Author: Joelle NixonPublisher:
ISBN: 9780355932775
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 94
Book Description
School counselors in the 21st century have changed the way society understands the profession in both theory and practice. The focal point of the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Model is for school counselors to promote student success by reducing the existing achievement gap found among students of color, poor students, or underachieving students and their more advantaged peers (ASCA, 2005). However, little data is available on the activities of school counselors and the percentage of African American students in urban schools. The purpose of my study was to explore the relationship between the frequency of activities performed by school counselors as defined in the ASCA National Model and the percentage of African American students in urban schools. I used a known validated instrument, the School Counselor Activity Rating Scale (SCARS) which measures the frequency with which school counselors perform activities recommended by the ASCA National Model (Scarborough, 2005). My results showed that many of the participants were Caucasian (56%) and women (91%). The average age of the participants in my study was 37 years old. While a plurality of the participants (41%) worked in high schools, the other participants were employed evenly in the other three settings of elementary, middle/jr., or other/combination. I discovered that in terms of years employed as a school counselor in their current setting, most of the participants (71%) had been in their current school fewer than five years in an urban school. Most of the counselors (69%) had obtained a master’s degree in school counseling from a program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). School counselors working in schools with various ranges of African American students took part in my study. The average school counselor that responded to my study had (48%) Africa American students in their schools. School counselors working in urban schools implement many of the activities recommended by the ASCA National Model on a frequent basis. I conducted Pearson correlations to identify a relationship between school counselor activities and the percentage of African American students in schools. The results show no significant relationship between school counselors’ activities and the percentage of African American students. Practicing school counselors as well as administrators in urban schools can gain insight from the results of my study.