ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the research that has been published regarding the effectiveness of school-based consultation will be reviewed. Many scholars have appraised the research supporting the evidence of the various forms of school-based consultation as inadequate, with calls to contribute to this knowledge base in almost every manuscript published on the topic of consultation in schools. The question that may be posed before reading this chapter is whether consultation is an evidence-based practice. There are some theoretical models; for example, Behavioral Consultation (BC) and Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC) that have enjoyed the most rigorous review and positive results from the research that has been devoted to understanding how they work, and their impact upon consultees and clients. The gold standard of research, a rigorous, randomized, controlled trial methodology has been used with BC and CBC, and the results have been strong. Most school psychologists, educators, counselors, and social workers who study and use consultation have exhorted their colleagues to use this style of inquiry with the other school consultative models. There are also impassioned calls to conduct qualitative inquiry to supplement the quantitative approaches to data analysis. Clearly, both are needed. Therefore, we are at a point at which we will present the existing evidence for each model, and encourage the reader to become interested in transforming the field of education and the related helping professions by assisting us all in understanding what strengths each model brings to the practice of consultation so that we can feel comfortable in our choice of any of the varieties we have presented in this book.
