Professional School Counselors ideally implement a data-driven, evidence-based [36] comprehensive school counseling program that promotes and enhances student achievement, career and college access, and personal and social competencies at the elementary, middle, and high school levels [8]. A fully-implemented school counseling program ideally delivers academic, career, college access, and personal/social competencies to every student K-12—-just as a school district's mathematics program is for 100% of the students. School counselors, in most USA states, usually have a Master's degree in school counseling from a Counselor Education graduate program. In Canada, they must be licensed teachers with additional school counseling training and focus on academic, career, and personal/social issues. China requires at least three years of college experience. In Japan, school counselors were added in the mid-1990s, part-time basis and primarily focused on behavioral issues. In Taiwan, they are often teachers with recent legislation requiring school counseling licensure focused on individual and group counseling related to academic, career, and personal issues. In Korea, school counselors are mandated in middle and high schools.
They are employed in elementary, middle, and high schools and in district supervisory, counselor education faculty positions (usually with an earned Ph.D. in Counselor Education in the USA or related graduate doctorates abroad) and post-secondary settings doing academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social counseling, consultation, and program coordination.
Their work is varied, with attention focused on developmental stages of student growth, including the needs, tasks, and student interests related to those stages(Schmidt[27], 2003).
Professional School Counselors meet the needs of student in three basic domains: academic development, career development, and personal/social development (Dahir & Campbell, 1997; ASCA, 2005) with an increasing emphasis on college access [46]. Knowledge, understanding and skill in these domains are developed throughclassroom instruction, appraisal, consultation, counseling, coordination, and collaboration. For example, in appraisal, school counselors may use a variety of personalityand career assessment methods (such as the [47] or [48] (based on the [49]) to help students explore career and college needs and interests.
Delivery methods include academic, career, college access and personal/social planning for every student; developmental classroom lessons for all students; and individual and group counseling for some students who need more intensive assistance beyond classroom lessons or planning/advising sessions. Classroom lessons and the school counseling curriculum are designed to be preventive in nature and include academic, career, college access, and personal/social skills and competencies including self-management and self-monitoring skills [30]. The Responsive Services component of the Professional School Counselor's role provides individual and/or small group counseling for students. For example, if a student's behavior is interfering with his or her achievement, the school counselor may observe that student in a class, provide consultation to teachers and other stakeholders to develop (with the student) a plan to address the behavioral issue(s), and then collaborate to implement and evaluate the plan. They also provide consultation services to family members such as college access, career development, parenting skills, study skills, child and adolescent development, and help with school-home transitions.
Additionally, school counselors may lead classroom lessons on a variety of topics within the three domains such as personal/social issues relative to student needs, or establish groups to address common issues among students, such as divorce or death. The topics of character education, diversity and multiculturalism (Portman, 2009), and school safety are important areas of focus for school counselors. Often school counselors will coordinate outside groups that wish to help with student needs such as academics, or coordinate a state program that teaches about child abuse or drugs, through on-stage drama (Schmidt[27], 2003)
The ASCA National Model [8] operationalizes four main areas: Foundation (a written school counseling program mission statement, a beliefs and philosophy statement, and a focus on the ASCA standards and competencies and how they are implemented for every student); Delivery System (how lessons and individual and group counseling are delivered); Management System (use of calendars, time, building leader-school counselor role agreements, creation of action plans); and Accountability System (use of a School Counseling program audit, results reports, and school counselor performance evaluations based on 13 key competencies. The model is implemented using key skills from the Education Trust's Transforming School Counseling Initiative: Advocacy, Leadership, Teaming and Collaboration, and Systemic Change [33].
School Counselors around the world are affiliated with national and regional school counseling associations including: Asociacion Argentina de Counselors (AAC-Argentina), American Counseling Association (ACA-USA), African Counseling Association (AfCA), American School Counselor Association (ASCA-USA), Associacao Portuguesa de Psicoterapia centrada na Pessoa e de Counselling (APPCPC-Portugal), Australian Guidance and Counselling Association (AGCA), British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP-UK), Canadian Counseling Association (CCA)/Association Canadienne de Counseling (ACC), Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership(CESCaL) (USA), Center for School Counseling Outcome Research (CSCOR-USA) Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP-USA and international), Counselling Children and Young People (BACP affiliate, UK), Counseling & Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA), Cypriot Association of School Guidance Counsellors (OELMEK), European Counseling Association (ECA), France Ministry of Education, Federacion Espanola de Orientacion y Psicopedagogia (FEOP-Spain), Department of Education-Malta, Hellenic Society of Counselling and Guidance (HESCOG-Greece), Hong Kong Association of Guidance Masters and Career Masters (HKAGMCM), Institute of Guidance Counselors (IGC) (Ireland), International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG)/Association Internationale d'Orientation Scolaire et Professionnelle (AIOSP)/ Internationale Vereinigung für Schul- und Berufsberatung (IVSBB)/Asociación Internacional para la Orientación Educativa y Profesional(AIOEP), International Baccalaureate (IB), International Vanguard of Counsellors (IVC), Kenya Association of Professional Counselors (KAPC), National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC, USA), National Center for Transforming School Counseling (NCTSC) at The Education Trust (USA), National Office for School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA) at The College Board (USA), New Zealand Association of Counsellors/Te Roopu Kaiwhiriwhiri o Aotearoa (NZAC), Counseling Association of Nigeria (CASSON), Philippine Guidance and Counseling Association (PGCA), Overseas Association of College Admissions Counselors (OACAC, an affiliate of National Association of College Admissions Counselors-USA), Singapore Association for Counseling (SAC), and the Taiwan Guidance and Counseling Association (TGCA) [50].
School Counselors are also expected to follow a professional code of ethics in many countries. For example, In the USA, they are the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) School Counselor Ethical Code [38] and the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics [51]. Additional codes of ethics for other countries may be found in the reference links for international school counseling professional associations.
[edit]Elementary school counseling
Elementary professional school counselors following best practices provide developmental school counseling curriculum lessons [30] on academic, career, college access, and personal and social competencies, advising and academic/career/college access planning to all students, and individual and group counseling for some students and their families to meet the developmental needs of young children K-6 [8]. Increased emphasis is starting to be placed on college access counseling at the elementary school level as more school counseling programs move to evidence-based work with data and specific results [52]. Research has shown that school counseling programs help to close achievement and opportunity gaps in terms of which students have access to school counseling programs and early college access activities and which students do not [53]. To facilitate the school counseling process, school counselors use a variety of theories and techniques including developmental, cognitive-behavioral, person-centered (Rogerian) listening and influencing skills, systemic, family, multicultural [54], narrative, and play therapy[55].[56] released a research study showing the effectiveness of elementary school counseling programs in Washington state.
[edit]Middle school counseling
In middle school counseling, professional school counselors following best practices provide developmental school counseling curriculum lessons [30] on academic, career, college access, and personal and social competencies, advising and academic/career/college access planning to all students and individual and group counseling for some students and their families to meet the developmental needs of late childhood and early adolescence [8]. Increasing emphasis has been placed on college access counseling at the middle school level as more school counseling programs move to evidenced-base work with data and specific results [52] that show how school counseling programs help to close achievement and opportunity gaps in terms of which students have access to school counseling programs and early college access activities and which students do not [53].
Middle School College Access curricula have been developed by The College Board that can be used to assist students and their families in this process. To facilitate the school counseling process, school counselors use a variety of theories and techniques including developmental, cognitive-behavioral, person-centered (Rogerian) listening and influencing skills, systemic, family, multicultural [54], narrative, and play therapy. Transitional issues to ensure successful transitions to high school are a key area including career exploration and assessment with seventh and eighth grade students [57]. Sink, Akos, Turnbull, & Mvududu released a study in 2008 confirming the effectiveness of middle school comprehensive school counseling programs in Washington state [58].
[edit]High school counseling
In high school, professional school counselors following best practices provide developmental school counseling curriculum lessons [30] on academic, career, college access, and personal and social competencies, advising and academic/career/college access planning to all students and individual and group counseling for some students to meet the developmental needs of adolescents [8]. Increasing emphasis is being placed on college access counseling at the early high school level as more school counseling programs move to evidence-based work with data and specific results [52]that show how school counseling programs help to close achievement and opportunity gaps ensuring all students have access to school counseling programs and early college access activities [59]. High School College Access curricula have been developed by The College Board to assist this process.
To facilitate school counseling, school counselors use varied theories and techniques including developmental, cognitive-behavioral, person-centered (Rogerian) listening and influencing skills, systemic, family, multicultural [54], narrative, and play therapy. Transitional issues to ensure successful transitions to college, other post-secondary educational options, and careers are a key area.[60] The high school counselor helps students and their families prepare for rigorous post-secondary education and/or training options (e.g. college, trade school) by engaging students and their families in finding accurate and meaningful information on entrance requirements, financial aid, recommendation letters, test-preparation and so forth. School counselors at the high school level spend much of their time helping students and their families monitor their progress toward graduation and being adequately prepared for post-secondary options including college.[61] Some students turn to private college admissions counselors but the ethics of so doing is open to debate in terms of who has the funding and no research-based evidence of effectiveness on the part of outside parties. There is no regulation of these private counselors and their fees can be as high as $30,000.[62]
A framework for Professional School Counselor responsibilities and roles is outlined in the ASCA National Model [8]. Lapan, Gysbers & Sun showed correlational evidence of the effectiveness of fully implemented school counseling programs on high school students' academic success [63]. Carey et al.'s 2008 study showed specific best practices from school counselors raising college-going rates within a strong college-going environment in multiple USA-based high schools with large numbers of students of nondominant cultural identities.
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