School Counseling to Close Opportunity Gaps

A Social Justice and Antiracist Framework for Success

Create conditions that lead to success for ALL students and confront conditions that create opportunity gaps

School counselors can play a powerful role in closing opportunity gaps and addressing the social, emotional, and academic needs of students. This new edition of a groundbreaking bestseller shows school counselors how to incorporate principles of social justice, antiracism, equity, and advocacy into their practice.

Written by Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, university professor and advocate of transformational change in school counseling, this book addresses the reasons why some students are more likely to encounter challenges at school due to racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism. It includes:

• Vignettes, strategies, activities, and reflective individual and group study questions
• A framework for how school counselors can mitigate the impact of negative factors that hamper academic performance and healthy development, especially among students of color
• Six functions of school counselors that move schools toward more just practices and, ultimately, to higher test scores and increased student achievement