Toward a Comprehensive Model for Professional School Counseling CHAPTER 2

GOAL To promote comprehensive, balanced K–12 school counseling programs conducted by professional school counselors capable of meeting both remedial and developmental goals for children and adolescents living in a pluralistic society.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY PART I Jesse B. Davis, a high-school principal in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1907, had one period per week set aside in English composition classes for vocational and moral guidance. The Vocational Guidance Movement that begin in 1908 influenced the development of school counseling. The Psychometric and Mental Health Movements of the early 20th century influenced school counseling. The dominant school guidance model in the 1930s and early 1940s has been labeled trait and factor, or directive guidance. Carl Rogers’s nonmedical approach to counseling had an impact on the field unlike the work of any person before him.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY PART II Following World War II, counseling primarily became a secondary-school guidance function. The creation of the American Personnel and Guidance Association in 1952 (now the American Counseling Association, ACA), the passage of the George-Barden Act of 1946, National Defense Education Act in 1958, and the increased school enrollments caused by the baby boomers born after World War II all caused the training of school counselors to become more standardized and increased their number in the 1960s. Two divisions of the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA)—the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES)—led the way to developing and promoting standards for the training of school counselors that strongly emphasized counseling theory and practicum training.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY PART III The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA) was passed after the Soviets successfully launched the space satellite named Sputnik in 1957. The school counseling profession grew rapidly on the basis of this perceived threat of Soviet educational superiority and the subsequent desire to identify academically talented students and guide them into careers in strategic fields. In 1959, James B. Conant recommended a ratio of one full-time high-school counselor for every 200 to 300 students in his widely read book The American High School Today. In The Counselor in a Changing World, 60,000 copies of which were printed between 1962 and 1966, C. Gilbert Wrenn chided secondary school guidance counselors for having allowed themselves to become narrowly focused on the remedial needs of a few students.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY PART IV – AFTER THE BOOM An era of declining enrollments in the schools and economic problems across the nation led to reductions in personnel in numerous school districts during the 1970s and into the 1980s. Many school counseling positions were eliminated. Some federal funds were made available for career education programming in basic education during the 1970s. More attention was given to psychological education after Mosher and Sprinthall (1970) introduced psychologically based curriculum interventions for counselors to offer students in an effort to persuade guidance programs to help the schools focus more on personal development.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY PART V – LATE 20th AND EARLY 21st CENTURIES From within the general field of counseling came a call for multicultural competence (American Association for Counseling and Development, 1991). President Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative was, according to Herr (2002), the latest national educational reform movement at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and the school counseling profession found itself assessing its role—collectively and individually. The impact of this baby boom echo or millennial generation would be felt the most in high schools (15% enrollment increases) and in the southern and western parts of the country. These demographics indicated that the decade of transition from one century to the next would present opportunities and challenges ranging from increased employment for school counselors to larger case loads.

OTHER FACTORS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED SCHOOL COUNSELING Federal funding Comprehensive guidance programs National Standards for School Counseling The Transforming School Counseling Initiative

THE CURRENT STATUS OF PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING The ASCA National Model for School Counseling Programs School counseling should take a balanced approach that includes attending to the affective and cognitive development of all students, being an advocate for all students, being an integral part of the academic mission of schools, collaborating with families and communities, providing prevention programs, attending to legal and ethical issues, being accountable, and being an advocate for school counseling.

REFLECTING ON THE HISTORY AND CURRENT STATUS OF SCHOOL COUNSELING What do you consider the most important historical events that have shaped the current status of professional school counseling? A busy graduate student recently commented that “balanced equals overwhelmed.” And “I’m not good at all that is included in a balanced approached.” She asked, “How in the world can school counselors balance their own professional and personal lives and try to manage a balanced approach to school counseling?” How would you answer this student’s question?

APPLICATION TO TECHNOLOGY If you have created your own school counseling website, add your school mission statement to your website. Conduct an internet search for school counseling program websites. Identify the major components that relate to comprehensive school counseling services. Use those sites as examples of what to include on your professional website and begin to embed placeholders or tabs for you to add to later. Some examples include academic, college and career, and social/emotional.