Today’s school counselor…
is expected to manage the traditional
guidance curriculum as well as the new
leadership expectations. The new vision
focuses on the need for school counselor
collaboration within the larger system.
is held to the expectations of the new
NCDPI Standards for School Counseling.
knows that there is a professional endorsed
framework, The ASCA National Model, for
creating, implementing, managing and
evaluating a comprehensive school
counseling program.
In schools with more fully implemented
comprehensive guidance programs:
1) Students reported higher grades.
2) Students were more likely to indicate that
their school was preparing them well for
later life.
3) Students were more likely to report that
career and college information was
readily available to them
4) Students were more likely to report a
positive school climate (defined primarily
in terms of perceptions of safety,
orderliness and belonging)
(National Center for School Counseling Outcome Research)
A Closer Look at the Data:
Middle Creek High School counselors were able to
help over 31% of participating second year juniors
graduate on time.
After assigning one counselor to design a freshman
academy, the retention rate for freshman was cut in
HALF the next year at West Caldwell High School.
Today’s
School Counselor and
the School Counseling
Program
In today’s era of increased accountability,
school counselors can be an asset to the
principal and the leadership team. The roles
and expectations have changed drastically
over the last 25 years for both principals and
school counselors.
The ultimate goal of the school counseling
program is to support the school’s academic
mission.
School counselors at Pleasant Union Elementary
School reduced the number of students referred to
the office from 12% to 8% in only one school year.
implements a comprehensive and
developmentally appropriate standards
based program in the academic, career and
social domains for every student.
At Turrentine Middle School, the counselor
collaborated with the literacy coach on
organizational skills with boys and results showed
increase in grades for minority and low achieving
students.
To reduce the number of student failures due to
violation of attendance policy, Wakefield High
School counselors made 153 attendance contracts
with students at risk of failing and approximately
70% of those students didn’t fail.
This brochure provided is by The North
Carolina School Counselor Association.
For more information go to
www.ncschoolcounselor.org
Today’s school counselor…
is skilled and proficient in a variety of
prevention and intervention programs and
recognizes that a system approach may be
necessary to address the data driven needs.
provides appropriate responsive services
through use of individual and group
counseling, referrals, and consultation with
support staff, teachers, and families.
is a vital member of the education team
ensuring equitable and rigorous educational
opportunities for every student ensuring that
students recognize the value of a challenging
coursework.
is accountable by measuring their results
and sharing the data with principals and staff
to contribute to the school improvement plan.
recognizes that individual student planning
is important in drop out prevention and
college readiness.
reviews and disaggregates data to identify
achievement gaps and determine
interventions.
understands both social/emotional and
educational issues to provide services that are
integrated to remove barriers to student
learning.
“A Counseling System Under
Stress”
A recently released study by Public Agenda
from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
illustrates what can go wrong when there
are not enough school counselors to support
students and when school counselors are
placed in positions preventing them from
performing the functions they were trained
and hired to do.
In addition, as the study notes, school
counselors are increasingly called on to do
work outside of their mission, including:
"discipline issues and sorting out scheduling
and other administrative mix-ups with the
high school."
More school counselors are needed, and
existing school counselors should not be
overloaded with non-counseling duties
preventing them from spending time
successfully guiding students to academic
success and postsecondary education.
“Can I Get a Little Advice Here?” Public Agenda can be found at
www.publicagenda.org/theirwholelivesaheadofthem?qt_active
=1
We Speak the Same Language
ISSLLC Educational Leadership standards and
School Counseling standards are
synonymous: collaboration, leadership, data
driven decisions, advocacy, equity,
accountability, evaluation, managing
resources, vision, mission, improvement,
management
Appropriate Counseling
Responsibilities:
 Designing individual student
academic programs
 Counseling students with excessive
absenteeism
 Counseling students with discipline
issues
 Collaborating with teachers to present
guidance curriculum lessons
 Analyzing data in relation to student
achievement
 Consulting with teachers about
student behavior and academics
 Consulting with administration on the
master schedule
 Providing staff in-service on
behavioral or academic issues
Inappropriate (Non-counseling)
Activities:
 Registering/scheduling new
students
 Test coordination
 Signing attendance slips
 Performing disciplinary actions
 Substitute teaching
 Computing GPAs
 Clerical record keeping/mass
NCWISE data input
 Master schedule
 Working with one student at a
time in a therapeutic, clinical
mode
The recommended ratio of students to school
counselor is 250:1.