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Solution Shop is a data-driven counseling and study skills program that specifically addresses the underachievement of students of color and economically disadvantaged students. Solution Shop provides an example of the key role professional school counselors can play in the school reform movement. This program is based on solution-focused counseling strategies and is consistent with a new role for professional school counselors.
School reform is the business of every member of the school team and closing the achievement gap is the first priority of school reform (Stone & Clark, 2001). Professional school counselors, by virtue of their training and skills, are poised to play key roles in addressing the educational challenges facing schools. School counseling programs, as described in the American School Counselor Association's National Model for school counseling programs (2003), should be aligned with the National Standards and linked to the academic mission of schools (Campbell & Dahir, 1997).
Solution Shop, a counseling and study skills program, provides an example of how a professional school counselor can develop a program that addresses the academic needs of students of color and economically disadvantaged students. Middle school students with two or more failing grades are selected for the Solution Shop program. Ten students meet for one period a day, for one semester, with the professional school counselor. Each student in the program develops individual academic and personal goals. The students participate in solutionfocused group counseling and study skill instruction for a portion of the class period and receive individualized tutoring during the remainder of the class period. At the end of the first year of the program, of the 35 students who participated, 57% improved their GPA and only 2 students (5.7%) had a lower GPA. Parents and teachers were involved in the referral and remediation process. Teachers and administrators were surveyed and report their perception that 75% of the students benefited from the program.
CONNECTING COUNSELING PROGRAMS TO SCHOOL REFORM
While experts debate the way to achieve equity for all children in schools, the facts are not in dispute. Despite early gain in closing the achievement gap in the 1970s and 1980s, the gap separating economically disadvantaged students and students of color from advantaged students began to widen (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001). Students...