Exploring the district-wide school counselor leader's role in creating a college readiness culture
Abstract
This qualitative study was designed to explore the role the districtwide school counselor leader (DWSCL) played in creating and sustaining a college-going culture. The DWSCL or Guidance Director is an administrator who has leadership responsibility for supervising school counseling across an entire district. I included three school districts to understand how the DWSCLs shaped college readiness for students within their respective districts. To explore whether the DWSCL role varied with school district's socioeconomic status (SES) enrollments, I reviewed one low, one moderate, and one high SES school district. DWSCLs acted as institutional information agents and navigators for students, families, and faculty members within a district. They have the key responsibility for shaping the environment because of their access to critical information and their dissemination practices regarding the preparation of students and their families for making the transition to postsecondary careers. The data indicated that the roles played by the DWSCLs varied as a function of their district's distinct SES enrollments. To accomplish similar tasks, the DWSCLs emphasized different role-types for creating an environment that would enhance the building of college readiness within their respective districts. The community's social and cultural capital heavily influenced how their roles were put into operation. The DWSCL role became more complex when there was a diversity of SES segments within the district. Implications for senior school administrators regarding how to structure and use this role to create a sustainable college readiness environment and suggestions for future researchers are included.
Subject Area
Educational leadership|School administration
Recommended Citation
Brown, Stanton Louis, "Exploring the district-wide school counselor leader's role in creating a college readiness culture" (2015). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3683425.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3683425
