Recruiting leaders to transform school counseling - Statistical Data Included

Theory Into Practice, Summer, 2002 by Charles Hanson, Carolyn Stone

THE 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.

The Need for Minorities sin School Counseling

The Transforming School Counseling Initiative (TSCI) is a recent effort to bring school counselors into the national initiative to improve teaching and learning. School counselors can be quite influential in the lives of students, impacting their aspirations, pushing them to high levels of achievement, and assisting them in developing career goals and educational plans. Minority school counselors can extend this influence by serving as role models for minority students and by exemplifying success in higher education and professional status in the community (Eubanks & Weaver, 1999). Minority school counselors are also more likely to know and understand the barriers to learning that minority students encounter and the support they need to forge paths of educational attainment and success. School counselors of color can also be a valuable resource to the school community in bridging the cultural gap between the school environment and students' home/ community environments (Eubanks & Weaver, 1999).

The need for increasing the number of minority school counselors is evident. Addressing this need is critical if schools are to be effective in raising the academic achievement and college aspirations of minority students. The TSCI has moved this challenge forward by targeting the recruitment and selection processes of school counselor preparation programs for change.

Recruiting for Diversity

Recruiting for diversity is critical. We contend that minority and low socioeconomic status (SES) educators who have encountered and overcome institutional, systemic, and personal barriers to achievement have personal experiences that can lead to identifying, understanding, and eliminating those barriers for students from similar backgrounds. Minority and low SES school counselors are more likely to have confronted segregating educational issues such as low expectations of teachers, counselors, and school administrators; minimally prepared and unprepared teachers; schools with limited educational resources; and high school courses and programs that do not prepare students for college. Their experiences, as well as their close connections with minority and low-income families and students, make these counselors ideally suited to transform school counseling programs in ways that increase learning and academic achievement for all students.

With the TSCI, six university programs initiated extensive outreach recruitment efforts to find applicants with the skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to match their mission statements and new vision programs, and to attract minority candidates. All six worked collaboratively with personnel from their local school districts (i.e., school counselors, teachers, administrators, family center directors) and community representatives (i.e., government leaders, community agency directors) in recruitment efforts. Recruitment goals varied across sites, but all TSCI university programs tried to recruit more minority students. Three sites set specific objectives related to this goal. One site set a target of 50% minority representation in the cohort of selected students in the first year of the project, with 60% representation in the second and subsequent years. Another site aimed to increase the number of students admitted to their program from 30 to 40 to 50 with a target of 1/3 minority representation. A third site set a goal of 30% minority representation in the first year, with 50% representation in the second and subsequent years. The remaining sites established more general goals of increasing the diversity in their selected group of applicants with one site also targeting an increase in the number of male students. Diversity for some included increasing the number of candidates who had professional experience in schools (e.g., as teachers, paraprofessionals, or school administrators). Only one site expected applicants to have teaching experience, and this was because two years of teaching was included in the state's licensure requirements.