Changes Over Time in Masters Level School Counselor Education Programs

Abstract

A national survey regarding the preparation of entry-level school counseling students was conducted to assess changes over time that may have occurred in the credit hours, screening methods, faculty experiences, course content, fieldwork requirements, and importance of The Education Trust concepts. Key findings include increases in the number of faculty with school counseling experience and the number of programs requiring practicum and internship to be completed in a school setting, and decreases in the number of courses designed specifically for school counseling students and the importance of supervision.

Counselor Educators' Experiences Preparing Preservice School Counselors: A Phenomenological Study

“…Echoing the evolution toward professional unification, school counselor education has begun to use a broad K–12 framework that prepares school counselors to work at multiple educational levels (e.g., elementary, middle, high schools; Goodman‐Scott, 2015; Goodman‐Scott, Watkinson, Martin, & Biles, 2016; Pérusse, Goodnough, & Noël, 2001; Pérusse, Poynton, Parzych, & Goodnough, 2015). Researchers studying school counselor education trends reported recently that the percentage of school counselor education programs offering courses specific for the elementary and secondary level decreased dramatically over the course of a decade, from approximately 14% of programs in 2000 to about 2% in 2010 (Pérusse et al, 2001, 2015). Thus, over those 10 years, school counselor education programs across the country reduced their emphasis on level‐specific content.…”

School Counseling District Supervisors’ Experiences and Perceptions Regarding School Counselor Preparation for Practice

“…The variation described in the present study parallels previous literature while also adding new insight. First, other researchers also found differences across school counselor preparation programs based on several factors including credit hours, courses, and field placements (Goodman-Scott, 2015; Goodman-Scott et al, 2016; Pérusse et al, 2015; Warren et al, 2020; Watkinson et al, 2018). These discrepancies across preparation programs were attributed to differences in faculty philosophy, identity, and preferences; state certification/licensure requirements; local school counseling job openings; and student enrollment.…”

School Counselor Consultation Preparation: A National Study

“…Although there are a few studies investigating school counselors’ perception of their consultation preparation, there is a dearth of research related to actual preparation programs reporting on how they prepare school counselors in this area. According to Pérusse, Poynton, Parzych, and Goodnough (2015), only 13.5% of the school counselor preparation programs sampled had identified consultation as a required course content area, a 5.6 percentage point decrease since their original study (Pérusse, Goodnough, & Noël, 2001). However, both studies lacked depth in describing consultation preparation practices.…”