Researched Position Paper

The assignment was to research current peer-reviewed journal articles and formulate my own stance on an assigned topic. This paper is is an original work and may not be used, in part or in whole, unless proper credit is assigned to the author.

     Whatever the definition of disenfranchisement, educational equity applies to all.  According to Bae, et al (2000), equity consists of five crucial components.  Two of these are provision of equal access to the same educational opportunities and the extent to which these opportunities are utilized.  The third and fourth parts entail performance at the same level and success at the same rate as others.  The final component ensures obtaining the same benefits as others in the same system.  Not advocating for all students in opposition to this standard violates the Ethical Standards for School Counselors set forth by the American School Counselor Association (1998).

     Who is better situated to respond to this troubling systemic crisis than a professional school counselor?  Counselors consider the entire school population their client pool rather than just one class as a teacher might. They have been schooled in human development.  They know which teachers are perceived as ineffective.  They serve as appointed liaisons with parents and can access community resources.  Counselors are bombarded with data, much of it an appropriate resource for assessment of services. This document will attempt to link professional school counselors with positive outcomes in bridging the achievement gap.

Ethnicity
     This trend is heartening in that it provides hope for reducing achievement gaps in other groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.  Among high school seniors in 1998, these three groups comprised only one-tenth of students who scored at the highest level on the National Assessment of Educational Programs (Reaching the Top, 1999).  Additionally, in 1998, only 63% of Hispanic adults aged 25-29 earned a high school diploma compared to 88% of Whites and African-Americans (Lack of Academic Progress Among Hispanics Threatens U.S. Economy, 2000).  There are also those of varying socioeconomic status to consider.  Only 5% of eighth graders in high poverty schools are proficient in math according to the Education Watch.  A third group to consider is that of the gifted underachievers.  It is estimated that as many as 50% of our gifted students underachieve and are considered a group that is neglected or under-served (Peterson, 1996).  According to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley there is also a gap caused by what he terms the "digital divide," a gap between those who are technologically proficient and equipped.  Apparently, we have a long way to go as educators, but our confidence should be bolstered by the success of females in partially bridging the achievement gap with males.

Socioeconomics
     The very poor face enormous challenges that naturally override other aspects of life.  This affects not only individuals, but also family systems, schools and communities.  Obtaining basic sustenance is an ongoing stressor of the poverty-stricken but one of the worst poverty-related obstacles in education is that of instability in families and the disruption it causes in a child's learning.  When there are many disruptions, the pace of the curriculum slows.  In many schools with lower socioeconomic populations teachers have less experience, fewer credentials, and have a high turnover rate (Reaching the Top, 1999).  Closely related to poverty is the educational attainment level of the parents.  The achievement gap widens yet again because parents with a college education know more about supporting their child's educational development through extensive reading, reinforcing language use, seeking out tutors when appropriate and encouraging college preparation.  Educated parents are also more likely to support regular school attendance.

     In this long-term study with policies and standards that have now been adopted in many schools, it has been made clear that the small classes provided higher student outcomes as well as better student behaviors than either of the other types of classes (Achilles, 1997).  The data suggests that all students benefit but Non-White students benefit more.  When both White and Non-White students began kindergarten in small classes, 87% of White and 86% of Non-White first graders passed Tennessee's Basic Skill's First achievement test.  The children in the regular sized class had a different outcome.  While 84% of White children passed the test, only 72% of Non-White passed, opening a large gap.  When this pattern emerges so early, it rarely changes for the better without intervention thereafter for the children involved.  If there is a systematic change at the very foundation (size of classes) of schooling, we will be able to reduce the myriad of costly remediation projects that attempt to repair the damage after it has occurred.

     This research study has shown consistent findings that students who are economically disadvantaged or are from some specific ethnic groups perform better in small classes.  In fact, in a similar trial with older students, fourth graders from the smaller classes were about a half year ahead of fourth grade students from the larger classes.

     The Education Trust in Washington has released two additional documents that prove the achievement gap between low-income students and other students can be closed.  The first document contains information from Kentucky.  This data proves that low-income students can achieve at the highest levels.  For instance, five of 20 elementary schools with the highest reading scores in this report were also high-poverty. Additionally, six of the 20 highest math scores and 13 of 20 highest writing scores were also from high-poverty schools (Brennan, 1999).

     This study and another containing a national survey of high-poverty schools in two states finds the top performing schools share six characteristics (Brennan, 1999).  These are:  extensive use of standards, increased mathematics and reading instruction time, investment in professional development for teachers, systems to monitor student performance, parental involvement, and accountability for the variety of adults included in the school setting.

      Similarly, a three-year investigation into the culture of high-ability, high achieving students in large economically deprived urban environments duplicated some of the findings of the previous studies and identified several other helpful qualities (Hebert, 1999).  The study wanted to know why some succeed and others fail.  Successful students had a strong inner motivation, appreciation of cultural diversity, heightened sensitivity to each other and the world around them, realistic aspirations, and a sense of independence.  They received support from each other and adults and were resilient to the negative aspects of their urban environments.

     In considering all this information, there are some very specific domains in which a professional school counselor can have a tremendous influence.  The first of these involves the appropriate use of data.  So many numbers and lists actually land on the counselors' desks that having data is not the problem, knowing how to use it effectively can be.  School counselors have access to student enrollment and composition figures as well as the statistics on the number of students retained.  Attendance and performance on standardized tests will be available.  They can, if so motivated, extrapolate grade point distribution or excessive absenteeism by ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status.  Achievement scores can be sorted by teacher.  It is this connection with the pertinent data that makes the counselor's position within the school so crucial.  From this same data school counselors can help ensure that school standards are challenging and realistic.  They will have an opportunity to be included in the creation of quality assessment instruments for the school that, in turn, have a direct connection to the standards.   This data should be the driving force behind programming and services offered.  It is the bottom line in determining academic success and in evaluating the extent of existing achievement gaps.

Professional Development
     In assessing data by teachers, it is crucial to remember that "teacher quality has more impact on student achievement than any other single factor, including family income and parent education" (Brennan, 1998, p. 2).  Hopefully, good school counselors will be able to rise to the challenge of developing staff programming that speaks to the weaknesses highlighted through the numbers.  This would include such topics as introducing student-led learning environments, one of the important factors of successful schools.  Good teaching does matter.  A 1998 study in North Carolina indicated that a "1% increase in teacher scores on the initial teacher licensing exam would bring about a 5% decrease in the number of students failing the state academic comprehensive test" (Brennan, 1998, p.1).  Understandably, proposed professional development for teachers must be approached with great sensitivity and in a timely manner in order to prevent negative feelings or divisiveness between teachers and counselors.

Parental Involvement
     Exemplary counselors will also use the numbers generated by their client pool to focus in on parental involvement.  Our children need all the adult support possible to guide them both academically and personally.  Parents, or other adult care givers, can benefit from educational programs such as stress and anger management, nurturing, employing community resources, or even literacy skills.  The College Board, in Reaching the Top (1999) reports that strong home-school relationships are critical in improving minority achievement and that the more successful groups have parents that provide them with more extensive supplemental educational opportunities.

Services to Students
     Another useful data tool is to be able to identify students that need assistance before they fall too far behind to ever realistically catch up.  Support from family is so important but some studies have reported that successful young people in urban schools are positively influenced by a "network of high-achieving peers" (Hebert, 1999, p.1).  These successful students encouraged each other to achieve academically as well as in extracurricular activities.  The guidance might be offered in the form of personal counseling sessions, small groups tailored around a pertinent topic, or classroom guidance.  Based on the collected facts, a school counselor could select units on attendance issues, self-esteem building, multiculturalism, safety, study, or coping skills.  A strong belief in self is one of the qualities found in high-achieving students from economically deprived urban environments.  This sense of self includes "heightened sensitivity, a quality that allowed them to appreciate individual differences in people around them and an inner will or internal fortitude that helped to provide the strong drive to reach for their realistic aspirations or goals in life" (Hebert, 1999, p. 15).

     Research has shown that when youth have the opportunity to care for others they reap many benefits; among these are an increased sense of social responsibility, higher self esteem, better attendance and a decrease in depression.  We should not attempt to confine this caring within the walls of our educational establishments.  In order to be effective and long-lasting this trait needs to permeate all areas of children's lives including, but not limited to, close family, extended family, peers, the disadvantaged, and the community.

Advocacy
     The data will also enact the school counselor's role as an advocate for change.  Our aging educational system, with its history of decline and widening achievement gaps between some groups, is begging for solutions.  Use of technology in obtaining current and pertinent information coupled with the demographics and statistics of a counselor's own school system enable advocacy with substance.  For example, the STAR project in Tennessee shows clearly that a change to smaller class size would definitely reduce the achievement gap found between the lower and higher achieving groups.  For positive change to occur, it would entail someone in the advocate role explaining the study and the difference between "class size" and "pupil-teacher" ratio.  An advocate is needed to explain to detractors that teachers with reduced-sized classes are not receiving an "unfair" benefit of a reduced workload.  Rather, these instructors would be working not only more closely with students, but also with parents.  They would have more time and energy to focus on the hard-to-teach pupils.  From this type of situation, more students would succeed and the school would experience a reduction in student retention.  Someone, likely the advocate, would need to point to the facts and demonstrate that no additional staff development would be necessary to implement a small-class program.  In fact, the STAR program found no apparent advantages when staff development was employed in this area.  This is a surprising fact but it is supported by the data.  The bottom line of any new program is always the cost.  One familiar with the numbers could point out the areas of potential savings that balance the costs.  Sure, more teachers are necessary but grade retention is lowered and learning problems requiring expensive remediation later on are identified and addressed much more quickly resulting in a long-term savings.

Community Partnerships
     Counselors should expand their role of advocacy beyond defending research and beyond the school walls.  Schools need to begin the process of facilitating healthy dialogue between parents, students, schools, and community.  In order for the educational system of our community to work, the community as a whole must be involved.  "School reform, especially when it focuses on disadvantaged students, cannot easily succeed if it ignores the circumstances of their [students] out-of-school lives" (Walsh, 1999, p. 1).  These lives are challenged by what has been referred to as the new morbidities.  They include poor nutrition, unsafe sex, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, lack of job skills, inadequate access to health care, and homelessness.  They result in significant barriers to learning that can be addressed through a liaison relationship in school-community partnerships which have "been demonstrated to make a positive difference for at-risk children and youth" (Walsh, 1999, p. 1).

     Educational systems are finally acknowledging that help from other institutions and resources is vital for success and are reaching outside the school walls in search of support.  The Clarke County School System has implemented a Partners In Education program in order to access resources and garner community support.  While the organization of such a program might indeed fall to the counselor in addition to all their other duties, it will actually free up counselor time when properly set in motion.  Community-based professionals need to know about the culture of our schools and the positive correlation between academics and life at home and in the community.  Partners should be encouraged to assume social responsibility and become involved with schoolchildren.  It could mean a time commitment of a long or short duration or a possible sponsorship of an activity.  Partnership might also include an investment of resources.  As U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley (2000) says, "talk alone won't get the job done" (p. 7).  Quality enrichment such as professional development, summer school and after-school programs require financial backing.  An excellent example of this is the funding DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds Equity 2000 has allocated to improve the graduate-level preparation of school counselors.

     Most importantly, the numbers from highly successful approaches in other schools with similar demographics teach committed professional school counselors how to be true advocates for children, giving them life skills and the appropriate support to enable success both personally and academically.