Advocacy Competency of School Counselors: an Exploratory Factor Analysis

This article describes the initial development of the School Counseling Advocacy Assessment to measure school counselor advocacy competency and includes the psychometric results regarding the reliability and factor structure. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor model that accounted for 71% of the variance. The subscales are Collaboration with School Groups, Political and Social Actions to Change the System, Individual Student Empowerment, Actions to Reduce Achievement Barriers, and Media Advocacy. The authors discuss implications for school counselors and school counselors in training.