Promoting Cultural Responsiveness and Closing the Achievement Gap with Standards Blending

Abstract

In this article, standards blending–-the integration of core academic and school counseling standards–-is demonstrated as a culturally responsive strategy to assist in closing the achievement gap for a group of third-grade African American males. The small-group intervention described resulted in knowledge gains in both the school counseling and academic curriculum content areas. All participants also reported experiencing increased self-esteem.

Using the Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) Group Model to Promote Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement for English as a Second Language (ESL) Students

“…However, as shown in Table 1, when looking at individual students' GPA change, 75% of the participants (n = 12) had a higher GPA after the group and for 25% of the participants (n = 4), the GPA went down. Individual students' GPA changes and percentage of change in GPA were also calculated using a formula provided by Schellenberg and Grothaus (2009). On average, the GPA of the participants in the group increased by 10.5%.…”

“…In addition to academic achievement, self-esteem is another widely studied variable in educational research for students from the general population. For instance, some literature supports that high self-esteem partly explains students' school performance (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003;Dalgas-Pelish, 2006;Roberts, 2002;Schellenberg & Grothaus, 2009;Task Force on the Family, 2003;Zins, Weissberg, Wang, & Walberg, 2004). Researchers also found the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement could be reciprocal, meaning students' academic achievement could improve self-esteem (Liu, Kaplan, & Risser, 1992;Rosenberg, Schooler, & Schoenbach, 1989;Ross & Broh, 2000).…”

“…Researchers also found the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement could be reciprocal, meaning students' academic achievement could improve self-esteem (Liu, Kaplan, & Risser, 1992;Rosenberg, Schooler, & Schoenbach, 1989;Ross & Broh, 2000). Schellenberg and Grothaus (2009) provided an example of using group intervention to improve both the self-esteem and academic achievement of African American male students. Researchers found that some of the dimensions of self-esteem had stronger correlations with academic achievement.…”

“…Group counseling is an important delivery mechanism espoused by The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (ASCA, 2012). School counselors can use groups to attend to students' academic, personal/social, and career development (Gerrity & DeLucia-Waack, 2007;Paisley & Milsom, 2007;Schellenberg & Grothaus, 2009). Several authors have also advocated for using group work with ESL students (Asner-Self & Feyissa, 2002;Villalba, 2003), and group interventions have been demonstrated to be a creative and effective way to serve ESL students (Asner-Self & Feyissa, 2002;Burnham et al, 2009;Galletta-Bruno, 1995;Hagan, 2004;Roysircar et al, 2005).…”

Contextual School Counseling Approach

“…Finally, the students/clients are under pressure to perform academically, and counselors are more and more in the position of showing how their work supports this mission of the school (Schellenberg & Grothaus, 2009). They exist within the school domain with their students/clients, so in their role as a counselor they are more known, and less anonymous, than most mental health professionals.…”