Counseling Rehabilitation & Student Development

School Counselors Learn to Serve as Advocates

If School Counseling Assistant Professor Amy Milsom has her way, school counselors across the country would be as involved with students who have disabilities as they are with any other students.

Unfortunately, her research has shown that this is not the case. "School counselors often lack the knowledge to effectively advocate for and be proactive in meeting the needs of students with disabilities," she said.

In her current research and course curricula, Milsom is trying to rectify that lack of knowledge and training. So, for instance, in the fieldwork she supervises, she insists that her students sit in on a special education class, attend an Individual Educational Program meeting, and provide counseling to a student with a disability.

Last year, Milsom conducted a survey of all school counselor education programs in the country to determine whether they require specific training related to students with disabilities. She found that virtually all programs integrated disability content such as information about characteristics of students with disabilities and disability legislation into existing course curricula. Only 43 percent of the programs, however, required their students to complete a freestanding course that focused specifically on students with disabilities.

Not surprisingly, Milsom also found significant differences in the "integrated curriculum" vs. "separate course" approaches. Special education courses were more likely to include information about the specific characteristics and development needs of students with disabilities. In addition, special education courses were more likely to discuss the federally mandated transition plans for special education students who are on the threshold of high school.

School counselors possess a vital array of tools that can help students with disabilities reach their full potential. But, Milsom says, too often school counselors do not know the specific needs of students with disabilities or how to best address those needs. With more coursework and experience during graduate training, school counselors can obtain the disability knowledge to prepare them as effective professionals.

"My hope," she says, "is that Iowa graduates won't shy away from working with students with disabilities. Rather, I hope they will serve as advocates for these students, so they receive the services they deserve and have opportunities to reach their full potential." -by Jean Florman

Work Values Influence Career Choice

Last spring, 30 years after he first surveyed rural Iowa high school students about their work values, School Counseling Professor David Jepsen returned to small-town schools to find out whether students' ideas had changed. The professor of counselor education visited Tipton, Lone Tree, and Durant to find out what work values high school seniors use as criteria for making decisions about their future careers, education, and training.

Jepsen administered questionnaires that explored what students value in terms of career choices. After the responses were analyzed, Jepsen returned to the schools and helped the students use the information to better understand their values and potential career choices.

"We talked about how they combine family and work values and how they can capitalize on these to make informed decisions," Jepsen says. "And I emphasized that their first choices about career or work probably will change through time. They need to be open to change because through their lives they are likely to change jobs, employers, and even occupations."

Students mentioned that they were influenced by three work values in particular. First, they want to work in an occupation whose tasks they find intrinsically interesting. Second, many of them want to work in a "helping" occupation where they can improve the welfare of someone else. And finally, most hope to work in a field where they can achieve something important.

Although Jepsen has not completed his comparison between the 1973 and 2003 questionnaires, he suspects that students' work values won't have changed too much. Other research, however, has shown that young people who have been in the workforce for a few years do, in fact, change their work values rather significantly.

"By the time these young people are 25 years old," Jepsen says, "the two work values influencing them most will be income and working conditions."
One of Jepsen's former students, Denise Townsend (MA '00) is the school counselor at Lone Tree High School and served as the study's contact person in that school. Jepsen, who grew up in rural Butler County, says he returned from his visits "refreshed and energized."

"The kids were just great," he says, "and they let us know that they also gained useful information from our interaction." -by Jean Florman