About CS3

California remains last in the nation in per pupil dollars allocated for guidance and counseling and other student support programs. With education funding and school reform efforts focused increasingly on classroom instruction and school site management, those who provide developmental guidance for all students and support for students faced with barriers to learning have found themselves asked to do more and more with less and less. In addition, leadership for student support programs at the district and state levels often has been inadequate due to funding shortages, lack of adequate training, or a combination of both. Currently, for example, two California Department of Education professionals provide consultation on counseling and guidance to California’s 1,000 school districts! That is one consultant per three million students.

Guidance and counseling programs equip students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to complete school successfully. Comprehensive guidance and counseling programs support students in their academic development, career development, and personal/social development. As the largest study to date of the impact of well-organized comprehensive guidance and counseling programs shows, good quality programs help students feel safe at school, have confidence that problems in the school will be addressed, have greater confidence in their knowledge of postsecondary options, and see themselves as better equipped academically than their peers in schools without adequate counseling and guidance programs (Lapan, Gysbers, & Sun, 1997).

Strong guidance and counseling programs also are essential to support improved workforce development, since counselors help students explore the array of options available to them including college, and help match their talents and abilities with postsecondary options. It is especially important for underrepresented groups to receive top quality guidance and counseling, and strong programs help students who are at-risk of academic failure get reconnected with learning, make better choices socially, and get back on track academically.

The state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing revised the standards for the Pupil Personnel Services credential in 2004, including the standards for school counselors. Although the new standards emphasize the development of preservice counselor knowledge and skills in the design, implementation, administration and evaluation of comprehensive counseling and guidance programs, the majority of California’s current school counselors have not received such training. Over the coming three to five years, a large percentage of the state’s approximately 6,000 school counselors will need to be retrained to be in compliance with the new standards. The Center for Student Support Systems will be at the forefront in designing and delivering comprehensive continuing education programs for these counselors.

Dr. Lonnie Rowell, Associate Professor in the USD Counseling Program, is the founding Director of the Center. He is a past President of the California School Counselors Association (CSCA) and the California Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors (CACES), was a member of the Planning Committee for the California Leadership Center for Results-Based Student Support Programs, and co-edited and wrote sections of the Standards for Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Programs in San Diego County Schools. Dr. Rowell also founded the Annual Forum on the State of Guidance and Counseling in San Diego County School Districts and the Spring Symposium on Action Research in School Counseling. These events, held at USD, bring to the campus each year more than 200 counselors, school administrators, counselor supervisors, counselor educators, and graduate students in counseling to examine issues concerning the reform of school counseling, the provision of high quality guidance and counseling programs, and the utilization of action research as a tool for revitalizing counseling practice.

The Center’s programs include:

• Collaborative action research projects conducted in conjunction with the Annual Forum
• Externally funded research projects focused on school guidance and counseling programs and student support programs in general
• Workshops, trainings, and related professional development activities for counselors and other student support personnel
• A library of books and resources for counseling practitioners and counselors-in-training
• Advocacy and leadership in revitalizing California student support systems

For further information regarding the Center, please contact Dr. Lonnie Rowell at (619) 260-4212 or at lrowell@sandiego.edu.

Reference:
Lapan, R. T., Gysbers, N. C., & Sun, Y. (1997). The impact of more fully implemented guidance programs on the school experiences of high school students: A statewide evaluation study. Journal of Counseling & Development, 75, 293-302.