Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Professional Development Workshop to Increase School Counselors’ use of Data: The Role of Technology

The use of data by school counselors has grown increasingly important over the past few years, and has a prominent place in the American School Counselor Association‟s National Model for School Counseling Programs. This study examines the effectiveness of four variations of a workshop designed to improve school counselors‟ data use skills. The workshops were designed to vary along two dimensions; the amount of conceptual knowledge participants were exposed to, and the amount of a technology application (EZAnalyze) participants were exposed to. The quantitative results of the study indicate that being exposed to technology did not have a statistically significant impact on data use. The qualitative results indicate lack of time and knowledge were the most prominent barriers to applying what was learned during the workshop, and technology and access to useful data were the most prominent facilitators of data use. While the design of the study may provide a useful model to evaluate the impact of professional development over time, the results of the current study are best viewed as exploratory in nature