School counselors are vital to school reform and improvement efforts, as such, school districts are always searching for ways to actively involve school counselors in their own professional development. Due to the increased mental health and behavioral needs of students, there is an increased demand for more intentional and appropriate…

Educators have embraced the promotion of social emotional development, student well-being, and mental health as essential educational objectives to promote academic readiness and growth. To address known research-to-practice gaps and limited availability of evidence-based, universal high school programs, we took a community-based participatory…

This article describes a model for developing culturally sensitive career education programs, framed from an ecological contextual understanding. This framework allows career practitioners to build on cultural strengths and values to meet the career education needs of diverse communities. To illustrate the application of this model, we describe…

The School Counseling Program Report Card--Student Version is a program evaluation tool designed to capture high school student perceptions of school counseling services. This article describes the initial instrument development process. Exploratory factor analysis (N = 305) yielded a 22-item instrument with three subscales that mirror the ASCA…

To maximize impact across the broad spectrum of mental health needs exhibited by youth in school settings, interventions must be designed to be effective and efficient and demonstrate good fit with the educational context. The current paper reports on the second phase of an iterative development process for a short-term ''Tier 2'' intervention for…

This article discusses a theoretical perspective, research results, and practical examples that support new roles for school counselors in strengthening school programs of family and community involvement. A modest proposal is offered for school counselors to spend 20% of their time on strengthening teamwork for partnerships by working with other…

Traditionally, Latino and African-American students have been underrepresented in Advanced Placement courses. However, professional school counselors work to remove barriers to "all" students' success. This article (a) identifies challenges that Latino and African-American students encounter in accessing Advanced Placement courses, (b) reviews the…

Career development is integral to students' academic and social-personal development, and addressing students' needs in this area is recognized as an important responsibility of the professional school counselor. However, efforts to address students' career development tend to be lacking or services are provided in a disconnected manner. This…

Establishing effective transition programs for students entering high school is an ongoing process. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore best practices transition programs employ to aid student's success. The participants in this study were six administrators chosen from a population of administrators at 60 central Indiana high…

This pilot study was designed to evaluate the feasibility and the impact of a smoking-cessation program that would meet the specific needs of high school students. Feedback from focus groups conducted with adolescent smokers at a Connecticut high school was used to develop a tailored intervention. Intervention components included commonly used…

The most common problem and characteristic associated with secondary education in the small and rural communities is its limitations--low financial resources, inadequate plant and equipment, small enrollments, restricted curriculum offerings, and small and overworked staffs. The purpose of this report is to show that these limitations need not…