Group counseling: beyond the traditional.

Congratulations to the editors for including the Empowerment Groups for Academic Success (EGAS) article on using group counseling in urban schools to increase students' academic achievement and personal/social competencies. This article highlights the effectiveness and importance of group counseling in efforts to reach all students in public high schools. The article also identifies the need for a paradigm shift in the delivery methods used with inner-city youth. This is an important addition to the professional literature because it encourages the use of data to guide counselors toward interventions that will increase the efficiency of guidance programs and clearly link counseling with the mission and goals of the education community.

The EGAS model utilizes some of the traditional strategies and structures from the group counseling movement in the 1960s and '70s, such as the use of a co-leader, establishing a set number of meetings, setting individual objectives, and building group cohesion and support. However, the model goes beyond the traditional approach by building in a multicultural approach that is sensitive to the environmental elements that impact students living in urban settings and uses the strengths of an unstructured process group with clearly defined goals to develop individual student success. The fact that this innovative group approach was successful with a difficult group of students who had not responded to numerous other school interventions is a testament to the power of the EGAS model. The belief that group members can develop ownership and have choices about discussing their personal and social problems--and that this process will positively affect their behavior, academic performance, and attendance--is fundamental to the success of the EGAS model.

Seen from the perspective of education reform, EGAS is a significant contribution to the field. The battle cry of "Results! Results! Results!" is heard throughout the educational community in response to concerns about low test scores, reaching all students, political realities of economic constraints, and the need for more comprehensive, effective programs for urban youth. In-service programs for educators focus on establishing learning communities working toward improved student results. School counseling currently is experiencing a thrust toward individual and program accountability to ensure academic success and self-development for all students. The common focus is on finding ways to reach more students and using data to demonstrate results. EGAS is a timely model that can provide a guide for counselors searching for new and revised strategies to help fulfill their goals.

One strength of the EGAS model is that it utilizes knowledge and skills that counselors have learned within their counselor preparation programs. It is not a new delivery system, so it takes very little additional training to be able to implement the model effectively with a variety of school populations. However, it is a new perspective on how group counseling can effectively address current directions, goals, and missions of the counseling program and the larger educational efforts within a school. More importantly, it provides a clear description of a multicultural approach that is effective with specific populations in situations where counselors may have been unclear on how to help students address issues of major concern in their lives.

New program efforts are utilizing a comprehensive, results-based student support program that includes a variety of professionals and paraprofessionals working together to ensure student results in academic achievement, interpersonal relationships, career preparation, and personal development. This approach necessitates finding new ways to achieve results, including rethinking current strategies and planning for different collaborative methods to deliver the desired student competencies. This concept is based on a belief that when results are held constant, processes used to reach the results have to be varied according to the situation, the individuals involved, and the resources.

The need for new ways to reach all students calls for acquiring new skills and reframing traditional professional competencies for school counselors. One of the major sets of skills that are necessary for all school counselors is the use of group processes in a variety of situations. Conducting meetings, facilitating group sessions, providing training sessions for parents, staff, and students, as well as using group processes in counseling students, such as EGAS, are critical to developing comprehensive programs.

Coupled with retraining in group processes, there also must occur an update on child development, brain research and learning styles, and multicultural sensitivity. For counselors working in urban settings, training in the EGAS model would be highly beneficial.

Sharon K. Johnson is a retired professor, Counselor Education, California State University, Los Angeles. C. D. "Curly" Johnson is a consultant and author, San Juan Capistrano, CA.