Strengths-Based School Counseling and the ASCA National Model®

Abstract

Articles in this special issue illustrate how Strengths- Based School Counseling complements the ASCA National Model® by strengthening the foundation of comprehensive school counseling programs, emphasizing promotion-oriented delivery, reinforcing the accountability and evidence base, engaging in developmental advocacy, and highlighting the counselor's leadership role in systemic change and as a collaborator in school-family-community partnerships. We provide examples of these and offer further suggestions for strengths-based practice and research. These include a downward extension of comprehensive school counseling programs to the preschool programs that are attached to many public schools, research on interventions designed to enhance such evidence-based student strengths such as the multicultural personality, and drawing on knowledge from related disciplines to enrich theory, practice, and research about the newer themes of leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change.