advocacy Intervention
In evaluating the needs assessment I gave to 9th and 10th grade students on the D
and E list around attendance, it appeared that the two most common reasons for not
attending school were tied to difficulty in academic performance and personal sickness.
Of those surveyed, 32% reported academic struggles as their reason for not attending
school, 21% said they were unsure how to get help with their classes and 45% reported
staying home due to illness. Further only .05% of these students reported utilizing the
tutoring services at Franklin High School. This data indicates that this group of students
may be overwhelmed by their academic struggles, are unsure how to identify resources to
overcome them and are not taking advantage of the resources available in the school to
improve their performance. These academic difficulties could be manifesting in actual
physical illness or feigned illness as an excuse to stay home and not have to engage in the
academic environment.
My goal is to create an intervention that will increase the ability of this group of
students to identify personal/social barriers to their academic success and utilize the
academic assistance available to them at Franklin. By the end of year 5, 75% of students
below a 2.0 GPA will have utilized individual or group counseling services to address
personal/social barriers to academic success. In addition, the percentage of students in
this group utilizing tutoring services either at Franklin or in the community will increase
to 50% at the end of year 5. Yearly benchmarks in reaching these goals are as follows:
Students below a 2.0 GPA utilizing individual or group counseling services will increase
15% each year. The number of these students utilizing tutoring at Franklin or at a
community agency will increase by 10% each year.

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Possible interventions could include classroom guidance lessons covering typical

personal/social barriers to student academic success, specific people in the building who
assist with academic (interventionists) and personal (school and community counselors)
issues, and the tutoring services available at Franklin and community agencies. The
counselors could also collaborate with the YMCA point person for tutoring to specifically
recruit students below a 2.0 with repeated contacts. They could also work together to
arrange for tutors to be available at lunch rather than just after school. Counselors could
also ensure that they meet with each of the sophomore students on their caseload who are
below a 2.0 at least twice in the first semester of the school year to offer preventative,
individual counseling and targeted group guidance services to help them identify possible
personal/social barriers to their success and refer out to community mental health if
necessary. Finally, the counselors could offer small group counseling services in order to
reach more students and help identify personal/social barriers to student success.
In order to reach the stated goals, a three pronged intervention will be
implemented. Research indicates that group counseling can have a positive impact on
students academics when combined with interventions at the individual and classroom
level (Dimmit, Carey, & Hatch, 2007). Franklin counselors are already regularly making
contact with junior and senior students below a 2.0 GPA on their transcripts, so this
intervention will focus on the sophomore group below a 2.0 GPA as a preventative
measure. The goal will be for counselors to make individual contact with this group at
least twice in the first semester of the school year and one or more follow up sessions if
necessary. Because we are now in the second half of the school year, the goal will be to
make individual contact with each of these students at least once during second semester.

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I will also run a counseling group called, Raise Your Voice, and will utilize Photovoice as
a vehicle for students to identify personal/social barriers to their academic success and
communicate those barriers to the educators of their choosing. Finally, counselors will
collaborate with the YMCA to recruit this group of students for tutoring services.

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References
Dimmitt, C., & Carey, J. (2007). Evidence-based school counseling: Making
a difference with data-driven practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.