Use of the national standards for school counseling programs in preparing school counselors

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2001 by Rachelle Perusse, Gary E. Goodnough, Carolyn J. Noel

With the publication of the National Standards for School Counseling Programs (Campbell & Dahir, 1997) by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), professional school counselors across the country gained a significant resource to help restructure and improve counseling programs and help ensure that students have access to high quality, comprehensive school counseling programs. According to the National Standards, school counselors must function in a variety of roles to support the academic, career, and personal/social development of students. School counselors are expected to engage in individual counseling, group counseling, consultation, school-wide guidance activities, case management, and program evaluation. Therefore, it is imperative for counselor educators to adequately prepare school counseling students to meet their future job requirements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the National Standards for School Counseling Programs were being used by counselor educators in the preparation of school counselors. In addition, we sought to determine how departments were using the National Standards in teaching courses as part of school counselor education programs. Based on the results, implications for the school counseling profession are presented.

The National Standards

In addition to addressing the activities in which school counselors are expected to engage, the National Standards are based on student development in three areas: Academic, Career, and Personal/Social. Each of these areas contains three standards that, in turn, include examples of student competencies that incorporate selected student learning outcomes. Campbell and Dahir (1997) stated that the National Standards "address program content and the knowledge, attitudes, and skill competencies that all students will develop as a result of participating in a school counseling program" (p. 3).

Further, the National Standards were developed to foster a national model for school counseling programs and were formulated based on input from professional school counselors. The standards reflect the belief that school counseling should support the school's mission and help all students become effective learners. School counselors need to provide support to all students, not just those in crisis or those considering college (Mariani, 1998).

Together with these standards and competencies, Campbell and Dahir (1997) provided information to help school counselors organize standards-based programs and implement the National Standards. Implementation includes five cyclical steps: discuss, plan, design, implement, and evaluate. Examples of what school counselors can do to implement these steps include: conducting needs assessments, analyzing service delivery models, involving stakeholders, and measuring program effectiveness. Thus, the National Standards aid school counselors--in their roles as counselors, consultants, collaborators, leaders, and advocates--in becoming accountable for the success of all students.

ASCA/ACES Collaboration

Both the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) and ASCA recognized that the advent of the National Standards for School Counseling Programs necessitated collaboration between the organizations. In response to this recognized need, in 1997 ASCA and ACES joined together to form a Task Force/Working Group (Dahir & Goldberg, 2000). According to ACES past president Michele Thomas (1998), one of the Task Force's goals was to find ways to integrate the National Standards "into pre-service education and to collaboratively seek ways to provide ongoing professional development for school counseling practitioners" (p. 3).

According to Dahir and Goldberg (2000), the joint Task Force had four main objectives related to school counselor development. These objectives ranged from pre-service education through professional development as follows: (a) to determine which skills school counselor education students need to possess in order to work in the schools of the future; (b) to ensure that school counselor education students are adequately prepared to develop comprehensive school counseling programs consistent with the National Standards; (c) to assist counselor educators in revamping the existing school courses and create new, more comprehensive courses; and (d) to encourage professional development for practicing school counselors. The Task Force is in the process of creating a framework to address three areas related to these objectives: (a) develop a guiding philosophy around school counselor preparation and the National Standards, (b) address graduate student preparation, and (c) explore university-school system collaboration models. The collaboration between ASCA and ACES suggests that school counselor educators and professional school counselors might also work together to improve school counselor preparation.

Method

Participants and Procedure

We used the Total Design Method (Dillman, 1978) and mailed survey instruments to all 332 programs identified by Hollis (1997) as having at least a master's level school counselor preparation program. Envelopes were addressed to "Chairperson or School Counseling Coordinator." A total of 195 questionnaires were returned for a return rate of 58.7%. Sixty-three respondents identified their programs as accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Follow-up telephone and e-mail interviews were conducted with 41 respondents.