School counselors promote and enhance the learning process for all students. The goal of the school counselor is to ultimately ensure students are capable of setting and achieving their personal and professional goals.
To best support student success, counselors offer guidance in various areas, including academic achievement strategies, career goals, social-emotional development and character building. School counselors offer crucial support and advocacy to ensure that all students have the tools to achieve success during and after their time at school.
How Do School Counselors Help Students?
Traditionally, school counselors focused their efforts on vocational guidance for students. Career readiness is still an imperative for school counselors, but the modern professional role evolved to encompass a more holistic approach to helping students succeed during school and beyond.
According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), school counselors improve student success while promoting access and equity for all students. Professionals achieve these ends through supporting students in numerous ways, in and out of the classroom. The following are three essential areas in which school counselors can positively impact students’ lives, development, academic success and achievement.
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Enhancing Student Success With Academic Support
School counselors are an important part of students’ academic success, particularly in marginalized communities. Studies show that students attending schools with comprehensive counseling programs experienced several positive outcomes, including higher student academic achievement. This points to the central role school counselors play in students’ educational success.
This support is particularly notable in communities with higher rates of poverty. Research correlates improved student-to-counselor ratios with better academic outcomes such as graduation rates for students in high-poverty communities. The intensive, individualized support that school counselors offer helps students overcome personal barriers and achieve success in the classroom.
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Offering Social-emotional Support and Guidance
Part of school counselors’ importance is the social-emotional support they offer. Students need to feel safe to learn. School counselors offer mental health counseling, behavioral interventions, programming, faculty training and disability support to ensure students feel safe and supported in school.
This emphasis on social-emotional support is relatively new to the school counselor position. However, it is an important aspect of what they do. In a position paper on the subject, ASCA notes that school counselors play a critical role in helping develop “the mindsets and behaviors students need to manage emotions and learn and apply interpersonal skills.” ASCA also highlights the interconnected nature of academic, social-emotional and career development, recognizing that all are necessary for student success throughout life.
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Providing Advocacy: An Essential Role of a School Counselor
According to the Responsive Counselor, “there are some who believe that a school counselor should constantly be the light of the building, full of positivity and kindness. There is a time and a place for this, but there is also a compelling need to (professionally, respectfully, and using all of our training) make sure our students are getting what they need.”
School counselors aren’t just feel-good voices. They are advocates, working to ensure that all students’ needs are met. School counselors take data-driven approaches to help parents and faculty understand the needs of their students.
As educational advocates, school counselors identify and evaluate factors that affect student success. For instance, a counselor might identify the need for assessment and tools for students with developmental disabilities. They also identify external factors affecting a student, such as family issues, socioeconomic disparities and biases.
Additionally, school counselors develop educational programming, one-on-one guidance and personalized strategies to ensure student success. They act as role models for students and staff to build character, assess progress and set achievable goals.
School counselors also advocate for the profession and practice. They play an active role in ensuring administrators, policymakers, parents and community members understand what school counselors do, why it is important, and how to better design and support comprehensive school counseling programs to improve positive impacts on student success.
How to Become a School Counselor
There are several ways to enter the school counseling profession, and specific requirements may vary by state and district. To generalize, ASCA maintains that school counselors must hold a master’s degree in the field (at minimum), meet all state certification and licensure requirements, fulfill continuing education requirements, and act in accordance with ASCA’s ethical and professional standards.
Working teachers interested in entering the profession can explore flexible educational options such as the online Master of Education (M.Ed.) in School Counseling program offered by Southeastern Oklahoma State University. This degree program provides aspiring school counselors with the skills and expertise to maximize their impact on students’ lives and achievement. Plus, with the program’s 100% online design, teachers can continue working while completing their career-advancing degree and applying what they learn to their jobs in real time.
School counselors contribute to student development in a variety of ways. They are a central part of any education team. They set students up for both academic and personal success. Most importantly, however, they create trusting relationships centered on support, advocacy and an assurance that they are first and foremost concerned with the well-being of all students.
Learn more about Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s online M.Ed. in School Counseling program.