From the Executive Director: Our School Counselor Identity

The recent NSCA School Counselor Academy was a huge success. Over 200 school counselors and several administrators descended on Lincoln to explore the academy theme of “Who Am I? Identifying Today’s School Counselor.” Perhaps the greatest struggle of the profession since its inception has been that of a clear professional identity and our academy theme was intended to address just that. There are, no doubt, consistently embraced components that contribute to a school counselor professional identity such as a code of ethics, and a national professional organization in the American School Counselor Association. For more than 15 years we have had the ASCA National Model for schools to use as a guide for implementing a comprehensive school counseling programs and every year more and more schools are following it. The model and the role we play in implementing also contribute to our professional identity. Yet far too often the role is based on the school district and the personality or personal strengths of the school counselor(s) in the building, rather than being program focused, as Dr. Norm Gysbers spoke about in his keynote at the 2017 Academy. In some instances we are challenged by the lack of even a consistent title for our position: school counselor or guidance counselor.

Norm Gysbers delivers the keynote address at the 2017 NSCA School Counselor Academy.
 
As I listen to counselors across Nebraska and the nation, I hear common concerns: the student-to-school-counselor ratio is too high, school counselors get bogged down with too many non-counselor duties, administrators don’t understand the role of the school counselor, and school counselors being evaluated on the same criteria as teachers, just to name a few. Perhaps the greatest challenge to addressing these is not administrators or other external stakeholders. Rather, it  may be school counselors ourselves and our lack of a clear professional identity and  consistent definition of what the role of a school counselor is. A few years ago, I sat down with a legislative aide in the office of one of our U.S. Senators to advocate for school counselors. After I talked for a while the aide sat there looking confused and said something to the effect of, “last week I had a guidance counselor in hear talking about this same bill.” She then asked, “What is the difference between a guidance counselor and a school counselor?” Precious time was lost from advocating for school counselors by having to clear up her confusion created by our own internal struggles. A clear consistent identity and name do matter as we all work to address the challenges of the profession.
 
NSCA and our parent organization, ASCA, work tirelessly to address the commonly shared concerns of school counselors. ASCA regularly provides materials to help school counselors advocate for their programs. One such example is an article by Dr. Carolyn Stone about appropriate and inappropriate school counselor duties.
 
Please understand that NSCA does much more than put on an annual academy and is constantly working on your behalf. NSCA was at the table for discussions around the revised endorsement criteria and what should be included in school counselor training programs in Nebraska. NSCA worked to ensure that school counselor training would mirror the skills necessary to implement a comprehensive school counseling program that is closely aligned with the ASCA National Model. NSCA will also be at the table as the state looks at criteria for evaluating school counselors. NSCA invited administrators to attend the 2017 School Counselor Academy to help more administrators understand the role of the school counselor.

Theresa Crnkovich of Elkhorn High School and Mike McCann of Westside Middle School discuss the role of the school counselor in PBIS as part of the administrator track at the 2017 NSCA School Counselor Academy.

NSCA will continue to look for and take advantage of opportunities to educate stakeholders about the role of the school counselor and the positive impact school counselors have on student achievement, student career readiness, and student social/emotional development. Encourage your colleagues to join NSCA – there is power in numbers when talking with elected officials. Rally all school counselors to embrace the fact we are proudly called school counselors and we embrace a common role and identity based on the ASCA National Model. Together, ASCA, NSCA and school counselors like you can make our profession stronger.

Contact Doug Hauserman, NSCA executive director, at nscaexecdirector@gmail.com.