In the article Raising Achievement Test Scores of Early Elementary School Students Through Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, Christopher Sink makes the argument that, “, elementary and secondary schools have not been immune to the accelerating pace of societal evolution (e.g., socio-technological  advances or
changes in the family structure)”. There fore in this study he seeks out to answer the following broad research question: Does school counselors’ work in elementary schools with well established  CSCPs promote  higher  academic achievement in students? Because the question is rather broad the research created a list of alternative hypotheses to respond to the question posed. The hypotheses are as followed: (1) After accounting for SES differences, third and fourth grade students enrolled in elementary schools with a CSCP will significantly out perform those  children who were attending schools with no systemic guidance and counseling program on various formal measures of academic achievement ; (2) After accounting  for  SES differences,  third  and fourth grade students enrolled continuously in elementary schools with at least  5 years of CSCP implementation will significantly  out perform those children who were attending schools with no systemic guidance and counseling program on various formal measures of academic achievement; (3) After accounting for student differences in SES, there are significant  gender differences  across achievement domains in  schools with or without a well-established CSCP.

Sink was able to answer his research question by telephone surveying 150 randomly selected public schools in Washington State. Of the total population of the school 39% of students enrolled were eligible for U.S. Government financial assistance. Thirty one of the school surveyed did not have a educated counselor on staff.

Once the surveys were conducted they were coded and tabulated. Once data was coded the numerical data was analyzed for normality’s. Sink’s hypotheses were tested using a general linear model. The independent variables used consisted of length of enrollment, groups, and gender. Student ITBS, and WASL achievement test scores were used for dependent variable.

This study is helpful for the current study at hand, because it offers perspective and work done towards having sources within the school for students who may be struggling. Hence I found this article to be very beneficial, and offered great insight in the results section.