Racial Justice Starts at School

Twenty years ago, as a first-year high school teacher, Tinisha Parker, Ph.D., encountered one of her first opportunities to reject the status quo. As she read the social studies textbook to prepare for the next day’s lesson, she was alarmed to find a single paragraph on slavery. Not only was the text astonishingly brief, it went beyond whitewashing into the realm of complete fiction. 
 
“It talked about how caring and nurturing slave owners were,” she recalled. “I was raised with brutal history; my dad didn’t hide the atrocities of slavery. I knew at an early age how cruel and horrific that system was. I just knew ‘this isn’t right; this isn’t the truth.’ I heard my dad in my head saying, ‘you better not let your students,’ most of whom were white, ‘believe this.’” Although Parker spoke from her heart and told her students the truth, as only the third-ever Black teacher hired in a school of 200 staff, she hesitated to take the issue outside of her classroom. 

Today, it’s different. As the executive director of student services for Gwinnett County Public Schools in metro Atlanta, Parker is having the conversations and instituting policies that break down systemic racism in schools. “There has to be an expectation that this work will be done,” she said. “In my district, we’re trying to change hearts and minds. We can mandate behaviors, but that doesn’t mean hearts and minds have changed. You have to have policies and expectations about adult professional learning and how adults will treat students in your district, your building and your school.” 

Across the nation, efforts to change hearts and minds are mixed, at best. ASCA’s recently released 2020 State of the Profession survey report asked school counselors how their schools or districts are supporting and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and access this year. More than one-third (36%) said their schools have taken no actions, although another one-third have required DEI training for all faculty.

Further, individual school counselors’ efforts to address racism and bias in their school counseling programs fail to go beyond the basics, the data shows. About 42% of school counselors said they are monitoring student behavior to identify racist behavior or speech, 38% are providing individual counseling and 35% are providing classroom lessons, according to the report. However, just 22% each are identifying and advocating to revise or remove policies that disproportionately affect students of color or using data to identify students who should be included in the most rigorous coursework. 

Stephen Sharp, school counselor at Landisville Middle School in Pennsylvania, isn’t surprised. “Systems are resistant to change,” he said. “For school counselors to be confronted with that and not know where to start, that doesn’t surprise me. It can feel like overwhelming work. Our school systems have been systems of tremendous opportunity and tremendous oppression, and that’s going to be difficult work to change what they are.” 

Accepting the Calling
Doing that work, however, is an ethical imperative. The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors are clear that school counselors are leaders, advocates,  collaborators and consultants who create systemic change by providing equitable educational access and success. Further, the standards challenge school counselors to work to identify, understand and address their own bias and privilege that may hinder them from seeing and understanding students who may not feel safe or feel marginalized or oppressed. They are charged with promoting cultural competence to create a safer and more inclusive school environment and using restorative, rather than punitive, practices. 

“I just can’t imagine that school counselors, with the training we undergo, the ethical standards we are held to and the very nature of the work we undertake, would not instinctively and intrinsically understand that this is our work, this is our calling, this is our mission,” said Jan Desmarais-Morse, sixth-grade school counselor at Goshen Middle School in Indiana. 

The ASCA Standards in Practice document Eliminating Racism and Bias in Schools: The School Counselor’s Role states that all educators have an obligation to end racism and bias and to be an important part of the solution. This means identifying gaps in achievement and opportunities, addressing disproportionate rates of discipline for students of color, eliminating the barriers to participation in AP classes and other rigorous coursework, and more. “School counselors must challenge race-based comments, lead efforts to change inequitable policies and customs and critically apply their expertise to address institutional bias,” said Eric Sparks, Ed.D., ASCA deputy executive director. “Too often, the focus is on ‘fixing the student,’ rather than changing the system.” 

It’s a reality the school counseling profession and, more broadly, education as a whole has woken up to. “The field of school counseling is practiced predominantly by persons who are white and female, yet the demographics of students we have an impact on is composed of a kaleidoscope of color, gender, ethnicity and more,” Desmarais-Morse said. “As school counselors, we are obligated to advocate for the equitable treatment of all students. School counselors benefiting from the advantages of being white simply do not have the luxury to ignore that privilege.” 

Sharp added that, as you go about changing systems, it’s important to “separate yourself from the intention part to the outcome part.” In other words, “Are we building things that create that lasting impact and effect? Are standards and policies shifting things sufficiently to create a less-racist world? We need to redefine the system in ways it can be more stable for everyone. And school counselors are well-positioned for upstream supports and interventions.”

Although it’s difficult to hear, school counseling has been a tool of oppression, Sharp maintained. “‘Guidance counselors’ always had a history of telling students who was right and who was wrong, and not always countering that with supports and opportunities. Career interest is based off of exposure, and exposure is absolutely a racialized and class-driven process. Lack of exposure isn’t the same as lack of interest. Our postsecondary pathways have been pretty segregated and then the careers after that. When school counselors show their students what were historic barriers, they can then consciously navigate those spaces.” 

To that end, Alicia Oglesby has conversations with students about underrepresentation in certain fields and asks, for example, “Why do you think there aren’t a ton of Black people who work at Google?” Ultimately, racial justice work is infused in every aspect of her program – from academic advising to college and career planning to social/emotional learning. She’s constantly asking, “Who would be disadvantaged by this change in policy or practice?”

“It has really been a muscle I’ve had to work,” said Oglesby, who is director of school counseling at Bishop McNamara High School in Maryland and co-author of “Interrupting Racism: Equity and Justice in School Counseling.” “I certainly make mistakes, but I learn from them more quickly now.” 

Making it Personal, not Easy
Ensuring school counselors, and K-12 educators in general, “get it” is a difficult challenge. “Make it personal,” said Damien Sweeney, Ed.D., program coordinator for comprehensive school counseling for the Kentucky Department of Education. “When you then ask educators to look at the idea of privilege through the lens of a Black or traditionally marginalized student or colleague, the hope is they will begin to understand many others have far fewer privileges. This leads to an openness to learn. At this point, we can teach educators about the importance of courageous conversations about race, race-based stress and trauma, and educating all students with high expectations (regardless of skin color). Our Black, Latinx and traditionally marginalized students have stories that need to be told and heard. Our classrooms should be safe spaces that are accepting of these stories.” 

It’s easy to incorporate resources into our programming in which students see their own reflection, Demarais-Morse said. Use videos that include representation of the student population or children’s books with people of color or that address social justice issues. The more difficult work requires personal and emotional risk. “School counselors might first reflect upon where they stand in working toward becoming anti-racist. Are they working from a place of fear, or are they working to learn, understand and grow? Each step in this reflection will demand that we take action toward the next step.” 

Building a foundation of trust is a good place to start, said Rebecca Atkins, senior administrator of school counseling for the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, and co-author, with Oglesby, of “Interrupting Racism.” “School counselors rely deeply on creating trust with all of their stakeholders,” she said. That trust with stakeholders is “amplified when you talk about something that is difficult for people and heavily weighted in emotions and history.”

Building trust requires visibility. “The school has to be able to see you being out and about making connections.” Following through with promises is critical. “School counselors may promise all the things but not deliver all the things,” Atkins said. “That may come from a good place, but that breaks trust if you don’t do it. Be the person who advocates verbally and vocally, so teachers and parents know you’re advocating,” she said. 

Support from the highest levels certainly helps, too. For example, last summer the Kentucky Board of Education passed a resolution against all acts of racism and violence and committing to “creating a better educational community for students and, importantly, for African American students and students of color,” Sweeney said. The resolution also stated that “educational leaders must embrace diversity, ensure equality and shape the future of all of Kentucky’s children.” The Kentucky Board of Education is supporting “inclusionary teacher preparation programs that put highly qualified teachers of color in front of students and school improvement options for local districts to close achievement gaps,” he said. 
Our Black, Latinx and traditionally marginalized students have stories that need to be told and heard.

Following this resolution, the Kentucky Department of Education hired a deputy commissioner of education and chief equity officer. Sweeney and his colleagues are now working on a new equity toolkit and dashboard to study current policies, practices and curricula. “When people tell us there is a lack of diversity at their schools, we let them know this provides even more of a reason to learn from or connect with others who are different from them and offer students opportunities to have deeper conversations about race.”

A barrier to some of those deeper conversations that result in systemic change is simply that the profession is mostly female and white, said Wendy Rock, Ph.D., assistant professor of counseling and school counseling program coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University. “The ASCA National Model is a framework, not a prescription. It provides guidelines for disaggregating data to identify inequities. School counseling programs utilizing the ASCA National Model as their framework can and should address racism. I can’t tell you how long I have heard, especially in a school setting, ‘why are you making this about race?’ Whenever someone of color tried to draw attention to the problem, we gaslighted them. I think as a profession, our own bias and privilege have inhibited us from recognizing the problem.”

Refining School Counselor Education
Moving the needle beyond just recognizing the problem can start with practical things, Parker said. In her school counselor preparation program, no one talked about access to AP tests, barriers to standardized tests, college applications or how to request fee waivers. Newly minted school counselors enter the field well-versed in clinical practice, counseling theory and rapport building but not necessarily the real work at the high school level. “We talked about career readiness. We didn’t talk about fee waivers for applications. And it’s not just the teaching of the college application process; the gatekeeping of advanced, honors and AP courses or fee waivers but the equity issues that surround them. These aren’t things in your graduate program. You find out on the job.” Parker suggested school counseling faculty can enhance their programs by reviewing state guidelines to ensure their students are prepared for what they’ll be required to do once they’re in the building. “Have conversations and teach around those things,” she said.

Atkins agreed. “When we have mock interviews [with school counseling candidates], I say ‘talk to me about how you’re going to make a difference for equity and access for students.’” The answer is always “culturally responsive counseling,” but typical school counselors spend the majority of their time outside of individual counseling, she said. “Culturally responsive counseling is important, but we have to be careful not to think that’s our solution. Students need support, but the problem is the system. Until every school counseling preparation program is emphasizing systemic change and how that works in a school, I don’t think we’ll see a huge difference. I think that’s a big gap in many graduate programs.”

Anti-racism is just now being discussed as it relates to school counseling programs, said Dana Griffin, Ph.D., associate professor and Dean’s Fellow for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I tell my [school counseling] students that multicultural counseling is not simply understanding a theory or approach to working with diverse youth. It’s being aware that their experiences are different because of the ‘-isms’ and other forms of injustice, and it’s about understanding how we ourselves have implicit biases and beliefs that contribute to the oppression. A school counseling program must be comprehensive in nature to address all these injustices and other acts of oppression. That may mean that part of your job is conducting teacher trainings and workshops, using data to highlight inequities and pointing these things out when you hear or see them.”

It’s important for graduate students to understand the “contours of the education system,” Sharp said, so they understand how the system creates opportunities for some and not for others.

“All the work we are preparing our students to do, we must be willing to do ourselves in our programs and institutions,” Rock said. “All of this takes a great deal of courage, so I think building the capacity of our students to be leaders and advocates is key.”

Battling the Barriers
A number of school counselors responding to the ASCA State of the Profession survey indicated they had lobbied their administrator or district for the opportunity to train other faculty in racism and bias, to update curricula and to update racist policies but were shot down. It’s frustrating, but there are ways around it. 
For example, “Any time you hit resistance, a great strategy is to connect the work you’re trying to move forward with the things your administrator cares about,” Atkins said. “If your administrator isn’t ready for an honest conversation about race and racism, do they want all their students to come to class and do well in school? Tie the work you’re doing with the data outcomes in the school.”

Additionally, share with administrators and district personnel your ethical mandate. “The ASCA Ethical Standards are very clear, and you can tie it back to that,” Atkins said. “Ultimately, many of the things we want to see in anti-racist work is fundamentally good practice. If you’re feeling like you’re getting a lot of pushback, find your people,” she said. “Having a group of people will help you stand up for what’s right and will also help you not lose your steam. But if you feel like you’re the only person talking about equity and racism in your school, find somebody in your district or in your state association. It’s impossible to do by yourself because you’re working against such a huge system. It’s literally the way the entire system was made.”

For Oglesby, sometimes pushback means she’s doing something right. “Part of how I can continue to move forward with this work really is knowing that pushback is inevitable. There’s a very delicate balance between advocating fiercely and making sure I keep my job. I know it’s tough, and it’s difficult at first. It does get easier. If you have the privilege and benefit of seeing things come together and shift in your school community, it is an awesome thing.” 

“I believe that 99.9% of school counselors are here because they want to do what’s best for kids,” Atkins said. “If you haven’t made any changes based on 2020, do some deep learning about the history of racism in education. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s very insidious. You can’t not notice it’s there. But once you learn, don’t stop there. We must choose action.”  

Angie Hickman is ASCA director of research and marketing.