This factsheet explores the school counselor's role in helping college-bound students. Equity in counseling is considered in the areas of access to counseling and student tracking. Timelines in precollege counseling are presented for elementary and junior high grades, and for each grade level in high school. Eight resource documents are listed.…

The valuing of diversity can be taught to others and should be a major part of any school's comprehensive guidance program. In the valuing diversity model ASK, "A" stands for awareness of self and others; "S" stands for sensitivity and skills; and "K" stands for knowledge cultures different from one's own. School…

This digest describes brief family consultation, a short-term strategy that enlists the home and school in an attempt to solve childhood behavior problems. Five criteria are given for assessing the functional status of a family: (1) parental resources; (2) chronicity; (3) communication between family members; (4) parental authority; and (5)…

This digest describes post-traumatic loss debriefing, a structured group process approach to help survivors manage their physical, cognitive, and emotional responses to a traumatic loss. It discusses seven stages of debriefing: (1) Introductory Stage; (2) Fact Stage; (3) Life Review Stage; (4) Feeling Stage; (5) Reaction Stage; (6) Learning Stage;…

This digest focuses on the contributions counselors can make to help schools achieve educational excellence and enhance both the quantity and quality of student learning. (BH)

Achievement of the six National Education Goals will require changes in the present educational system, change in how communities respond to education, and especially change in how education is visualized. An effective guidance program has the capacity to make major contributions to all of the National Education Goals. School administrators,…

Physical activity engaged in as a child can encourage fitness throughout the lifespan. School counselors and physical education teachers can invest in multi-intervention programs that encompass the psycho-physiological spectrum of children within the schools. Together, school counselors and physical educators can play an active role in the…

This digest provides a demographic profile of family caregivers and discusses the emotional and physical burdens on family caregivers. It examines how caregivers cope with these burdens and highlights research findings on the most effective coping strategies. The digest concludes by summarizing the challenges to the helping profession in…

The purpose of multicultural career education and development is to foster positive self-concepts and career choices regardless of cultural background, encourage understanding of cultural groups' contributions, and develop effective intercultural communication skills. The attitudes, values, opinions, and beliefs with which a person perceives the…

The school reform movement has been a major societal and political agenda item for nearly two decades. As a result of the pressure stemming from the movement to make schools more effective, many changes have occurred. The most obvious of these changes is an increased emphasis on assessment. Furthermore, school counselors, like teachers and…

This digest discusses the scope of practice of the secondary school counselor in today's school, citing Norman Gysbers' Comprehensive Guidance Program Model as an approach to developmental counseling which empowers counselors to define their own scope of practice, and thereby effectively address the needs of their students. (TE)

This digest discusses the ways in which counselors in middle schools can help youngsters face the challenges of early adolescence and prepare them for life in high school. It focuses on: (1) understanding one's self; (2) family relationships; (3) peer pressure and drug abuse; (4) stressful lives; (5) sexual maturation; (6) academics; and (7)…

This digest summarizes demands that confront elementary counselors: (1) a culturally diverse world; (2) changing families; (3) drug abuse; (4) child abuse and neglect; (5) exceptional children; (6) a technological world; (7) a changing world of work; (8) promoting learning in a changing world; (9) shaping children's behavior in a changing world;…

This digest describes three complementary approaches to integrating guidance into education: (1) the Comprehensive Guidance Program Model, developed by Norman C. Gysbers; (2) the Teacher Advisor Program (TAP), developed by Robert D. Myrick; and (3) the Invitational Learning paradigm, developed by William W. Purkey. Four references are included.…