Chapter 1 Becoming a Professional School Counselor: Current Trends, Historical Roots, and Future...

Chapter 1 Becoming a Professional School

Counselor: Current Trends, Historical Roots, and

Future Issues

Transforming The School Counseling ProfessionFourth Edition

Bradley T. Erford

Bradley T. Erford. Transforming The School Counseling Profession, Fourth Edition. © 2015,2011,2007,2003 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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The Rise of School Counseling in the United States

Throughout history, every society has found methods to give selected young people direction and support as they questioned who they might become.

But “guidance” and “counseling” were neither planned nor made available to all young people.

With educational reform in the late 19th century and the impending industrial revolution, the field of school guidance and counseling was formed.


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Vocational Guidance

Although, there are several names associated with the start of vocational guidance, the person generally regarded as the primary architect in the U.S. is Frank Parsons.

Parsons’ experiences in the industrial field exposed him to immigrants from Europe that, in his opinion, were not able to use their abilities or to prosper economically or socially because of the haphazard way they found employment. It was these experiences that led him to provide vocational guidance and counseling.

In 1908, Parsons founded the Vocational Bureau of Boston and in 1909 Choosing a Vocation was published.


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Vocational Guidance

Parsons’ legacy in vocational guidance lived on through his book, Choosing a Vocation, which laid out the principles and methods for implementing vocational guidance.

In 1917, the Vocations Bureau became a part of Harvard University’s Division of Education.

Parsons’ most famous contribution to the field is what became known as the trait and factor approach. This involves a person’s self- evaluated traits and personal needs being matched with a career.

Many leaders in American education then began to adapt to Parsons’ paradigm of vocational guidance.


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Educational Reform

At the turn of the century, the rapidly growing industrial society called for less bookish information and more of a focus on industrial education.

School systems began to focus on individualized education.

This facilitated the use of the guidance worker for not only vocational guidance but also for educational success.


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School Counseling in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s

Hutson (1958) suggested that there were five other roles of the professional school counselor in addition to vocational guidance.

Student Personnel Administration: Counselors became the Dean of Students in some schools. Their job was to deal with personal and disciplinary problems. They were also in charge of admissions and placement.

Psychologists: Counselors administered achievement and diagnostic tests. Also, they were responsible for providing specialized services to students experiencing learning or behavioral problems.


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School Counseling in the 1920s, 1930s, & 1940s (cont.)

Personnel Work in Industry: This involved preparatory work for entrance into personnel work in industry.

Social Work: While professional school counselors traditionally have been involved in community outreach, social workers became more available in schools allowing the role of the professional school counselor to become more school-bound.

Mental Hygiene and Psychiatry: This role involved advocacy for students with emotional problems to aid in the development of wholesome personalities.


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Guidance for the Individual

Guidance as the Personalization of Education: This emphasized the importance of personalizing “mass education” by using students’ individual talents.

Guidance as the Integration of Education: Cowley believed counselors should help students identify talents and motivations in order to effectively sort through educational options and create a unified course of instruction.


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Guidance for the Individual (cont.)

Guidance as the Coordination of Student Personnel Services: Cowley suggested that counselors be given all information from other mental health workers so they could coordinate all specialist services available to students. Therefore, the professional school counselor would be dealing not only with the specific problem of a person, but with the whole person.


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School Counseling Comes Into It’s Own: The 1950s and 1960s

Carl Rogers’ theory of client-centered counseling became integrated into the model of school counseling programs.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) was founded in 1952.

In 1959 the National Association of Guidance Supervisors and Counselor Trainers took on a five year project to outline standards for education in the preparation of secondary school counselors.


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School Counseling Comes Into It’s Own: The 1950s and 1960s (cont.)

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) identified professional school counselors as sociopolitical instruments to achieve national goals. The impetus for this legislation was the launch of Sputnik in 1957 by the Soviet Union.

To ensure the United States’ competitiveness in the “space race,” counselors began to test students and encourage high achieving students to go into the “hard sciences.”


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The Effects of the National Defense Education Act

Through Title V-A of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), funding became available for professional school counselors in most schools.

NDEA made training available to professional school counselors to enhance their skills as testers.

Many university programs were beginning to train professional school counselors.

By the end of the 1960s professional school counselors were vital in achieving the multiple missions in schools (e.g., dropout prevention, academic scheduling, educational and career guidance, crisis intervention, etc.).


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The Great Society Legislation of the 1960s

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) designated funds for guidance and counseling.

The Vocational Education Act Amendments of 1968 advocated for career guidance programs, responses to the disadvantaged or those with disabilities, and expanding the concept of guidance and counseling, including its extension into elementary schools.


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The Years of Consolidation and Refinement: The 1970s and Beyond

Career education was an important development that was reflected in the Career Education Incentive Act of 1976.

During the 1980s and into the 1990s the focus of professional school counselors was on dealing with child abuse, drug abuse prevention, and drop-out prevention.

In 2006 the ratio of students to school counselors was 561 to 1. Even though the suggested ratio is 250 to 1.


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Multicultural Diversity

Federal legislation in the 1960s banned segregated schools. School counselors were given the responsibility of working with culturally diverse groups of students, allow them to “air” their concerns about integration, and create a plan to help students respect one another. There was, however, a lack of attention to issues of cultural diversity in counseling theory and practice.

During the past 35 years, ethnic and racial differences have been emphasized and incorporated into counseling theory and practice, and will be a constant presence in training counselors throughout the 21st century.


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Serving a Diverse and Changing Student Populatio

Thanks to advances in technology, the world is getting smaller and smaller

This brings people together more often

Changes may be cultural, socioeconomic, or family structure

Imperative to be culturally proficient


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The Latter Decades of the 20th Century

Most legislation during the 1980s and 1990s focused on the need for counselors to deal with issues such as child abuse, drug abuse and prevention, and dropout prevention. There was also an emphasis on career guidance.

Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984/Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act of 1990: These two acts were the major federal sources of funding for guidance and counseling in schools.

School to Work Opportunities Act: This Act reinforced the importance of career guidance as students make the transition from school to employment.


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The Latter Decades of the 20th Century (cont.)

In 2003, the National Career Development Guidelines Project was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education. In 2005, they created a website for counselors including new guidelines aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act and learning activities and strategies for K-12 students, teachers, and parents.

The Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Act (1995) was the first major legislative departure from the emphasis on career guidance. This act provided $20 million to assist schools to provide greater access to counseling services and to create a more positive ratio of counselors to students.


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The Latter Decades of the 20th Century (cont.)

By the beginning of the 21st century, the Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Act expanded to secondary schools and provided grants to school districts who demonstrate the greatest need for counseling services or propose the most innovative program.

The need for and support of school counseling is evident in the No Child Left Behind Act (2002). Areas targeted include drop-out prevention, career counseling, drug/alcohol counseling, and dealing with children who are neglected and delinquent, among others.


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Continuing and Future Issues for the School Counseling Profession

Herr (1998, p. 293-294) suggested the following as pivotal concerns for the future of school counseling:

• Formulating a comprehensive school counseling program to address the needs of all students, not just a selected group.

• Making sure school counseling programs are systematically planned and longitudinal in scope.

• Are counseling programs focused on a selected group of at-risk students or students with special needs or is the focus on the entire student population?

• Professional school counselors should utilize resources around them, such as teachers, parents, and outside groups, as part of their delivery system. Therefore, they will be free to deal with student problems requiring responsive services.


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Continuing and Future Issues for the School Counseling Profession (cont.)

• Whether the focus of counselors is on a particular student subpopulation (such as college-bound students) or on offering a range of interventions to a variety of students.

• The use of counselors either as specialists or to deal with the whole person.

• Which is the best method of delivery of information? Should all information be given to students through individual counseling or would group work or guidance curricula disseminate the information more efficiently and evenly to students.

• What duties of a professional school counselor should be emphasized and which should be eliminated? Also, what responsibilities should a counselor be held accountable for.


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Continuing and Future Issues for the School Counseling Profession (cont.)

• The degree to which the professional school counselor has a reasonable student load of 250 or less in order to know students as individuals and provide personal attention.

• Professional school counselors should be statespersons for the field, able to interpret goals, develop skills, and communicate the added value they represent to positive student development and the mission of the school.


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Traditional and Emerging Roles and Practices

Realizations Guiding the Transformation of the Professional School Counselor’s Role:

1) Professional school counselors receive the most extensive specialized training in consultation, collaboration and team relationship building.

2) Professional school counselors can’t do it all! Caseloads are increasing as are serious psychological problems among students. Counselors should take the initiative, then partner with students, teachers, and community organizations for support.


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Traditional and Emerging Roles and Practices (cont.)

3) Well-organized and well-run comprehensive developmental school counseling programs work very well and are greatly needed in today’s schools.

4) Since all professional school counselors have strengths and weaknesses, they may all provide varying quality levels of service to varying populations.

5) Many students are not getting what they need from our educational and mental health systems.


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Roles of the Professional School Counselor:

• Professional: School counselors are representatives of the profession, ethical practitioners, aware of the history and future of the profession, and maintain membership in professional organizations.

• Agent of Diversity and Multicultural Sensitivity: The multicultural counseling movement is helping professional school counselors lead the way toward a more diverse, tolerant, and sensitive educational environment.

• Advocate for Social Justice: Counselors have an ethical responsibility to help students minimize or eliminate barriers to educational performance and career and personal-social development.


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Roles (cont.)

• Developmental Classroom Guidance Specialist: As part of a comprehensive developmental guidance program, counselors prepare, provide, and evaluate instruction in the classroom.

• Provider of Individual and Group Counseling Services: Professional literature for school counselors is addressing changes in the needs of students today, which require a different approach.

• Career Development and Educational Planning Specialist: School reform and accountability movements require school counselors to focus on academic performance and achievement.


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Roles (cont.)

• School and Community Agency Consultation/Collaboration Specialist: School counselors work hand-in-hand with parents, individuals, and organizations.

• School Reform and Accountability Expert: Outcomes research and results evaluation of school counseling services and activities help determine the program’s effectiveness.

• Safe Schools, Violence Prevention, At-Risk Specialist: With conflict and violence on the rise in today’s schools, developmental and intervention components of the school counseling’s program need to address these issues.

• Advocate for Students with Special Needs: School counselors are sometimes the lone advocates for children with special needs and are responsible for finding the right avenues to serve this population.


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Living the Transformed Role

A systemic perspective is important

A comprehensive school counseling program needs the help of the entire school and community to meet all student needs

Chapter 1 Becoming a Professional School Counselor: Current Trends, Historical Roots, and Future...

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