The Father of School Counselor Education Research
The Fredrickson family has been a staple of the College of Education community since 1963. Their generosity has established three different funds to support school counseling research, graduate students, and college staff.
Professor Emeritus Ronald Harold Fredrickson (1931-2018) was many things to many people over the course of his life. To some, he was known as a visionary advocate for school counselors. To others, he was a master farmer in rural Osage City, Kansas. Devout churchgoer, ace softball player, and skilled equestrian can all be added to the list, too.
For Patricia Fredrickson ‘74EdD, Ron’s wife of 64 years, one of the clearest examples of Ron’s character stems from his former military service. She recalls the following anecdote:
“Ron had a man who had just retired from the military–the Army, I believe–and wanted to help kids. He wanted to teach. But, the man couldn’t read. Every night in the basement of our house, in the playroom, they would drill on statements…One day I asked Ron, ‘why?’ and he said, ‘because he’s going to be great for kids.’”
In 1958, Ron was assigned to the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, where he was appointed the disciplinary officer of more than 1,000 youth. According to Patricia, it was this experience that catalyzed Ron’s interest in school counseling.
“Ron realized these kids have never had a word of help on emotional issues, or criminal issues, of any kind,” she said. “That’s where the impetus came from. It was so real. He never had a minute of those days [without] someone being across from him at his desk.”
Bringing Research Into the Fold
It is difficult to understate Ron’s impact on the field of school counseling. His career at UMass spanned 30 years, during which time he published widely. He was the driving force behind creating a graduate program in school counseling, at a time when the profession was just beginning to be recognized as a legitimate field in the United States. He was a catalyst in the Massachusetts political sphere, too, and advocated for making K-12 school counseling a requirement in the Commonwealth.
Perhaps more than anything else, however, it was Ron’s commitment to research that defines his legacy as a school counseling educator. Professor Emeritus Jay Carey, who taught in the SC program from 1987-2017, recalls how Ron paved the way for bringing evidence-based practices to the field. Long before the School of Education had a research center for school counselor research, Ron was managing an impromptu “advice column” for practitioners. Every month for nearly 10 years (from 1993-2003), he would accept questions from counselors by mail, ask his group of doctoral students to prepare a research brief, and then share the findings.
“He was making research accessible, which nobody was doing at the time in the U.S.” said Jay. “Nobody was translating counseling research into practice at the time, that I know of.”
In 2003, Jay Carey and Professor Carey Dimmitt ’90MEd, ’95PhD founded the Center for School Counseling Outcome Research & Evaluation (CSCORE at cscor.org). During its first 10 years, CSCORE provided national leadership training institutes for school counselors - providing cutting edge training in the use of data, program evaluation, and evidence-based interventions. The faculty developed numerous state- and federally-funded grants and projects, conducting studies on a diverse range of topics, including the impact of comprehensive school counseling for key student outcomes and access to college for marginalized populations. CSCORE’s vision, says Jay, stems from Ron’s commitment to finding quality research, updating best practices based upon research findings, and synthesizing research in a way that makes it accessible and useful to practitioners.
Importantly, Ron’s vision for school counseling stretched beyond the borders of the United States, too. He managed a long-running partnership program with Teacher’s College in Beijing, a program that enabled many Chinese school counselors to visit Amherst to complete doctoral studies. Ron was also an active proponent of a school counselor program for Tibetan scholars.
“He was instrumental in internationalizing the work,” said Jay. “I think he had a vision for working with people in international settings that was well ahead of his time.”
In 2016, SC faculty recognized Ron’s contributions to the field by renaming CSCORE in his honor.
Professor Carey Dimmitt, who serves as the current director of CSCORE, notes how Ron’s impact on the field has been carried forward by different aspects of the center’s current efforts. She recalls how Ron’s pragmatism has anchored their work over the years: “[he would say] you’ve got to know if what you’re doing is working.”
Beginning in 2012, as an expansion on the initial training institutes, CSCORE began holding an annual evidence-based school counseling conference (EBSCC, at ebscc.org), which welcomes between 280 and 500 practitioners every year. One day of the 3-day conference is “Research Day,” designed for doctoral students and emerging school counselor educators to develop their skills and collaborative networks. The field as a whole, says Carey, has made ongoing progress in terms of using data to inform practices and evaluating the impact of different interventions. CSCORE remains committed to making research more accessible for counselors, with extensive resources for practitioners, open-access research reports, and research summaries. In 2023, Dr. Dimmitt started a new School Counselor Educator Scholar Summit, with a small group of invited scholars in the field gathering for 5 days in the summer to work together and share research efforts. Next year CSCORE will start an open-access academic journal devoted solely to school counseling research.
Visions for the Future
Ron’s commitment to school counseling was tempered by the love and support of his family and friends. After Patricia Fredickson, Ron’s wife, earned her doctorate from the School of Education in 1974, she began teaching business classes at Amherst Regional High School. In addition to working full time as a teacher, Patricia was the anchor of the Fredrickson household, too, raising their children Doren and Anne.
Patricia’s altruism has taken many forms, including the creation of several funds in the Fredrickson name that support School Counseling and School Psychology students, as well as College of Education staff.
Carey Dimmitt notes, “I really appreciate Pat’s thinking about people who are not as visible, understanding the important role that staff play in making students’ lives work at UMass.”
Patricia herself is the first to acknowledge that she was able to complete her doctorate in part due to the support of a scholarship from the American Association of University Women.
“It’s not a lot, but I know what those dollars mean,” she says. Her hope for the Fredrickson family scholarships and funds is simple: to help someone pursue a new beginning.
“Let it be the start of more, in some way.”