Developmental assets and the middle school counselor.

Search Institute has identified 40 Developmental Assets[TM] that are building blocks of healthy development and success for children and adolescents. Young people's experience of most of these developmental assets declines over the middle school years. In this article, research is described showing the prevalence and impact of developmental assets among middle school students, and the power of the assets is connected to the developmental characteristics of young adolescents. The middle school counselor's role is described and suggestions given both for building assets in individual students and for helping to shape a positive school climate that promotes developmental well-being through the school community.

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When Deborah Meier was principal of a middle school in East Harlem, she once noted that the only people who should work with young adolescents are those who find their worst traits amusing. Middle school counselors have much to be amused about. Not since infancy do so many changes occur in what developmentalists describe as the fused and bidirectional relations between person and contexts (Lerner, Lerner, De Stefanis, & Apfel, 2001). The variability, depth, and unpredictability of those changes in early adolescence often challenge parents, teachers, counselors, youth workers, and neighbors, not to mention the young adolescent himself or herself. For school counselors, the foundational requirement for successfully working with young adolescents is to truly enjoy being with them (National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2003), despite or perhaps even because of all the changes they are experiencing. The purpose of this article is to describe an ecologically based approach to positive youth development--the "Developmental Assets" framework (Benson, Scales, Leffert, & Roehlkepartain, 1999)--and to suggest how middle school counselors can use the framework to help young adolescents successfully navigate those multiple developmental changes.

DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE

Physically, cognitively, morally, psychologically, and socio-emotionally, young people between roughly ages 10 and 15 are transitioning from being children to teenagers, sometimes feeling and acting more one than the other, sometimes both, and sometimes alternating in the flick of an eye (for a comprehensive, research-based description of the characteristics of young adolescents, see Scales, 2003). Many are transitioning from one school building where they were the oldest and savviest students, to new buildings, usually housing many more students, where they are less sure of themselves and more vulnerable. For example, Akos (2002) asked a variety of open-ended questions to study fifth graders through the middle of Grade 6 in their transition to a Grades 68 configured middle school. Although students were largely positive and excited about going to middle school, both before and after the transition they had more questions about rules and expectations than any other topic, and more specific concerns about older students and being bullied than any other topic.

Middle schools, too, are in transition these days. Like all schools, they are trying to comply with the standards of their state and the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, sets of standards that often conflict. Many are in transition as they react to recent criticism that middle schools supposedly focus on creating a nurturing environment more than an academically challenging one. And an increasing number of Grades 6-8 schools are transitioning to become configured as K-8 schools, both in response to population trends and to some evidence that K-8 schools may have developmental advantages (Gewertz, 2004).

The challenge of working in this environment is complicated because all the dimensions of young adolescent development are intertwined, each affecting and being affected by the others. For example, how young adolescents are developing physically has ramifications for how they think of themselves psychologically, and for how they interact socially with others. Their level of cognitive development affects their level of moral development, which is affected by and shapes their social-emotional development (NMSA, 2003). Because of these interconnections, it is often an arbitrary designation when teachers, counselors, and others talk about young adolescents' psychological development rather than their socio-emotional development, or their cognitive development rather than their moral development.

Middle school counselors are concerned with helping young people adapt, survive, and thrive. To promote adaptive functioning and thriving, different dimensions of development will have greater or lesser importance, depending on the situation young adolescents are in at any given moment. Helping young adolescents learn how to stay motivated while in a class they do not really like means strengthening one mix of developmental dimensions, while showing them how to resolve a misunderstanding with a friend in the hallway taps another. And rarely does development proceed at equal rates along each of those dimensions. The result is that the same young adolescent can appear to be quite mature one moment, and quite immature the next. A middle school student can one day--or one hour--exhibit well-developed future orientation and planning skills, such as having a fairly clear idea of courses that she needs to take in high school. But the next day-or the next minute--she may be able only to focus on what a friend supposedly said about her to another friend and all the social domino effects that can follow. Because all aspects of development are interconnected and ecologically influenced, middle school counselors must attempt to have an impact on multiple aspects of young adolescents' development and multiple dimensions of their worlds.

As children grow, their active role in molding their own development increases. Even infants are not simply passive organisms who receive a simple imprint of biology and environment; instead, they actively help to shape the environment they experience. Young adolescents have a greater influence on their own developmental paths than they did in middle childhood. For example, young adolescents who are likeable and helpful to others in the classroom may encourage their teachers to think of them and treat them as more competent than less socially well-behaved students. Not surprisingly, then, studies show that those students psychologically feel more academically competent, work harder, and end up getting better grades (see review in Scales & Leffert, 2004). Thus, when school counselors promote students' self-control and social skills, they are directly contributing to academic improvement as well.

Young adolescents need to contribute more to the decisions that affect them and to increase their role in regulating themselves. Often, however, middle school students experience a lack of fit between the growing empowerment, co-regulation, and meaningful participation that many want and need, and the way that schools are organized, how school rules are set, and the approaches used to promote learning. School counselors are in a good position to facilitate an appropriate balance of youth participation and adult leadership as a way of promoting positive regulatory behavior in young adolescents. But simple formulas for relating such "inputs" to young adolescent outcomes usually fall short. Gender, race/ethnicity and other cultural influences, family and economic situations, learning and physical disabilities, a young adolescent's temperament, and qualities of one's community or neighborhood are just some of the factors that, working together, give these developmental dimensions their personal and social meaning (NMSA, 2003) and that middle school counselors must skillfully address.

AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO MIDDLE SCHOOL COUNSELING

In this complex person-environment dynamic, school counselors are asked to do much, dominated these days by course scheduling, helping with college applications (at the senior high level), and dealing with student attendance and discipline issues. These constitute the top three activities of counselors nationwide, which, as Good (2004) observed, leaves precious little time for dealing with all the other intertwined dimensions of student development, from intellectual (as distinguished from purely academic) and moral growth to counselors serving as friends and mentors. Adding to the changing role of middle school counselors are tasks such as spending chunks of time helping with standardized testing, being case managers for children with special needs, and providing support to increasing numbers of students from other countries, who bring with them different languages and cultures affecting students' readiness to learn (Paterson, 2004).

Good (2004) noted that at a current average K-12 ratio of 315 students for every counselor, no district could afford to hire as many counselors as it would take to undertake both traditional and new roles with each individual student. Good proposed that the answer is for teachers to take over the counseling role, such as is done in college. But doing so would seem to be merely exchanging one set of challenges for an equally daunting but different set. "Dumping" counseling on teachers is no more a solution to the challenges facing schools today than is "dumping" substitute teaching on counselors. Of course, adviser-advisee programs can be especially useful at the middle level, but teacher-based advisories are very difficult to implement well (Anfara et al., 2003), and they work best as a part of the overall guidance and counseling program, not the whole of it.

A different response can be imagined that is developmentally and ecologically based. The goal of this approach to middle school counseling is simple: Provide in copious amounts the dual care and challenge that, rather than being in conflict, are each necessary sources of student success (Scales, 1999). The approach is rooted in three sources: the ASCA National Model[R] (American School Counselor Association, 2003); Search Institute's positive youth development framework, Developmental Assets (Benson et al., 1999); and the characteristics of successful schools for young adolescents articulated by the National Middle School Association (2003).

In this approach, a comprehensive and ecologically sensitive school counseling program would include as an additional intentional element the building of students' individual and collective (i.e., school-wide) developmental assets. Middle school counselors also would play more pronounced roles as linkers of students' developmental contexts (family, school, community, and peer group) and broad promoters of a positive school climate.

The ASCA National Model (2003) underscores that a comprehensive school counseling program reflects students' multiple developmental domains, emphasizing students' academic, career, and personal/social development and the linkages among those. It also explicitly notes that a comprehensive school counseling program does not occur just in counselors' offices but is systemic and ecological, so that it affects and is integrated into all aspects of school functioning, from the curriculum to school management. Similarly, NMSA's (2003) guidelines call for ecological and broad guidance and support services that help students in "negotiating their lives both in and out of school" (p. 32). Counselor activities recommended include assessment of student learning needs and referral for specialized services, supporting teachers in adviser-advisee programs, and serving as resources to the interdisciplinary teacher teams that are the heart of a good middle school. NMSA also identifies counselor roles such as sponsoring peer mediation and peer tutoring programs, facilitating programs for students and families about transitioning into and out of middle school (see Akos, Creamer, & Masina, 2004, for a recent example), and coordinating and linking students with a variety of school and community resources.

All these and other activities reinforce the overall climate of a successful middle school as being caring, challenging, and both integrative and exploratory. Counselors support the integrative dimension when they help young adolescents make sense of the seemingly disconnected pieces of the curriculum and their lives. They support the exploratory dimension when they guide young adolescents on the adventure of self-discovery and help the middle school become for those students a "finding place" (NMSA, 2003, p. 23).

THE DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS FRAMEWORK

One systematic, positive youth development approach that counselors can use to structure and carry out the varied roles recommended by ASCA (2003) and NMSA (2003) is to help build young people's "Developmental Assets" (Benson et al., 1999). Studies have shown that a variety of positive individual and ecological nutrients--variously called resources, promises, protective factors, developmental milestones, or assets--are linked to young people's success in school and in other domains of life (reviewed in Benson, Scales, Hamilton, & Sesma, in press). Since 1990, Search Institute has developed and promulgated the framework of Developmental Assets. As shown in Table 1, the framework names 40 developmental assets arrayed for communication purposes into eight categories: Support, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, and Constructive Use of Time are "external" assets provided for young people by adults and peers. Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies, and Positive Identity are "internal" assets that young people gradually develop to become self-regulating individuals.

An extensive scientific literature spanning hundreds of studies over the past two decades demonstrates that each of the assets has been found to correlate with or contribute to one or more of three desirable developmental outcomes for both adolescents (Scales & Leffert, 2004) and preadolescents (Scales, Sesma, & Bolstrom, 2004): (a) prevention of high-risk behaviors, (b) promotion of thriving, and (c) strengthening of resilience. Middle school counselors can directly and indirectly influence most of the developmental assets. Some schools have even used the Developmental Assets framework to shape their hiring standards for school counselors (see Starkman, Scales, & Roberts, 1999, pp. 179-182, for an example).

Unfortunately, young people say they experience fewer of these assets as they get older, with the decline sharpest across the middle school years. For example, a large-aggregate, cross-sectional sample of more than 217,000 students in Grades 6-12 in more than 300 U.S. communities shows that the average number of the 40 assets steadily drops from a high of 23.1 in Grade 6 to 19.6 by Grade 8, with a further drop and leveling at about 18 throughout high school (Developmental Assets, 2001). These cross-sectional results also have been found in a smaller but longitudinal study, in which a cohort of 370 students was followed from when they were in Grades 6-8 to when they were in Grades 10-12. Over time, the average total number of assets declined sharply for both males and females across middle school, from 25.0 in sixth grade to 19.6 by ninth grade for girls, and from 22.2 in sixth grade to 17.2 in ninth grade for boys. Internal assets bottomed out in 9th/10th grade, then started a slight recovery, but external assets--the ones families, schools, and communities can more directly provide--kept declining until the 11th grade (Roehlkepartain, Benson, & Sesma, 2003).

For example, Clary and Roehlkepartain (in press) have found that participation in all types of engagement in community life--from cocurricular youth programs to religious organizations to volunteer service to others--declines significantly from middle school to high school. This is just at a time when young adolescents developmentally need increased connections and opportunities to play meaningful roles in their environments (NMSA, 2003). In fact, in that longitudinal Search Institute study, the single largest group of students decreased in their assets--41%--by at least .5 standard deviation, versus 34% who were relatively stable from middle school through high school. Only 24% went up in their developmental assets at least .5 standard deviation (Scales, Benson, Roehlkcpartain, Sesma, & van Dulmen, in press). The unfortunate conclusion is that a decline in assets seems developmentally normal for a large proportion of students, with the most damage happening in middle school.

But the decline is not inevitable. Middle school counselors are in a unique position to help counter such trends and build these assets. For example, Lapan, Gysbers, and Petrowski (2003) studied more than 22,000 seventh graders in more than 180 Missouri schools. They found that students in schools with more fully implemented school counseling programs felt safer in school and had better relationships with their teachers, a greater sense of the value of education to their future, and a more positive sense of school climate. Not surprisingly then, they also had higher grades. These effects held regardless of the school's level of poverty. What did counselors do to contribute to such results? In more fully implemented counseling programs, counselors spent more time in classrooms, helped students with personal development as well as academic and career issues, provided more individual and group counseling, and connected themselves and students more often with parents, school staff', and community resources. In short, they supported middle school students' holistic development and sought to systematically influence the multiple contexts of students' lives.

Table 2 displays illustrations of activities, strategies, and interventions that middle school counselors can implement to build some of the key developmental assets most related to students' academic success, such as school engagement, high expectations, and a caring school climate. As the asset-building activities in Table 2 suggest, raising students' assets happens not just by influencing individual students but by affecting overall school culture across the major functions of school organization, curriculum and instruction, cocurricular programs, community partnerships, and support services (Starkman et al., 1999).

THE IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS ON ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING

These kinds of middle school counselor activities may not always be able to reverse what has been observed as a developmentally normal decline in assets across middle school. But the urgency of even slowing down that decline is seen in the power of the developmental assets to reduce risk behaviors such as alcohol and other drug abuse or engaging in violence, and to promote thriving among adolescents, such as in their grades or their valuing of diversity. For example, Scales et al. (in press) found that students' asset level in middle school--having 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, or 31-40 of the assets--predicts both concurrent GPA and longitudinal GPA 3 years later in high school, even after controlling for earlier levels of GPA.

Research has consistently shown the effectiveness of a social-emotional learning approach to school-based problem prevention and student development (Greenberg et al., 2003). A common characteristic of social-emotional learning approaches, the Developmental Assets framework, and the ASCA National Model is the intention to simultaneously impact multiple aspects of students' lives--to promote a "pile-up" effect of such developmental nutrients (Benson, Scales, & Mannes, 2003).

These effects occur because assets are promoted in multiple contexts and have interactive effects, reflecting the intertwined nature of the dimensions of young adolescent development. For example, Scales et al. (in press) found that students who in middle school experienced a cluster of assets largely reflecting community connections (youth programs, religious community, service to others, creative activities, and reading for pleasure) were three times more likely to have B+ or higher grades 3 years later in high school. Similarly, if in middle school they experienced a cluster of assets reflecting norms of responsibility (school engagement, positive peer influence, restraint, time at home, and peaceful conflict resolution), they were twice as likely to have high grades in high school. Middle school counselors can directly influence most of those critical assets, but again, not by limiting their efforts to supporting individual students, but by also trying to create more developmentally attentive environments for young people.

HOW MIGHT ASSETS POSITIVELY INFLUENCE DEVELOPMENT?

There are multiple dimensions of school climate that affect student well-being and that counselors can influence. For example, in a pilot test of Search Institute's survey of school climate with more than 1,700 students in Grades 6-12, students who experienced the climate dimensions of Caring and Fair Staff, Classroom Order, and Youth Voices (participation in decision making) had significantly higher outcomes of Sense of Belonging, Achievement Motivation, and Academic Self-Efficacy than other students (Search Institute, 2005). Students who had all three of these dimensions of positive school climate had significantly more of the positive outcomes than those with one or two, and those with one dimension had more positive outcomes than those who experienced none of the school climate dimensions. All of these intermediate connectedness, motivational, and psychological outcomes are in turn strongly related to doing well in school (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2004).

Similarly, in another analysis of Search Institute's longitudinal sample, there are hints of the developmental processes by which particular developmental experiences can affect student well-being over time. Student participation in youth programs, religious community, and service to others in Grades 6-8 predicted more Support, Empowerment, and Boundaries and Expectations assets from non-family adults in Grades 7-9, and more thriving and less risk behavior in Grades 10-12 (Scales, Benson, & Mannes, in press). That is, students' exposure to those constructive contexts directly predicts their greater experience of significant developmental processes reflecting connectedness, self-efficacy, and appropriate regulatory balance, which in turn predict positive developmental outcomes. School counselors cannot do much about young people's participation in religious organizations. But they certainly can both advocate for the availability of, and guide students to participate in, a rich program of cocurricular after-school clubs and activities, as well as high-quality school-based service learning programs that intentionally link volunteering with subject matter learning. (For details on the "essential elements" of high-quality service learning, see National Youth Leadership Council, 2004.)

A final indication of how developmental assets may influence student well-being is suggested in a secondary analysis of Search Institute data on two separate samples of 50,000 students in Grades 6--8 (Theokas et al., 2005). Two second-order asset factors were identified--individual assets and ecological assets--that essentially corresponded to Search Institute's a priori designation of assets as either internal or external. However, two of the first-order factors loaded higher on the conceptually "wrong" superordinate factor: Rules and Boundaries loaded on individual assets more than on ecological, and Positive Identity loaded more on ecological assets than on individual. Theokas et al. suggested that these two asset factors, Rules and Boundaries and Positive Identity, may function as "attractors" that developmentally link the individual and his or her ecology. It is perhaps no coincidence then, as noted earlier, that Akos (2002) reported that rules and boundaries were the top concern of students transitioning to middle school, or that NMSA (2003) described an effective middle-level school as fundamentally a place where young adolescents can do the identity-building work of "finding" themselves.

CONCLUSION

Middle school counselors can affect the well-being of individual students through this focus on intentionally building students' developmental assets, facilitating linkages across the multiple dimensions of early adolescent development, and attempting to broadly influence school climate. Building developmental assets is "essentially about building positive, sustained relationships" among all in the school community (Scales & Taccogna, 2000, p. 69), a skill at which school counselors should have particular expertise. And it must be reiterated that a caring environment and an academically challenging one are not in conflict--each is needed for student success, regardless of other issues that students and schools may face (Scales, 1999). A recent Kentucky audit study of schools that are high-performing but also high-poverty underscores this point: "The caring, nurturing atmosphere ... [was] related closely to high expectations" (Kannapel & Clements, 2005, p. 15). Middle school counselors who truly enjoy being with spirited young adolescents and who think and act developmentally and ecologically to meaningfully connect the pieces of young adolescents' lives also will change school culture to be both caring and challenging. In so doing, school counselors can help those middle schools become great places to work as well as to learn.

References

Akos, R (2002). Student perceptions of the transition from elementary to middle school. Professional School Counseling, 5, 339-345.

Akos, R, Creamer, V. L., & Masina, R (2004). Connectedness and belonging through middle school orientation. Middle School Journal, 36, 43-50.

American School Counselor Association. (2003).The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 6, 165-169.

Anfara, V. A., Andrews, P. G., Hough, D. L., Mertens, S. B., Mizelle, N. B., & White, G. P. (2003). Research and resources in support of This We Believe. Westerville, OH: National Middle School Association.

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Hamilton, S. H., & Sesma, A., Jr. (in press). Positive youth development: Theory, research, applications. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (6th ed.). New York: John Wiley.

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Leffert, N., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (1999). A fragile foundation: The state of developmental assets among American youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., & Mannes, M. (2003). Developmental strengths and their sources: Implications for the study and practice of community building. In R.M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. L Applying developmental science for youth and families: Historical and theoretical foundations (pp. 369-406). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Clary, E. G., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (in press). Adding it up: Youth engagement in community life. Search Institute Insights & Evidence.

Developmental assets: A profile of your youth. (2001). [19992000 school-year data set]. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Gewertz, C. (2004, May 19). City districts embracing K-8 schools. Education Week, pp. 1,20.

Good, H. (2004, August 11). Wilderness road: Schooling with too few counselors, too little "friendly interest." Education Week, pp. 43, 56.

Greenberg, M.T., Weissberg, R. P., O'Brien, M. U., Zins, J. E., Fredericks, L., & Resnick, H. (2003). Enhancing school-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning. American Psychologist, 58, 466-474.

Kannapel, P. J., & Clements, S. K. (2005). Inside the block box of high-performing high-poverty schools. Lexington, KY: Pritchard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Lapan, R.T., Gysbers, N. C., & Petrowski, G. F. (2003). Helping seventh graders be safe and successful: A statewide study of the impact of comprehensive guidance and counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 6, 186-197.

Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J.V., De Stefanis, I., & Apfel, A. (2001). Understanding developmental systems in adolescence: Implications for methodological strategies, data analytic approaches, and training. Journal of Adolescent Research, 16, 9-27.

National Middle School Association. (2003). This we believe: Successful schools for young adolescents. Westerville, OH: Author.

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (2004). Engaging schools: Fostering high school students' motivation to learn. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

National Youth Leadership Council. (2004). Growing to greatness: The state of service-learning project. St. Paul, MN: Author.

Paterson, J. (2004).The changing role of school counselors. Middle Ground, B, 42-44.

Roehlkepartain, E. C., Benson, P. L., & Sesma, A. (2003). Signs of progress in putting children first: Developmental assets among youth in St. Louis Park, 1997-2001. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Scales, P. C. (1999). Care and challenge: The sources of student success. Middle Ground, 3, 21-23.

Scales, P. C. (2003). Characteristics of young adolescents. In National Middle School Association, This we believe: Successful schools for young adolescents (pp. 43-51). Westerville, OH: NMSA.

Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., & Mannes, M. (in press).The contribution to adolescent well-being made by nonfamily adults: An examination of developmental assets as contexts and processes. Journal of Community Psychology.

Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Roehlkepartain, E. C., Sesma, A., Jr., & van Dulmen, M. (in press).The role of developmental assets in predicting academic achievement: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence.

Scales, P. C., & Leffert, N. (2004). Developmental assets: A synthesis of the scientific research on adolescent development (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Scales, P. C., Sesma, A., Jr., & Bolstrom, B. (2004). Coming into their own: How developmental assets promote positive growth in middle childhood. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Scales, P. C., & Taccogna, J. (2000). Caring to try: How building students' developmental assets can promote school engagement and success. National Association of Secondary School Principals Bulletin, 84(619), 69-78.

Search Institute. (2005). Technical manual for Creating a Great Place to Learn Survey. Minneapolis, MN: Author.

Starkman, N., Scales, P. C., & Roberts, C. (1999). Great places to learn: How asset-building schools help students succeed. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

Theokas, C., Almerigi, J. B., Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., et al. (2005). Conceptualizing and modeling individual and ecological asset components of thriving in early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 25, 113-143.

Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., is senior fellow in the Office of the President at Search Institute, Minneapolis, MN. E-mail: [e-mail]

Table 1. Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets

Category          Asset and Definition

                                      External Assets

Support           1. Family support. Family life provides high levels
                     of love and support.
                  2. Positive family communication. Young person and
                     his or her parents) communicate positively, and
                     young person is willing to seek advice and counsel
                     from parents.
                  3. Other adult relationships. Young person receives
                     support from three or more non-parent adults.
                  4. Caring neighborhood. Young person experiences
                     caring neighbors.
                  5. Caring school climate. School provides a caring,
                     encouraging environment.
                  6. Parent involvement in schooling. Parent(s) are
                     actively involved in helping young person succeed
                     in school.

Empowerment       7. Community values youth. Young person perceives
                     that adults in the community value youth.
                  8. Youth as resource. Young people are given useful
                     roles in the community.
                  9. Service to others. Young person serves in the
                     community one hour or more per week.
                 10. Safety. Young person feels safe at home,
                     at school, and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and   11. Family boundaries. Family has clear rules and
Expectations         consequences and monitors the young person's
                     whereabouts.
                 12. School boundaries. School provides clear rules
                     and consequences.
                 13. Neighborhood boundaries. Neighbors take
                     responsibility for monitoring young people's
                     behavior.
                 14. Adult role models. Parent(s) and other adults
                     model positive, responsible behavior.
                 15. Positive peer influence. Young person's best
                     friends model responsible behavior.
                 16. High expectations. Both parent(s) and teachers
                     encourage the young person to do well.

Constructive     17. Creative activities. Young person spends 3 or
Use of Time          more hours per week in lessons or practice in
                     music, theater, or other arts.
                 18. Youth programs. Young person spends 3 or more
                     hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations
                     at school and/or in the community.
                 19. Religious community. Young person spends 1 or
                     more hours per week in activities in a religious
                     institution.
                 20. Time at home Young person is out with friends
                     "with nothing special to do" two or fewer nights
                     per week

                                      Internal Assets

Commitment to    21. Achievement motivation. Young person is motivated
Learning             to do well in school.
                 22. School engagement. Young person is actively
                     engaged in learning.
                 23. Homework. Young person reports doing at least 1
                     hour of homework every school day.
                 24. Bonding to school. Young person cares about his
                     or her school.
                 25. Reading for pleasure. Young person reads for
                     pleasure 3 or more hours per week.

Positive         26. Caring. Young person places high value on helping
Values               other people.
                 27. Equality and social justice. Young person places
                     high value on promoting equality and reducing
                     hunger and poverty.
                 28. Integrity. Young person acts on convictions and
                     stands tip for his or her beliefs.
                 29. Honesty. Young person "tells the truth even when
                     it is not easy."
                 30. Responsibility. Young person accepts and takes
                     personal responsibility.
                 31. Restraint. Young person believes it is important
                     not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or
                     other drugs.

Social           32. Planning and decision making. Young person knows
Competencies         how to plan ahead and make choices.
                 33. Interpersonal competence. Young person has
                     empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
                 34. Cultural competence. Young person has knowledge
                     of and comfort with people of different cultural/
                     racial/ethnic backgrounds.
                 35. Resistance skills. Young person can resist
                     negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
                 36. Peaceful conflict resolution. Young person seeks
                     to resolve conflict nonviolently.

Positive         37. Personal power. Young person feels he or she
Identity             has control over "things that happen to me."
                 38. Self-esteem. Young person reports having a high
                     self-esteem.
                 39. Sense of purpose. Young person reports that
                     "my life has a purpose."
                 40. Positive view of personal future. Young person
                     is optimistic about his or her personal future.

From Benson et al. (1999). Copyright [c] 1997 by Search Institute,
615 First Ave. NE, Suite 125, Minneapolis, MN 55413; 800.888.7828;
www.search-institute.org. Developmental Assets[TM] is a trademark
of Search Institute. Used with permission.

Table 2. Actions for Middle School Counselors to
Build Assets Most Directly Linked to Academic Success

Developmental
Asset           Actions

School          * Create/expand articulation programs to ease student
engagement        transitions from elementary school to middle school
                  and from middle school to high school
                * Advocate for and help in planning service-learning
                  programs for students
                * Create/expand mentoring programs so that every
                  student has at least one building adult with whom
                  he or she has a caring and supportive relationship

Achievement     * Help principals utilize flexible scheduling for
motivation        deeper and more integrative curriculum content
                * Help teachers employ "authentic" student
                  assessments, such as portfolios and exhibitions

Positive peer   * Teach students--not only high-achieving ones--to
influence         be peer tutors and educators in areas of their
                  interests and talents
                * With extensive student input and participation,
                  develop and reinforce a "code of conduct" that
                  establishes and rewards students for meeting
                  expected standards of behavior, including hard
                  work and personal responsibility, respect for
                  self and others, and honesty

Youth           * Assess each student's talents and interests in
programs          order to make appropriate recommendations for
                  constructive after-school and cocurricular
                  activities
                * Collaborate with a wide variety of community
                  resources to expand the variety and duration
                  of school-based and non-school-based after-
                  school programs

Bonding         * Provide support for adviser-advisee or teacher-
to school         based guidance aspects of the counseling program
                * Promote widespread student input to school rules
                  and sanctions, especially in areas where discipline
                  and respect for diversity intersect
                * Advocate for and help provide comprehensive health
                  and sexuality education that focuses on fostering
                  personal and social health and wellness

School          * Work with the district's research and evaluation
boundaries        staff to regularly assess student and staff
                  perspectives on the fairness and equity with which
                  rules and policies about expected student behavior
                  are enforced
                * Create/expand peer mediation programs as a visible
                  part of school boundary setting

Homework        * Provide regular opportunities for students to
                  improve learning and study skills, emphasizing
                  hands-on technology and parent involvement
                  strategies
                * Provide alter-school homework help programs,
                  including peer and parent mentoring

Interpersonal   * Assess students' interpersonal skills and emotional
competence        intelligence as regularly as their cognitive
                  progress or occupational interests
                * Emphasize cross-cultural understanding and conflict
                  resolution skills in all individual and group work,
                  and promote their integration in all levels of
                  school life

Other adult     * Help all teachers learn and use strategies to
relationships     promote a nurturing class environment
                * Advocate for organizational and instructional
                  strategies such as looping, teaming, and
                  cooperative learning that promote closer
                  student-staff relationships

High            * Ensure that at least twice a year students talk
expectations      with a school adult about their short-term and
                  long-term educational and occupational plans
                * Promote challenging curricula for all students,
                  such as by working to eliminate or minimize
                  tracking and homogeneous grouping, and expanding
                  access to advanced courses, especially among
                  students with traditionally less access, such as
                  students of color or lower-income students

Parent          * Provide a family-friendly environment, such
involvement       as on-site family resource/support centers
in schooling      and parent volunteer opportunities
                * Infuse formal and informal communications to
                  parents with information about the normal
                  development of young adolescents and suggestions
                  for supporting learning at home (e.g., talking
                  with students about what goes on at school,
                  expressing the value of education, reading and
                  trying to do some of the homework that students
                  are assigned)

Caring school   * Ensure that staff know and greet students by their
climate           first names
                * Help teachers/teaching teams to integrate service
                  learning throughout the curriculum and provide
                  other opportunities for students to be problem-
                  solvers and contributors to the school community

Reading         * Designate a reading corner in the guidance and
for pleasure      counseling space; provide comfortable chairs and
                  current reading for all reading levels
                * Consistently ask for suggestions from students
                  and parents about books, articles, and other
                  reading materials to get for the school library,
                  and work with school librarians and teachers to
                  promote reading of those recommended works