The ‘essential’ role of Black counselors on campus
Amid calls for schools to diversify their teaching staffs, some are saying those efforts should extend beyond the classroom — to the counseling office.
The needs of Black students, advocates argue, are too often overlooked by nonBlack middle and high school counselors. Black students are more likely to be placed in classes that don’t prepare them for college or a career, subject to harsher discipline and less likely to have their mental health needs addressed, research shows.
“There’s a subconscious mindset that Black students, students in poverty, cannot learn,” said Lisa Andrews, a director at the California College Guidance Initiative and a counseling professor at the University of La Verne, near Pomona. “To change that, school counseling needs to be transformational and revolutionary.”
School counselors help students choose classes, offer academic guidance, advise students on college applications and career options and offer mental health support. While counselors of any race or background can offer highquality advising to any student, Black counselors might be more inclined to take extra time, show a little more patience and establish trust with Black families and students, Andrews said.
For an example, she points to an experience she had when she worked as a high school counselor. One day she heard a group of young Black girls outside her office talking loudly, goofing off and cursing in a way that suggested they were not serious about school. She brought them in and explained they needed to focus more on academics if they wanted to go to college.
“At first, they didn’t respond because I sounded like just another authority figure. But then I told them, listen, I was born in Compton. I have struggled,” Andrews said. “That changed everything. They knew that I understood, and we could start building a trusting relationship.”
She met with the girls weekly and checked in regularly on their progress. By the time they were seniors, all 17 had passed the classes needed to attend California’s public universities.
“It often takes Black counselors to be on the front lines, aggressively advocating for Black students, pushing the needle forward for them, ensuring they have access to rigorous classes,” Andrews said. “If you set the expectations high, the students will respond.”
There’s no data on the racial or ethnic makeup of California’s 9,900 K-12 school
counselors, but teachers in California are overwhelmingly white. More than 60% of teachers in California’s K-12 public schools were white in 2018-19, according to EdTrust West, while fewer than 4% of teachers were Black. The student population was 22% white and 5.4% Black that year.
A 2020 study by EdTrust, an education advocacy and research nonprofit, showed that Black students are less likely to be placed in advanced math in middle school or Advanced Placement classes in high school, and many attend schools where AP classes are not offered at all. Numerous academic studies have shown that Black students are less likely to attend schools with adequate counseling staff or access to mental health services.
“Representation matters. Whether it’s guidance counselors, teachers, mental health providers or leaders, having a workforce that reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of California directly impacts students’ experiences in school — and their educational outcomes,” said Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, EdTrust West’s director of education policy. “Moreover, counselors can either be the gatekeepers or the connectors to college. We need counselors who believe all students can go to college and challenge the biases they may have about who is and isn’t ‘college-bound.’ Unfortunately, too few California students have access to education professionals who look like them and understand their lived experiences.”
Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors, agreed that Black counselors can play an important role in boosting the achievement of Black students.
“If we want to support Black students, hiring school counselors of the same race can build trust with students, as well as their parents,” Whitson said. “It also sends a strong message that Black counselors can be role models, demonstrating how they were able to invest the time and effort to achieve career success.”
School districts and counselor preparation programs can take steps to diversify the field, Whitson said. School districts can mentor and train aspiring counselors who are Black and work to retain those they’ve hired. Graduate schools can host job fairs and make other outreach efforts to recruit Black students to the counseling field, and ensure they get the support they need to graduate and find jobs.
Los Angeles Unified has taken a lead in efforts to hire Black counselors. In February, the district allotted $80 million to fund a Black Student Achievement Plan, which includes several initiatives aimed at improving test scores, attendance and graduation at about 100 schools that have high numbers of Black students. So far, as part of the plan, the district has hired about 60 new counselors, many of whom are Black.
But it’s not an easy task, said Jared DuPree, a senior director at the district. The pool of job applicants does not include many Black candidates, and the district does not ask job candidates their race or ethnicity.
“We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can reserve these spots just for Black counselors,” DuPree said. “But you don’t have to be Black to support Black students. Counselors of any race can be effective at this.”
Still, a counselor’s race can be an important factor in establishing trust, at least in the beginning, he said. And Black students might be more likely to ask for help from counselors whose culture, experiences and outlook resemble their own, he said.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, Black families sometimes feel more comfortable with people who look like them,” he said. “It reduces anxiety. They feel, ‘This person can identify with my lived experiences, to the things I value.’ It’s a source of comfort.”