Assessing the Multicultural Competence of School Counselors: A Checklist‪.‬

With the increasing number of children from diverse backgrounds entering the U. S. school systems, it is imperative that school counselors gain a working knowledge of how to best serve these children. This article provides a checklist of 51 competencies that the author believes are necessary for working with culturally diverse students. The competencies offered were gathered through a theme analysis of the literature pertaining to multicultural school counseling. Nine areas of competence are suggested: multicultural counseling, multicultural consultation, understanding racism and student resistance, multicultural assessment, understanding racial identity development, multicultural family counseling, social advocacy, developing school-family-community partnerships, and understanding cross-cultural interpersonal interactions. Implications for school counselors and school counselor educators are provided. **********