Supervisor Advocacy Case Study

Site supervisor advocacy efforts in the area of school programs

Hipolito-Delgato and Lee (2007) discuss how often times marginalized students continue to be marginalized in the school community in many different areas such as curricula, class choices, and access to highly qualified teachers or school counselors. This can make it difficult for school counselors to close the achievement gaps within the school setting. Hipolito-Delgato and Lee (2007) discuss the idea of empowering students and engaging in advocacy on behalf of students in order to help to close gaps. At my site, there is a high population, about 76%, of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch status. It is difficult for some students to see the value of school when they are hungry or they need to work to help out the family. Also, because students often cannot afford to pay for extra activities like field trips, students could
One way my site supervisor advocates for these students within school programs is by identifying programs that are free or can be accessed through grants. For example, the middle grade students often do project based learning and get to go on overnight trips to learn about the native forest. A question came up with the administrators about students having to pay for food. Through advocacy efforts, instead of having students pay for food, which may have been prohibitive for some students, the administrators decided to work the food costs into their lunch program in order to pay for the students food while on these overnight trips. This has allowed all students the opportunity to go on these project based learning experiences that they may not have otherwise been able to go on. Through the efforts of the school counselor’s advocacy and teacher