Become a School Counselor

School counselors provide academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social competencies to children and adolescents in elementary, middle, and high school grades K-12. They are ideally master's level educators who have coursework in: ethics, helping relationships, counseling theories, group work, multicultural counseling, human development, career and college readiness counseling, assessment, and research as well as at least a 100-hour practicum and a 600-hour internship in K-12 school settings and a state or national certification/license to practice. They are dedicated to helping all students reach their academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social dreams by providing school counseling classroom curriculum lessons and academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social planning for every student annually and group and individual counseling for some students.

Steps

Learn About the Role of a School Counselor

  1. Know what the job entails. The role of a school counselor is to help children and adolescents succeed in school by developing their academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social competencies. They encourage all students to pursue their interests and support their learning, college/career, and personal/social needs and skill development. Their responsibilities include:
    • Knowing, affirming, and supporting every student on their caseload including monitoring their academic, career/college readiness, and personal/social competency development through individual planning, school counseling core curriculum lessons, and through advising. They carefully monitor grades, ensure access to the strongest curriculum possible, work to lessen behavioral incidents, increase attendance, lessen tardies, and ensure appropriate supports for academic success and career and college readiness.
    • Ensure every student is taking rigorous classes and getting the credits they need to graduate from school.
    • Talking with every student about possible careers and career paths, the specific skills for college readiness (NOSCA's 8 College and Career Counseling Components: Aspirations, Academic Planning, Extracurricular Engagement/Enrichment, College/Career Exploration/Selection, College Affordability Planning, Assessments, and Transition from HS to College/Career). You can download these resources and other for free at the NOSCA website online: http://nosca.collegeboard.org .
    • Ensuring all students get the prerequisite courses they need to attend some sort of post-secondary education after graduation including 2 and 4 year colleges and career/tech schools.
  2. Implement and evaluate a school counseling program with four key components:
    • Foundation (mission, vision, goals, ethics), Delivery (school counseling core curriculum lessons, planning, group and individual counseling), Management (administrator agreement, use of data, small group action plans and results reports, school counseling curriculum action plans and results reports, closing achievement/opportunity gap action plans and results reports), School Counseling Program Advisory Council) Accountability (Program Assessment, School Counselor Evaluation) (ASCA Model; Hatch & Bowers, 2002; ASCA, 2012)
    • Giving students and other stakeholders specific tools to ensure school safety and put an end to bullying, harassment, and other violence issues that detract from successful learning for all students.
    • Advocacy, Leadership, Culturally Competent Counseling & Coordination, Teamwork and Collaboration, Equity Assessment Using Data and Systemic Change with all stakeholders
    • Providing career and college fairs, multicultural awareness assemblies, and health education information sessions.
    • Helping a child or adolescent work toward his or her dreams can be incredibly rewarding, and many students stay in touch with their school counselors after the students graduate.[1]
    • School counselors get summers and holidays off since they work as part of the school system.
  3. Reflect on whether you have the traits of a school counselor. School counselors are passionate about helping every student reach their academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social goals. They spend their days in the classroom delivering lessons, in advising and planning sessions with all students, and group and individual counseling with some students, and team and collaborate with all adult stakeholders using data to ensure that they can demonstrate how all students have improved based on their interventions.
    • School counselors need to be: patient, trustworthy, ethical, able to keep confidentiality and know and share the exceptions to it (danger to self or others, court subpoenas, etc.), comfortable with data and using evidence-based practice, and focused on equity to ensure every student receives academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social competencies.

Obtain the Required Counselor Education/School Counseling Certification

  1. A master's degree in counselor education/school counseling is required with 48-60 credits. CACREP is the Counselor Education accreditation board and you can locate accredited school counseling programs at (www.cacrep.org).
  2. Get certified. All US states require school counselors to obtain state certification. You can also get nationally certified through NBCC or NBPTS. Contact your state education department to find out what credentials you need to work in your state. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) also has information about each state's school counselor requirements.
  3. Maintain professional school and college counseling organization memberships at the national and state levels: ASCA and NACAC and their state branches for research literature, evidence-based practice, annual conferences, and regular electronic and written communications and professional development opportunities. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is found online at www.schoolcounselor.org and the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) is found online at www.nacacnet.org .
  4. Stay connected to the best free professional development resources for school counselors in the field from the National Office For School Counselor Advocacy (Sign up for their free Own the Turf Kit) [1]; the National Center for School Counseling Outcome Research & Evaluation (CSCORE) [www.cscore.org]; and the Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCAL) including their free flashlight-builder program for school counseling program development [www.cescal.org].

Find a Job as a School Counselor

  1. Network, network network. It's often not how good you are that gets jobs in many cases--it's whom you know and being in the right place at the right time. Contact your professors and people with whom you worked at your practicum and internship to ask about employment opportunities.
  2. Sign up for regular communication with the career center at your college about when local districts are offering hiring fairs or jobs.
  3. Investigate employment opportunities at international schools abroad. Some international schools provide students with diplomas based on USA curriculum and the ASCA National Model/standards, and these schools employ school counselors to counsel students.
  4. Search education job boards and Craigslist. School counselor positions are usually listed with other education-related positions on sites advertising jobs at schools. Competition for school counselor jobs can be stiff in major metropolitan areas, so do a thorough search and make sure you put your best foot forward at every interview or consider moving to a rural area where job competition is not as strong.
  5. Get to know multiple building leaders as they have our profession in their hands in terms of hiring.

Tips

  • School counselors find positions in college access counseling, student affairs counseling, and career counseling as well. School counselors who are eligible for mental health licensure work with social service providers and agencies.
  • Remember that most schools hire the faculty to start in August or September. Although some opportunities may occur throughout the school year, chances to land a job as a school counselor diminish after the start of classes.

Related Articles

  • Recognize a Common Core Standards Classroom

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/school-counselor
  • ASCA. (2013). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd ed). Alexandria, VA: Author.
  • Council on the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) http://www.cacrep.org
  • Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCAL) http://www.cescal.org
  • Center for School Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation (CSCORE) http://www.cscore.org
  • Hatch, T., & Bowers, J. (2002). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (1st ed). Alexandria, VA: Author.
  • National Association for College Admission Counselors (NACAC) www.nacacnet.org
  • National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) http://www.nbcc.org/
  • National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) www.nbpts.org
  • National Office for School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA) http://nosca.collegeboard.org
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