Success for all students - From the Editor - Editorial

Professional School Counseling, Dec, 2002 by Pamelia E. Brott

The current issue of Professional School Counseling will appeal to a wide variety of readers: school counselors from all grade levels, guidance supervisors and directors, and counselor educators. Topics include cultural diversity, training issues, counseling interventions, counseling issues, and applied research.

The authors of the articles on cultural diversity present research on school counselors' perception of biracial children, fostering multicultural student-citizens, and multicultural supervision peer group formats. The training issues presented include perceptions of CACREP school counseling standards and a comparison of in-person versus Web-based supervision peer group formats. Promoting healthy body image and reducing students' text anxiety provide our readers with interventions to address these important student issues. Our need for preparation in crisis intervention has been critically underlined by current events, and the authors present school counselors' views on priority topics in crisis intervention. I doubt that there is a school counselor who has not been challenged by the confidential rights of minors in school settings; the authors of this article review the legal and ethical perspectives and offer approaches for responding to parental demands. Finally, two articles that may encourage us to think like researchers. One article focuses on a single-subject research design that may serve as a catalyst for more school counselors to become applied researchers; the other article focuses on data-driven policies to support informed educational decisions that enhance academic success of all students.

Speaking of academic success of all students: Have you taken a look at The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling? For those school counseling professionals in attendance at the 2002 ASCA national conference in Miami, Florida, you had the opportunity to learn first-hand about the Model and methods for implementation. The draft program model made available to conference attendees was open to comment and is currently under discussion and revision with release of the final document anticipated in early 2003. This "template" for building, delivering, managing, and accounting for the ways in which we impact success for all students will help professional school counselors become an integral part of the team in all schools.

We need counselors in school settings; more importantly, we need counselors in school settings who understand the unique characteristics of the educational environment. So, let me leave you with a few questions to ponder. How do you perceive your contributions to the school? How do others perceive your contributions? How do you integrate your training in what you do? In what ways do you advocate for student success? In other words, what is your identity as a professional school counselor?