TPC-Journal-V4-Issue5

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 5 494 The authors acknowledge that this particular study includes only the voices of nine school counselors; however, their voices loudly echo NOSCA’s findings and support the need for school counselor standardization of practice in promoting, teaching and facilitating career and postsecondary planning for all students (Bridgeland & Bruce, 2014). Currently, most school counselor education programs do not highlight this area, yet this area represents the very heart of school counseling services at the secondary level. ASCA (2012) has deemed this area important enough to provide school counselors with standards with which to guide their daily activities, but training programs offer limited exposure to actual planning and implementation of career services. This study exposes a disconnection between training and practice standards in school counselor education, which has led to feelings of incompetence and discouragement in these nine school counselors. Regardless of how the counselors compensate for this lack of training, this phenomenon exists. Whether they graduated from CACREP or non-CACREP programs, all of the participants in this study believed that they were equally incompetent in providing career development programming to students. Therefore, future CACREP standards and ASCAModel revisions, as well as state credentialing boards, must include guidelines by which school counselors are trained, specifically reflecting their appropriate job duties and responsibilities in college and career readiness programming. Future school counselors may be better equipped to address the needs of their students, parents and communities if this area of training is expanded and integrated as an essential component of counselor education programs. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References Altbach, P. G., Gumport, P. J., & Berdahl, R. O. (2011). American higher education in the 21st century: Social, political and economic challenges . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs . Alexandria, VA: Author. American School Counselor Association. (2012). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author. Barker, J., & Satcher, J. (2000). School counselors’ perceptions of required workplace skills and career development competencies. Professional School Counseling , 4 , 134–139. Belasco, A. S. (2013). Creating college opportunity: School counselors and their influence on postsecondary enrollment. Research in Higher Education , 54 , 781–804. Borders, L. D., & Drury, S. M. (1992). Comprehensive school counseling programs: A review for policymakers and practitioners. Journal of Counseling & Development , 70 , 487–498. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1992.tb01643.x Bridgeland, J., & Bruce, M. (2014). 2011 national survey of school counselors . College Board National Office for School Counselor Advocacy. Retrieved from http://www.civicenterprises.net/MediaLibrary/Docs/counseling_at_a_ crossroads.pdf Brott, P. E. (2006). Counselor education accountability: Training the effective professional school counselor. Professional School Counseling , 10 , 179–188. Brown, D. (2006). Career information, career counseling, and career development (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Bryan, J., Moore-Thomas, C., Day-Vines, N. L., & Holcomb-McCoy, C. (2011). School counselors as social capital: The effects of high school college counseling on college application rates. Journal of Counseling and Development , 89 , 190–199. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2011.tb00077.x Campbell, C. A., & Dahir, C. A. (1997). Sharing the vision: The national standards for school counseling programs .