The need for schools to produce graduates ready to meet increasing workforce demands and postsecondary admission requirements has called for more individualized career and academic planning with high school students. School counselors have a unique yet complex role in providing college and career guidance, monitoring, and opportunities. This study…

In this study, the post-training needs of urban high school counselors were explored. A total of 55 high school counselors completed a questionnaire. The counselors emphasized the necessity of supplemental training for properly conducting youth drop-out and violence prevention programs, effective services for underachieving students who…

The authors interviewed African American female students in an urban school district about their perceptions, attitudes, and experiences with their professional school counselors. Data analysis indicated seven primary themes perceived by the participants, some of which included their understanding and purpose of professional school counselors and…

Through analyses of counselor interview data, the authors highlight the challenges to and opportunities of college counseling in a recently-chartered college preparatory high school. The findings suggest that the charter school framework provides counselors with innovative organizational structures to foster college counseling and student…

School dropout is a problem that has distressing personal and societal consequences. Not surprising, students who drop out are typically not academically motivated. This phenomenological study examined the meanings that students construct about academic motivation while participating in a dropout prevention program that primarily uses counseling.…

The purpose of this researcher-school collaborative study was to examine factors which might be intervenable by urban high school counselors in assisting at-risk students. There were two primary objectives. The first was to examine the degree to which urban adolescents' academic competence predicts cumulative grade point average (GPA). The second…

This article focuses on systemic conceptualizations that attempt to explicate why academic achievement may be challenging for some urban African American high school students. In addition, the author delineates the important roles that high school counselors can play in ensuring urban African American high school students' academic success.