Stumbling Blocks on the College Path: School Counselor Leadership Practices That Pave the Way

• In Event: School Counseling at the Crossroads of Change

Abstract

Objectives or purposes: This study was designed to understand the practices and leadership skills that school counselors employ as they support students through the college matriculation process.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: Opportunity gaps continue to widen in terms of who attends college and persists through graduation, with underserved and underprivileged students remaining less likely to apply and attend college than their more advantaged peers. These disparities are especially pronounced when attendance and persistence data is reported by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and gender.

Low income, first generation, and students of color have the greatest need for access to a school counselor, yet they are often the least likely to meet with a school counselor for college admissions or financial aid support because their counselors tend to be heavily focused on crisis related matters, social emotional concerns, and other counseling and/or administrative issues. However, when school counselors are available and able to provide assistance to students and families navigating the college admissions process, college attendance rates increase and opportunity gaps begin to close.

Methods, techniques or modes of inquiry: To gain a better understanding of the school counselors’ experience supporting students during their transition to college, focus groups were conducted in Baltimore, MD and Austin, TX with counselors who participated in a summer student transition support intervention. School counselors were also administered the School Counselor Leadership Survey (SCLS). Qualitatively, we wanted to understand counselors’ satisfaction with a summer transition to college intervention, challenges they faced, their own feelings of effectiveness in supporting students, leadership skills they employed and suggestions for improving future interventions.

Data Sources: Looking at focus group and survey results allowed the researchers to identify and describe the challenges that the students and counselors faced as well as the key leadership characteristics and best practices that school counselors used to support students transitioning to college.

The School Counselor Leadership Survey (SCLS) was designed to measure the leadership dimensions of school counselors and school counselor supervisors. It was developed after an extensive review of the literature, field testing, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis.

Results: A variety of strategies were employed by the counselors to support students (Figure 1). When asked to identify the leadership skills they utilized, the counselors responded with a series of skills they felt were needed to help students successful transition to college (Figure 2).

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
National initiatives such as the President’s College Opportunity Agenda and the First Lady’s Reach Higher Campaign have drawn increased attention to inequitable student educational outcomes. Two recent White House Convenings held at Harvard (July 2014) and San Diego State University (November 2014) provided laser focus on the lack of adequate school counseling and college advising resources available to many students and called for renewed attention and evaluation of school counseling practices and interventions that create postsecondary pathways for all students (Hatch & Owen, 2015; Savitz-Romer & Liu, 2014).

Authors

• Laura Owen, San Diego State University

• Anita A Young, Johns Hopkins University