December, 16, 2002

CARROLLTON, GA — The University of West Georgia Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology has been recognized as a pioneer and national leader in school counseling reform by the Education Trust, a nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C. The Education Trust promotes high academic achievement among students at all grade levels, with a focus on closing the performance gap between groups of students separated by income level and ethnicity.

West Georgia was one of six universities honored at the Education Trust's National Conference in November for work by its Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, which is training school counselors to be more effective advocates for students, thus placing counselors at the center of standards-based reform. School counselors strongly impact students' educational futures through their influence on academic placement and career decisions.

"We are pleased to be recognized by the Education Trust as a national leader in training school counselors at the graduate level," said Dr. Brent Snow, chair of the UWG Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. "To have a significant national presence and leadership in school counseling, educational reform and school improvement while maintaining our regional focus is a significant accomplishment."

The Education Trust's mission is to work with policymakers, education professionals, community and business leaders and parents in cities and towns across the country to transform schools and colleges into institutions that genuinely serve all students from kindergarten through college.

Worth magazine, which named the Education Trust one of America's Top 100 Charities in its December 2002/January 2003 issue, states, "Education is a highly politicized field, but ask education experts of all political ilks to identify the most effective advocate for poor and minority students, and they'll say Education Trust. The organization comes at this from two directions: political advocacy and classroom changes. It trains teachers to analyze the effectiveness of their assignments and helps districts rework curricula so that all students, not just the most gifted, can learn. Education Trust's hard-hitting reports - such as one this year that showed that teachers in schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students lack educational backgrounds in the subjects they teach - shape the national debate on education."

Through participation in the Education Trust's four-year Transforming School Counseling Initiative, the UWG Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology has been working to educate professional school counselors who are skilled in needs assessment and in providing equal support for all students in the areas of academic achievement, career success and personal/social development.

The department began this educational effort in 1997, when West Georgia was one of only 10 universities in the country to receive a grant focusing on the development of plans for school counselor preparation programs from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Education Trust. Georgia was one of only two states to have two institutions receive this grant and, following the grant's initial phase, West Georgia was one of only six of the 10 grant recipients to be selected to receive $450,000 in funding to implement its proposed graduate-level training programs. The University of Georgia was Georgia's other grant recipient.

The focus of West Georgia's grant has been to plan toward eliminating the achievement gap that exists between low-income and/or minority students and their more advantaged peers, and increasing career options by reviewing and reforming graduate-level training for school counselors. Another objective of the process has been to design a curriculum that develops core competencies essential for professional school counselors to be effective leaders, advocates, collaborators, counselors, coordinators and change agents.

"Few expected that UWG would be competitive with national research universities for a grant to transform the work of school counselors financed by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund," said Snow. "While this funding was the largest grant from a private source in the history of UWG, it was also significant in leading UWG to this recognition by the Education Trust. Students and schools where our graduates work are really the beneficiaries of this initiative and the influential work of the faculty in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology."

The other five universities recognized this fall for their work with school counselor preparation are California State University–Northridge, Indiana State University, Ohio State University, the University of Georgia and the University of North Florida.

Reese House, program specialist for the Education Trust, stated, "These universities are changing the way school counselors are prepared to work in today's schools, and in doing so are directly impacting the lives of students in their communities. School counselors are ideally positioned to create opportunities for all students to reach high academic goals, but have all too often been left out of education reform efforts. The ongoing work of these universities ensures that future school counselors will be an integral part of closing the achievement gap that separates low-income and minority students from other students."

Dr. Kent Layton, dean of the UWG College of Education, added, "Being in on the cutting edge of reform in school counseling is exciting to say the least! Dr. Brent Snow and his faculty are to be commended for prioritizing their departmental efforts to develop school counselors who will ultimately create better learning and support environments for all children in the years to come. Leading the charge with the likes of the University of Georgia, Ohio State University and Indiana State University is just one more indicator that UWG is operating far above the status of a small state institution."