This study examined what school counselors perceive to be consistent barriers to implementing a program that adheres to the ASCA National Model. The Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) designates such implementation. Principal component analysis revealed six common barriers: lack of confidence, lack of administrative support, time spent on clerical and office work, lack of teacher and parent support to implement aspects of the ASCA National Model, time spent on testing and monitoring, and time constraints. Logistic regression indicated three of the six barriers were significant predictors of RAMP status. We discuss implications for the school counseling profession.

There is a dearth of literature that has empirically examined ecological factors that influence school counselors’ engagement in leadership. Thus, using hierarchical regression analysis, we examined whether sociocultural factors (i.e., race/ethnicity, childhood socioeconomic status, current socioeconomic status, age, gender), professional developmental experiences (i.e., leadership experience, supervision, mentorship, leadership training), intra- and interpersonal factors (i.e., multicultural competence, leadership self-efficacy, psychological empowerment), and school climate significantly and uniquely predicted school counselors’ leadership practices. The final hierarchical regression model, using 647 school counselors nationwide, accounted for 57% variance in these practices. Sociocultural factors, professional developmental experiences, and intra- and interpersonal factors significantly and uniquely contributed to the school counselors’ leadership practices. We discuss implications for the profession.

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This study examined the self-efficacy of school counselors’ college knowledge in the college process. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five characteristic factors: school counselors’ knowledge related to the college application process, systems advocacy, direct services with disadvantaged populations, direct service with special populations, and coordination of college access events. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both school counselors’ individual characteristics (e.g., years of experience, race/ethnicity, time engaged in advising, conducting lessons, and using technology and data) and ecological factors (e.g., school level, rate of college-going culture) were significant predictors of school counselors’ self-efficacy for promoting college knowledge. We discuss implications for equity and school counselors’ training.

Following a population‐based randomized design, we investigated changes of school counselors’ psychological empowerment, multicultural competence, and leadership practice, as well as their perception of school climate from before to during COVID‐19. Specifically, school counselors were randomized into two conditions: (a) the pre‐COVID‐19 condition (n = 506) and (b) the current‐COVID‐19 condition (n = 542). Participants in the pre‐COVID condition responded to survey items following a retrospective manner based on their experiences between September 2019 and March 2020. We found that participants in the current COVID‐19 condition scored significantly higher in psychological empowerment and perceived school climate and lower in multicultural competence and leadership practices compared to the participants in the pre‐COVID‐19 condition. Regardless of directionality of changes, results supported the significant impacts that the pandemic had on school counselors’ roles related to addressing systemic issues. We discussed implications of the results to school counseling practice and school counselor training.