Counselor Skills
Leadership | Advocacy | Collaboration | Systemic Change

Professional school counselor's roles and descriptions have changed as school counselors respond to the needs of the 21 st century student and the No Child Left Behind legislation. With these changes, the vision of school counseling had to change too. The traditional role descriptors have been expanded to new vision role descriptors. According to the Education Trust in 2002, the old model of school counseling, traditional role descriptors were that of collaboration, consulting and counseling. The new vision role descriptors are that of leadership, advocacy, collaboration/teaming, counseling/coordinating, and use of data/assessment.

The work of the school counselor has change from working in isolation to working in teams and collaborating with all stakeholders and as an integral member in the educational system. School counselors no longer focus on just an individual, but focus on work with all students to ensure academic achievement for all students and creating systemic change. They are involved extensively as a leader in the school and the community.

The four themes that encompass the ASCA National Model are the skills that professional school counselors must develop to implement their programs. These skills are leadership, advocacy, collaboration/teaming and systemic change. Many school counselors have already mastered some or all of these skills because they use them daily. These skills have a positive result for school counselors as they work with all students.