Principals and school counselors, as advocates and leaders, have a moral and ethical imperative to interrogate and disrupt the educational inequities pervading P-12 schools. Trained in data collection, disaggregation, and analyses, principals and school counselors must utilize their knowledge and skills in program evaluation to challenge systemic…

School counselors are well positioned to support students who have experienced trauma, and the need to do so has increased during the past few years. In this article, we provide school counselors with relevant evidence-based practices that are focused on addressing trauma and supporting students who have experienced a traumatic event(s). We also…

Photovoice is an innovative approach that uses photography to promote empowerment and social action. Although photovoice has been recognized as a valuable intervention for youth, projects involving this approach primarily have been facilitated by university-school partnerships or community organizations. Aligned with the American School Counselor…

School counselors have a variety of opportunities to serve as advocates and leaders for students identified as twice exceptional (2E). We explore these opportunities and discuss the academic and social/emotional challenges 2E students face and current operational definitions for this population. We also discuss strategies school counselors can use…

Throughout the past decade, scholars have argued that the persistent achievement gap between Black male students and their White peers is a result of unequal and inadequate educational opportunities instead of inherent differences in their capability or character. School counselors can help support Black males by using equity-focused…

A qualitative study used a grounded theory methodology to explore the strategies that 16 school counselors who self-identified as social justice agents used to advocate for systemic change within their school communities. Findings included seven overarching themes: (a) using political savvy to navigate power structures, (b) consciousness raising,…

This article compares administrators' perceptions of the high school counselor role in a Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) versus the perceptions that administrators had of the high school counselor role in counseling departments that had not received the RAMP designation. An analysis of the data revealed that administrators from both RAMP and…

In this article, four vignettes are presented and deconstructed in order to demonstrate that school counselors are advocates, collaborators, and leaders when engaged as consultants. School counselor consultation appears to be a complex process based on a student advocacy disposition shared by consultees, and the process is a collaborative one…

While today's girls are learning that they can achieve at the highest educational and professional levels, they also receive strong cultural messages that portray girls and women according to limiting sexual stereotypes. The trend toward the sexualization of girls is increasing in contemporary culture and can negatively impact girls' academic,…

Advocacy is an integral component to effective school counseling. Using focus group methodology with nine school counselors, this qualitative study examined how current school counselors define advocacy and how and when school counselors advocate on behalf of individual students. Further, this research also explored how school counselors have…

Although advocacy has a long tradition in the counseling profession (Kiselica & Robinson, 2001), school counselors' roles as advocates have only recently received widespread attention (Baker & Gerler, 2004). The American School Counselor Association National Model describes advocacy as a key role for professional school counselors, and numerous…

The recent endorsement of the advocacy competencies by the American Counseling Association signals their relevance to the school counseling profession. This article outlines the importance of being a social change agent, the value of advocacy in K-12 schools, and how school counselors can use the advocacy competencies as a framework for promoting…

The academic achievement gap of students of color and low-income students as compared to middle and upper socioeconomic students and White students has been clearly documented. Historically the long-standing role of the school counselor has contributed to the status quo of these inequities, inadvertently maintaining educational and social…

With the increasing number of children from diverse backgrounds entering the U.S. school systems, it is imperative that school counselors gain a working knowledge of how to best serve these children. This article provides a checklist of 51 competencies that the author believes are necessary for working with culturally diverse students. The…