School Counselors Historically

1900-1940 - Vocational guidance

* This work was left up to teachers.

* School counselors were not the norm, and were not valued.

*Theories of Individual development and personality emerged.

* Testing began to measure students mental aptitude.

1940-1950 - Counseling arrives on the scene.

*Mental health of students becomes important

* Development theory and early guidance methods are the

foundation for new guidance programs in schools

1950-1958- School Counselors become a recognized body.

* The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is founded.

* School Counselor ( journal) was created.

* ASCA becomes a division of the American Personnel and Guidance Associations ( Now known as American Counseling or ACA).

* Educational guidance expands.

* School counselors are primarily only in High Schools.

1958 -The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) is passed.

* Standardized testing is used to parse out the students with the best math and science capabilities.

* Graduate institutions educate school guidance counselors

* School counselors are integrated into K-12 schools, as well as for college-age students (although it’s not until 1964 that the NDEA extends officially for elementary schools) .

1960-1980- Developmentally- Based school counseling emerges.

* Although there was education for school counselors there was no framework to guide them.

* The approaches to school counseling were mostly; Crisis / Remedial (reacting to need) Developmental- Prevention ( anticipating need)

* The students being served were at-risk or college bound

* Typically School counselors took a services approach meaning if the service needed wasn’t either of the two listed above they wouldn’t provide a service.

* 1976 The Career Education Act integrates Career education into schools.

Late 1980’s-present-Comprehensive School Counseling Movement arrives.

* Designed to meet the developmental need of every student

* Ongoing set of Coordinated Services

* 1988-The Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program served as the first organized, and planned program to be used as a template for state models around the nation.

*1997- The ASCA published The National Standards for School Counseling programs, which established benchmarks for;

• Student competency in Academics
• Student competency in Career
• Student competency in personal/ social

* 2001-No Child Left behind educational reform necessitated data-driven accountability.

* 2003- The ASCA published The National Model for School Counseling Programs. The model assisted professional school counselors to implement the National Standards and focus school counseling on four primary areas :

• Foundation-School counselors create comprehensive school counseling programs that focus on student outcomes, teach students competencies and are delivered with Identified professional competencies.
• Management system- School counselors incorporate organizational assessment tools that are concrete, clearly delineated and reflective of the school's needs.
• Delivery system-School counselors provide services to students, parents, school staff and the community.
• Accountability- To demonstrate the effectiveness of the school counseling program in measurable term, school counselors analyze school and school counseling program data to determine how students are different as a result of the school counseling program. School counselors use data to show the impact of the school counseling program on student achievement, attendance and behavior and analyze school counseling program assessments to guide future action and improve future results for all students. The performance of the school counselor is evaluated on the basic standards of practice expected of school counselors implementing a comprehensive school counseling program.

These standards are now called the four quadrants and serve as the template for state models nation-wide.

For references please see the attached file on my homepage.