Carolyn B. Stone

School Counselors and Principals: Partners in Support of Academic Achievement

This article outlines the evolving leadership and advocacy roles of the school counselor in supporting the principal in the effort to move schools toward rigorous academic achievement for all. Partnership efforts already underway by school counselors and principals nationwide are also examined.

Leveling the Playing Field: An Urban School System Examines Equity in Access to Mathematics Curriculum

This study measured the mathematics admissions process, the mechanism by which educators assign students to the critical ninth-grade mathematics courses, against a meritocratic definition of fairness to determine if this process denied access to students from particular segments of society. While controlling for academic ability, this study assessed if socioeconomic status, race, gender, and school assignment taken independently and in combination were significant in predicting which students were denied admission to Algebra I and Geometry. The findings of this study evinced that students who scored in the upper quartile in mathematics were not scheduled into the gatekeeper mathematics courses without regard to their socioeconomic status, gender, or school assignment.

Principals as Partners: Counselors as Collaborators:

School principals and school counselors have the ability to forge a unique collaborative relationship to improve student achievement. Historically, school counselors have altered the primary focus of their work as deemed by the perspective of their principals.With an emphasis on improving student success in school, this study revealed the differences in counselor-principal priorities and perceptions and suggests the importance of counselor and principal collaboration to support this common goal.

Recruiting Leaders To Transform School Counseling.

T UNITED STATES IS GROWING rapidly into a more diverse nation, increasing the demand for a diverse workforce of educators. However, the lack of diversity and availability of educators is reaching crisis proportion (Orfield & Yun, 1999). This lack of diversity is especially evident among school counselors. While the K-12 student population in today’s public schools has a large representation of minority racial and ethnic groups, the majority of school counselors are White (D’Andrea & Arredondo, 1999; Lee, 1995). This underrepresentation of minorities is also reflected in counselor education faculty, department chairpersons, and students in graduate programs (Brotherton, 1996; Young, Chamley, & Withers, 1990). Eighty-three percent of students in nationally accredited counseling graduate programs identify themselves as “White” (Dinsmore & England, 1996). “This sort of institutional arrangement reflects a type of racial . . . domination that, at the very least, unwittingly perpetuates cultural encapsulation within the profession” (Brotherton, 1996, p. 5). A student today can go through 12 years of education without ever having a teacher, administrator, or school counselor who is a member of an ethnic minority (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1997). While minority students in schools prefer counselors of their same race, ethnicity, and cultural background (Herring, 1997), very few are available to them. This may contribute to the finding that minority and low-income students receive fewer counseling services (Hart & Jacobi, 1992). The search for and selection of minority candidates in school counseling programs is also critical to counselors’ development of multicultural competence. Researchers in the field contend that such competence can only be gained through the mutual learning and interaction of diverse ethnic and cultural groups. “The courage to change and work cross-culturally is an active, interactive process. Individuals cannot learn about others in the abstract. When it comes to cultural differences, only reality counts” (Arredondo, 1999, p. 102). The importance of diversity and multicultural competence is further affirmed by professional associations and accrediting bodies (Arredondo et al., 1996; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, 1994; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). Effective training in multicultural competence requires school counseling programs to increase the diversity in their student groups.

Taking Stock in Children: Collaborating to Promote Success for Low-lncome Secondary Students

As population demographics in the United States continue to shift and issues of educational reform are being considered, the promotion of academic success for all children is an ongoing agenda for educators, citizens, and politicians. To provide high-quality education for students from low socioeconomic households and diverse cultural backgrounds, it is essential to examine specific programs and their components that have been shown to be successful with this population. This article examines such program components and describes a specific collaborative program, Take Stock in Children, which has shown positive results in supporting low-income secondary students to prepare for and enroll in higher education.