School Counselors’ Roles in Developing Partnerships with Families and Communities for Student Success

Abstract

This article discusses a theoretical perspective, research results, and practical examples that support new roles for school counselors in strengthening school programs of family and community involvement. A modest proposal is offered for school counselors to spend 20% of their time on strengthening teamwork for partnerships by working with other educators, parents, and community partners to plan, implement, and evaluate goal-linked partnership programs for their schools. This investment of school counselors’ time and talent should improve the quality of outreach and involvement activities, the number of parents who remain knowledgeable partners in their children's education across the grades, and results for students. The new direction also should reduce the number of students with serious academic and behavioral problems that school counselors presently try to solve alone.