Transforming the school counseling profession

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Transforming the school counseling profession
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PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL COUNSELING

• Share and Pair
• Discuss your perceptions of your own school
  counselor when you were in school.
• What was she/he like? What were your perceptions
  of his/her role in the school?
• What are your perceptions of the roles of school
  counselors today?

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Why Transform the Profession?

• School counselors
• Were not meeting the needs of all students
• Were unable to demonstrate how they made a
  difference
• Were unable to show how what they did were tied
  to academic achievement
• There were
• Too many negative views of school counselors
• There was
• Role confusion among school counselors
• Therefore
• Were subject to budget cuts

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Transformed School Counselors

• Show that
• They make a difference
• They facilitate and implement strategies and
  interventions that meet the needs of all
  students
• What they are doing is making a difference in
  academic achievement
• They are working to close the academic
  achievement gap
• They are working to increase equity, access, and
  social justice for marginalized students

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Our School

• Hampton School is located in an urban school
  district. Over 60 of the students are on free
  and reduced lunch. About 20 of the students are
  in academically challenging classes. These
  students are the pride of the school. The other
  80 are in what are considered as standard or
  remedial classes. Data indicates that 60 of the
  students who attend this school eventually go on
  to two or four year colleges. The other 40
  either drop out of high school or do not go onto
  postsecondary education (PSE)

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Inequities in U.S. Schools
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National Office for School Counselor Advocacy
Document source Trends in Higher Education
Series Education Pays 2007 The Benefits of
Higher Education for Individuals and Society.
Baum, Sandy Ma, Jennifer. College Board
publication.
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Document source Trends in Higher Education
Series Education Pays 2007 The Benefits of
Higher Education for Individuals and Society.
Baum, Sandy Ma, Jennifer. College Board
publication.
National Office for School Counselor Advocacy
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Document source Trends in Higher Education
Series Education Pays 2007 The Benefits of
Higher Education for Individuals and Society.
Baum, Sandy Ma, Jennifer. College Board
publication.
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Document source Trends in Higher Education
Series Education Pays 2007 The Benefits of
Higher Education for Individuals and Society.
Baum, Sandy Ma, Jennifer. College Board
publication.
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NAEP Reading, 9 Year-OldsRecord Performance for
All Groups
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NAEP Reading, 9 Year-Olds African American-White
Gap Narrows to Smallest Size in History
Source National Center for Education Statistics,
NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress
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NAEP Reading, 9 Year-Olds Latino-White Gap
Narrows to Smallest Size in History
Source National Center for Education Statistics,
NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress
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NAEP Math, 9 Year-Olds Record Performance for
All Groups
Source National Center for Education Statistics,
NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress
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NAEP Math, 9 Year-Olds African American-White
Gap Narrows to Smallest Size in History
Source National Center for Education Statistics,
NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress
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1996 NAEP Grade 4 Mathby Race/Ethnicity, Nation
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, NAEP Data Explorer,
http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/
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2007 NAEP Grade 4 Mathby Race/Ethnicity, Nation
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, NAEP Data Explorer,
http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/
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NAEP Grade 4 MathLow-Income Students,
Nation1996 compared to 2007
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Achievement Flat or Declining in Reading, 17
year olds, NAEP
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Value Added Declining in High School Math...
Note Scale score gains reflect the difference
between the scale scores of 17-year-olds and the
scale scores of 13-year-olds four years prior.
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African American, Latino Native American high
school graduates are less likely to be in a full
college prep track
Full College Prep track is defined as at least 4
years of English, 3 years of math, 2 years of
natural science, 2 years of social science and 2
years of foreign language Source Jay P. Greene,
Public High School Graduation and College
Readiness Rates in the United States, Manhattan
Institute, September 2003. Table 8. 2001 high
school graduates with college-prep curriculum.
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US Poor and Minority Students Get More
Inexperienced Teachers
High poverty Low poverty
High minority Low minority
Teachers with 3 or fewer years of experience.
Note High poverty refers to the top quartile of
schools with students eligible for free/reduced
price lunch. Low poverty- bottom quartile of
schools with students eligible for free/reduced
price lunch. High minority-top quartile those
schools with the highest concentrations of
minority students. Low minority-bottom quartile
of schools with the lowest concentrations of
minority students
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Fewer Latino students are enrolledin Algebra 2
Source CCSSO, State Indicators of Science and
Mathematics Education, 2001
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Of Every 100 White Kindergartners
(25-to 29-Year-Olds)
Source US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census. March Current Population Surveys,
1971-2003, in The Condition of Education 2005.
http//nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2005/section3/indi
cator23.aspinfo
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Of Every 100 African American Kindergartners
(25-to 29-Year-Olds)
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Of Every 100 Latino Kindergartners
(25-to 29-Year-Olds)
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Of Every 100 American Indian/Alaskan Native
Kindergartners
(25 Years Old and Older)
Source U.S. Census Bureau, We the People
American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United
States. Data source Census 2000,
www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/censr-2
8.pdf
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What do we mean?

• Equity
• Access
• Social Justice

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What is Equity?

• Equity requires that we treat students
  differently on the basis of students unique
  needs AND aspects of students backgrounds,
  including ethnicity, gender, income background,
  etc. in order to create equality
• Efforts/actions to remove differences in
  educational, social, health outcomes between
  groups faced with differential exposure to social
  and economic policies and practices that create
  barriers to opportunity

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Equity ? Equality

• Equality
• Providing equal resources, interventions, and
  access for all stakeholders
• Equity
• Providing more resources, interventions, and
  access for those school stakeholders who need more

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What is Access?

• A way of entering or leaving
• Opportunity and ability to enter, approach, or
  pass to

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What is Social Justice?

• Social justice refers to the idea of a just
  society where there is equality and equity among
  and between groups of people
• Social justice targets marginalized groups of
  people in society, schools, etc. (whereas
  equality or equal rights are applicable to
  everyone).

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What Is Social Justice Counseling?

• Social justice counseling represents a
  multifaceted approach to counseling in which
  practitioners strive to simultaneously promote
  human development and the common good through
  addressing challenges related to both individual
  and distributive justice.

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• Social Justice recognizes that there are
  situations in which the application of the same
  rules to unequal groups can generate unequal
  results!

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Traditional vs. Social Justice Approach to
School Counseling

• Traditional SC Approach
• Dependence on counseling theories and approaches
  with little to no regard for cultural background
• Emphasis on individual student factors (e.g.,
  unmotivated, depressed)
• Emphasis on equality
• Reliance on labels
• Little to no use of data
• Focus on maintaining status quo
• Focus on enrolling students in comfortable
  courses

• Social Justice Approach
• Major focus is on highlighting the strengths of
  students (empowerment-based counseling)
• Emphasis on socio-cultural and environmental
  factors (e.g., poverty, discrimination,
  neighborhoods) that influence student behavior
• Major goal is to challenge oppression
• Emphasis on equality and equity
• Avoidance of labeling
• Dependence on data
• Focus on changing existing policies and
  strategies
• Focus on enrolling students in more rigorous
  courses

Holcomb-McCoy (2007). School counseling to close
the achievement gap.
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National Office for School Counselor Advocacy
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ASCA Code of Ethics Preamble June 2004

• Each person has the right to receive the
  information and support needed to move toward
  self-direction and self-development and
  affirmation within ones group identities with
  special care given to students who have
  historically not received adequate educational
  services
• students of color
• students from low-socio-economic
• backgrounds
• students with disabilities
• students with non-dominant language
• backgrounds.

National Office for School Counselor Advocacy
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Ethics Section E.2, Diversity

• The professional school counselor
• Affirms the diversity of students, staff, and
  families
• B. Expands and develops awareness of his/her own
  attitudes and beliefs affecting cultural values
  and biases and strives to attain cultural
  competence.
• C. possesses knowledge and understanding about
  how oppression, racism, discrimination and
  stereotyping affects him/her personally and
  professionally.
• D. Acquires educational, consultation, and
  training experiences to improve awareness,
  knowledge, skills, and effectiveness in working
  with diverse populations
• ethnic/racial status,
• age,
• economic status
• special needs
• ESL or ELL
• immigration status
• sexual orientation, gender, gender
  identity/expression
• family type
• religious/spiritual identity and appearance.
  (ASCA, 2004a, p.4)

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Critical Shifts Social Justice-Based Education

• Equality Equity
• Identifying at-risk students
  Acknowledging a broken system
• Color-Blindness
  Self-Examination
• Learning about other cultures
  Dismantling systems of power and privilege
• Celebrating diversity
  Advocating and fighting for equity
• Focus on intent Focus on
  impact

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Our School

• Hampton School is located in an urban school
  district. Over 60 of the students are on free
  and reduced lunch. About 20 of the students are
  in academically challenging classes. These
  students are the pride of the school. The other
  80 are in what are considered as standard or
  remedial classes. Data indicates that 60 of the
  students who attend this school eventually go on
  to two or four year colleges. The other 40
  either drop out of high school or do not go onto
  postsecondary education (PSE).
• As a social justice-focused school counselor,
  what are some of the things you would do in this
  school to meet the needs of students?