The school guidance counselor plays a special role when it comes to enforcing equal opportunity in schools. Unfortunately, despite federal legislation and a move towards greater equality in recent years, there is still inequality in American public schools (Carpenter, 2005). The school guidance counselor must be aware of the many issues that students, particularly women and minority students, face in their school environment. One of the major functions a school guidance counselor plays is to create a safe space for students to express themselves, and to ensure that educational opportunities are extended to all the students in a school, not only those who are privileged by gender, class, race, and so on.
Guidance counselors at public schools are under specific restrictions under Title IX, in addition to their more vague and overarching responsibilities. Counselors may not use different testing materials based on an individual’s gender, for instance; male and female students must be afforded the same chances and opportunities when it comes to testing. According to the legal precedents set by Title IX, the only time a counselor may use separate testing materials for different genders is when separate materials are necessary to remove gender bias.
Counselors are also required to watch to ensure that a specific “test or instrument,” according to Carpenter (2005), does not result in disproportionate representation of one gender over another. While this is commonly associated with female students, it may also affect male students-- male students are protected under Title IX in the same way that female students are, although they are less frequently subject to discrimination.
If a class or activity is disproportionately male or female, the guidance counselor is responsible for ensuring that the uneven proportions are not the result of discrimination in the classroom. This means that classes may be subject to certain appraisal methods that are best determined by the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor must be aware of potential Title IX violations on school grounds, as the school is liable for any Title IX violation that it commits, and may be subject to legal action if the violation is severe enough.
Overall, school guidance counselors are tasked with being the gatekeepers of gender equality under Title IX at their respective schools. This is a serious and important responsibility, as children who are not afforded the same educational opportunities as their peers from a young age may fail to reach their full potential as adults.
References
Carpenter, L. and Acosta, R. (2005). Title IX. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
