DECREASING BIAS BY CHANGING PERCEPTIONS: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ADDRESSING PRECONCEPTIONS AMONG SCHOOL COUNSELORS

The Office for Civil Rights has well documented the presence of disparities among Black students in schools as compared to other ethnic/racial groups of students. Although policies have been mandated and implemented in efforts to close gaps between Black students and other ethnic/racial groups of students, disparities continue to exist. As vital members of the leadership team, school counselors need to design and to deliver a Texas comprehensive developmental guidance and counseling program model with the intent of improving student successful outcomes. To date, however, limited data exist regarding effective interventions that can be used to teach school counselors the skills necessary to affect the systematic changes needed in schools. To address this concern, a quasi-experimental study was completed with 39 participants to explore the use of a school counselor multicultural awareness intervention to increase the school counselor’s multicultural self-efficacy and decease the school counselor’s colorblind racial attitude. A within-between groups ANOVA revealed statistically significant interactions for time with the School Counselor Self Efficacy Scale (SCMES) Using Data and Understanding Systematic change, Multicultural Counseling Awareness, and Application of Racial and Cultural Knowledge to Practice subscales. Results, discussion, and future recommendations are included in the study.