Perception of the Professional School Counselor Role

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AN=42537849&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site">Teacher

Perceptions of the Professional School Counselor Role: A National Study.

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Teacher Perceptions of the Professional School Counselor Role: A NationalStudy

In a national survey, teachers were asked about their perceptions of the professional schoolcounselor role as defined by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2005). Teacherswere questioned about the extent that they believed that school counselors should engage inand were engaged in a variety of tasks endorsed as appropriate or inappropriate by ASCA. Thisresearch revealed that teachers agreed that school counselors should engage in 13 and wereengaged in 12 of the 16 appropriate responsibilities.

In the past several years, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) has redefined theprofession of school counseling with the new professional school counselor role statement(ASCA, 2004), the ASCA National Standards for School Counseling Programs (Campbell & Dahir,1997), and the ASCA National Model (2005). The ASCA National Model represents acomprehensive counseling program that focuses on program foundation, delivery, management,and accountability, while supporting students holistically in the academic, career, andpersonal/social domains.

According to Jackson et al. (2002), teachers have a vital role as members of the counselingteam and a successful counseling program could not be implemented without their support.ASCA (2005) echoed that message by stating that successful implementation of the ASCANational Model requires the support of teachers. There seems to be consensus that teachersupport is important to the success of the counseling program. Examining teachers' perceptionsof school counselors may be helpful for ascertaining teachers' support of the ASCA-definedschool counselor role.

TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL COUNSELORS

Only a few studies have been conducted on teacher perceptions of school counselors, and mostof those studies focused on school counselor-teacher collaboration, not on teachers' perceptionsabout school counselors' engagement in specific duties. While collaboration is a schoolcounselor task, it is only a fraction of the school counselor's role. Remley and Albright (1988)conducted a study that focused specifically on teachers' opinions about a variety of schoolcounselor duties. In their Study, which predates the ASCA National Model, Remley and Albrightfound that teachers appreciated the role of school counselors but they believed that the deliveryof counseling services needed to be improved.

Clark and Amatea (2004) indicated that teacher expectations and knowledge of counselorperformance also impact the counseling program, as teachers influence the perceptions ofprincipals, students, and parents. They conducted a qualitative study involving 23 teachers thatfocused on teacher expectations and knowledge of school counselor contributions. They foundthat participants believed that communication and collaboration between school counselors andteachers were the most important tasks for school counselors, followed by large groupcounseling. Fewer than half of teachers believed that individual or small-group counseling wasimportant.

Although there is limited research about teacher perceptions regarding the role of the schoolcounselor, there has been some research about principal perceptions on the ASCA-defined roleof the school counselor. The research on school principals can serve as a model for the currentresearch study about teacher perceptions on the ASCA-defined role of the school counselor. In

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a national Study, researchers (Prusse, Goodnough, Donegan, & Jones, 2004) investigatedschool counselor and principal perceptions with regard to appropriate school counselingprogram tasks and inappropriate non-school counseling program tasks as listed in CampbellDahir (1997). Participants were asked to indicate whether they believed the task wasappropriate or inappropriate for school counselors. School counselors also were asked toindicate which tasks they performed.

Results showed that there were few significant differences between school counselors and theirrespective school principals. Inappropriate tasks that were rated by the school principals asappropriate were more likely to be performed by the school counselors. Over 80% of schoolprincipals endorsed inappropriate tasks, such as registration and scheduling of all new students;administering cognitive, aptitude, and achievement tests; and maintaining student records. Theappropriate responsibilities that received the lowest endorsement included counseling studentsabout appropriate school dress, analyzing grade point averages in relation to achievement,providing teachers with suggestions for better study hall management, and ensuring thatstudent records are maintained in accordance with state and federal regulations.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Teacher support is considered necessary for a school counseling program to be successful(Jackson et al., 2002). Teacher expectations and knowledge of counselor performance also arebelieved to impact the counseling program and others', such as principals', perceptions ofschool counselors (Clark & Amatea, 2004). Limited research has been conducted on teacherperceptions of school counselor roles. In addition, there is a lack of research examiningteachers' agreement that school counselors should be engaging in roles endorsed by ASCA.'There is also a lack of research on teachers' perceptions on the frequency in which schoolcounselors are engaging in the appropriate responsibilities and inappropriate activities. Thisstudy was designed to address whether or not teachers support the ASCA-defined role of theschool counselor and to examine how teachers perceive that school counselors spend theirtime.

The following research questions were addressed:

To what extent do teachers agree that school counselors should engage in appropriate

responsibilities and inappropriate activities as defined by ASCA?

1.

To what extent do teachers believe that school counselors are engaging in appropriate

responsibilities and inappropriate activities as defined by AMCA?

2.

METHOD Participants

High school teachers from across the United States in rural, suburban, and urban high schoolswere the sampling population. High school teachers were the target population due to thepredominance of high school counselors, in contrast to the elementary level, where schoolcounselor employment varies by location. In addition, the study was limited to high schoolteachers to minimize confounding results by building level role responsibility differences. Thesample size (N = 1,000) was determined by a previous research study from the schoolcounseling literature (prusse & Goodnough, 2001), to ensure that the return rate would yieldenough responses to make data analysis meaningful (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). Teacheraddresses were generated from a random sample obtained from Market Data Retrieval (2008),a company that provides educator mailing lists. The criteria for selecting the sample includedteachers who worked in public high schools. A stratified sample was requested; the sample wasproportional to the teacher population of each state. For example, there were only two mailinglabels provided for teachers employed and Hawaii; whereas, there were more than 40 namesfor teachers employed in the state of New York.


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The majority of participants reported that they were female (n = 247; 71.2%) and 94 (27.1%)reported male, while 6 ( 1.7%) did not identify their gender. Respondents indicated that theyworked in suburban (n = 157; 45.2%), rural (n = 108; 31.1%), or urban (n = 75; 21.6%)schools. Respondents stated that they worked as schoolteachers in their current school for 6 to10 years (n = 108; 31.1%), 20+ years | n = 95; 27.4%), 11-20 years (n = 82; 23.6%), 1-5years (n = 51; 14.7%), and less than a year (n = 7; 2.0%). The majority of respondentsworked as school teachers for 20+ years (n = 161; 46.4%), followed by 11-20 years (n = 103;29.7%), 6-10 years (n = 66; 19%), and 1-5 years (n = 13; 3.7%). Teachers indicated that atleast the school counselors worked in their schools (n = 128; 36.9%), followed by four schoolcounselors (n = 70; 20.2%), two school counselors (n = 61; 17.6%), three school counselors (n= 50; 14.4%), and one school counselor (n = 31; 8.9%). Three teachers (0.9%) were unsurehow many school counselors worked in their schools. Most teachers met with school counselorsweekly (n = 162; 46.7 %), followed by daily (n = 93; 26.8%), rarely (n = 85; 24.5%), or never(n = 2; 0.6%).

Instrument

The instrument in this study was a 56-item Likert-type and demographic questionnairedeveloped by the first author specifically for this study. Listed in the ASCA National Model arethe appropriate school counselor responsibilities and inappropriate activities (ASCA, 2005, p.56). This list, originally outlined in the ASCA Executive Summary (ASCA, 2002), is considered aneducation tool for illustrating the duties of the school counselor that best allow schoolcounselors to implement a comprehensive school counseling program. Stem items for questions1 through 28 (see Tables 1 and 2) were those 16 items listed as appropriate counselingresponsibilities and 12 listed as inappropriate counseling activities in the ASCA ExecutiveSummary (ASCA, 2002).

In an effort to answer the research questions, each stem item was framed with two questions:"In my opinion, school counselors should [stem]" and "To the best of my knowledge, our schoolcounselors engage in [stem]." An example of the first type of question is as follows: "In myopinion, school counselors should counsel students with disciplinary problems." For these 28items, respondents were asked to rate 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, or 4 =strongly agree. An example of the second type of question is as follows: "To the best of myknowledge, our school counselors engage in register and schedule all new students." Forthese 28 items, respondents were asked to rate 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = often, or 4 =consistently.

Data Collection Procedure

The Total Design Method (Dillman, 1978) was used. The questionnaire was mailed with a coverletter and an informed consent form. Teachers were provided a researcher-addressed, stampedenvelope to return the completed questionnaires. Three weeks later, a second mailing was sentto teachers who did not respond to the first mailing to increase the response rate. Of the 1,000questionnaires mailed, 78 were not deliverable, and a total of 416 completed questionnaireswere returned, for a return rate of 44.2%. Fifteen of the returned questionnaires were blankand contained notes indicating that the respondent was no longer a high school teacher, and 54respondents indicated that they worked in a school that was not purely a high school; thus thetotal number of eligible participants for which data were analyzed was 347.

RESULTS Appropriate Responsibilities

There were 347 eligible participants who responded to the questionnaire; however, not allparticipants answered every item. The number of respondents, means, and standard deviationsfor the appropriate responsibilities are presented in Table 1; all responses ranged from 1 to 4on every item. For 13 of the 16 appropriate responsibilities items, the mean participantresponse fell between agree and strongly agree that "school counselors should" engage in that


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responsibility. The responsibilities that teachers rated the highest were as follows: assiststudents with academic planning, assist students with career planning, assist students withpersonal/social development, interpret student records, ensure that student records aremaintained in accordance with state and federal regulations, and assist the school principal withidentifying and resolving student issues, needs, and problems. These highly endorsedresponsibilities were also the responsibilities that teachers perceived most school counselors asdoing; interestingly, several of these responsibilities represent traditional guidance activities.The mean for one appropriate responsibility, "provide teachers with suggestions for better studyhall management," fell between disagree and strongly disagree. The appropriate responsibilitiesof "counsel students about appropriate school dress" and "collaborate with teacher to presentguidance curriculum lessons" fell between agree and disagree.

Despite teachers' agreement that school counselors should engage in most of the appropriateresponsibilities, teachers believed that school counselors never or rarely engaged in some ofthose responsibilities, including the following: counsel students about appropriate school dress;collaborate with teachers to present guidance curriculum lessons; collaborate with teachers topresent proactive, prevention-based guidance curriculum lessons; and provide teachers withsuggestions for better study hall management.

Inappropriate Activities

The number of respondents, means, and standard deviations for the inappropriate activitiesitems are presented in Table 2; all responses ranged from 1 to 4 on every item. There were 12inappropriate activities listed on the questionnaire; of the 12 items, the mean participantresponse fell between agree and strongly agree that school counselors should engage in theinappropriate activities for 5 of the 12 items. Teachers agreed that school counselors shouldregister and schedule all new students; administer cognitive, aptitude, and achievement tests;compute grade-point averages; maintain student records; and work with one student at a timein a therapeutic, clinical mode. Similar to the results of the appropriate responsibilities, a few ofthe inappropriate activities that teachers thought school counselors should engage in were alsothe activities they perceived school counselors engaging in often, including "register andschedule all new students" and "maintain student records." The lowest-rated inappropriateactivities included the following: sign excuses for students who are tardy, perform disciplinaryactions, send home students who are inappropriately dressed, teach classes when teachers areabsent, supervise study halls, and assist with duties in the principal's office.

For each item stem of both the appropriate responsibilities and the inappropriate activities,there were significant correlations (p .01) between what teachers thought school counselorsshould be doing and what they believed school counselors were doing. However, only a few ofthe correlations were strong: compute grade-point averages (r = 0.723), maintain studentrecords (r = 0.633), and keep clerical records (r = 0.743). The moderate correlations were asfollows: administer cognitive, aptitude, and achievement tests (r = 0.547); assist with duties inthe principal's office (r = 0.506); and work with one-student at a time in a therapeutic, clinicalmode (r = 0.530).

DISCUSSION

This study revealed to what extent teachers agreed that school counselors should engage inboth appropriate counseling responsibilities and inappropriate activities as defined in the ASCAExecutive Summary (ASCA, 2002). Teachers agreed that school counselors should engage in 13of the 16 appropriate responsibilities and only 5 of 12 inappropriate activities. These findingssuggest that teachers agree that school counselors should engage in the tasks that ASCA statesas appropriate responsibilities, and they do not agree with more than half of the inappropriateactivities. Furthermore, the inappropriate activities that teachers endorsed were at leastmoderately correlated to the activities in which they rated school counselors as engaged.


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The results of this study suggest that high school teachers would be supportive of schoolcounselors who want to engage in roles consistent with those endorsed by ASCA, particularlyassisting students in academic, career, and personal/social development. However, teacherperceptions of the importance of some of the inappropriate activities seem to be in contrast toASCA's recommendations. While teachers support some of the inappropriate activities, onecould argue that several of the highly endorsed activities may be supported becauserespondents did not detect the language nuances of certain questions. For example, it isconsidered inappropriate for school counselors to "maintain" student records, whereas "ensurethat student records are maintained in accordance with state and federal regulations" isconsidered appropriate. To the non-school counselor, these tasks max seem as one in thesame. Upon reviewing the highly endorsed inappropriate activities from this perspective, onecould argue that teachers might be more supportive of the ASCA-described role responsibilitiesthan the results resemble at first glance.

Findings also revealed that teachers not only agreed with several inappropriate activities thatcould be categorized as clerical tasks, they also indicated that they believed school counselorswere engaged in these tasks. Interestingly, these findings were consistent with a previous Studyconducted by Prusse et al. (2004); they found that principals endorsed, and secondary schoolcounselors engaged in, the following inappropriate activities: register and schedule all students;administer cognitive, aptitude, and achievement tests; and compute grade-point averages. Anadditional inappropriate activity that teachers in this study endorsed was maintaining schoolrecords. The findings of these two studies may suggest that school counselors are engaging inthese inappropriate tasks and, in response, administrators and teachers support those tasks.

An additional task that ASCA defined as inappropriate that was endorsed by teachers was "workwith one student at a time in a therapeutic, clinical mode." This finding suggests that teachersbelieve that counseling students is an important role for school counselors; these resultssupport Whiston's (2002) position. Whiston recommended that school counselors should providemental health services, rather than abdicating this responsibility to school-based clinics oroutside agencies. Her concern was that school counselors who did not provide counseling wouldnot be seen as counselors but rather be better suited for administrative duties. Whistonacknowledged that it is difficult for school counselors with large caseloads to provide individualcounseling while attending to all their other responsibilities, but she warned that if schoolcounselors do not provide this service, the individualized services will be offered by otherprofessionals. School counselors working in schools where the principals and teachers aresupportive of school counselors providing therapeutic, clinical, individual counseling couldadvocate for the time and resources to provide this service.

It was also found that, although teachers agreed with 13 of the appropriate counselingresponsibilities, they did not believe that the school counselors in their buildings were engagingoften or consistently in several of those responsibilities. Furthermore, for each and everyappropriate role responsibility, the means for school counselors' engagement were less than theteacher endorsement ratings for those tasks. These findings suggest a variety of possibilities,including, but not limited to, the following:

School counselors were engaged in other tasks including responsibilities that were notincluded on the survey (e.g., group counseling) and/or in inappropriate activities; previousresearch found that school counselors spent at least 25% of their time on inappropriate

activities (Burnham & Jackson, 2000).

1.

Teachers were unaware of school counselors' actual engagement in those responsibilities,

AS suggested by Remley and Albright (1988).

2.

The results that suggest that school counselors do not engage in several of the appropriate


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responsibilities may support Gysbers' position. Gysbers (2001) asserted that school counselorscatering to too many roles could lead to unfilled expectations of stake holders. Whiston (2002)further contended that, while it would be easier for school counselors to pare down their roleresponsibilities, it also would mean that school counselors would abandon areas in whichstudents require assistance. Whiston argued that school counselors will need to make someclear decisions about which tasks to remove from their roles, and that these decisions should bebased on which activities are supported by stakeholders and activities that foster studentdevelopment.

Considering Gysbers' (2001) and Whiston's (2002) positions, the current research findingssuggest that the most important duties of a school counselor, according to teachers, wouldinclude assisting students with academic and career planning; assisting students withpersonal/social development; assisting the principal to identify and resolve student issues,needs, and problems; interpreting and ensuring that student records are maintained inaccordance with state and federal regulations; developing counseling program goals andactivities based on needs assessments; registering and scheduling all new students; andworking with students and a therapeutic, clinical, individual counseling mode. Based on thecurrent research findings and the previous research study of principals (Prusse et al., 2004),the appropriate responsibilities that should be considered for elimination would be "counselstudents about appropriate school dress" and "provide teachers with suggestions for betterstudy hall management." In addition, teachers seem to be indifferent to collaborating onguidance lessons. School counselors may find some support, as well as resistance, fromteachers in regard to working with school counselors to systematically deliver guidance lessons.

If, however, the findings are really representative of the aforementioned possibility thatteachers lack an awareness of which tasks school counselors are actually engaged in, it maysupport Remley and Albright's (1988) position that school counselors need to raise teacherawareness of their engagement in appropriate responsibilities. School counselors might benefitby demonstrating their engagement and effectiveness in appropriate responsibilities inmeasurable terms through MEASURES (Stone & Dahir, 2007), results reports, school counselorperformance standards, and program audits as outlined in the ASCA National Model (2005).

This research study provides a unique contribution as it is one of the first studies to examinethe perceptions of high school teachers about the role of the school counselor since thedevelopment of the ASCA National Model. Although the findings from this study seem to supportprevious findings (i.e., Prusse et al., 2004; Remley & Albright, 1988), it also has revealed newinformation. First, although their responses did vary, teachers generally agreed with 13 of the16 appropriate responsibilities that were outlined in the ASCA Executive Summary. Second,there appears to be a relationship between teacher endorsement of tasks and perceptions ofschool counselor engagement in those tasks. Last, while this study revealed that teachers aregenerally supportive of the appropriate school counseling responsibilities, this study identifiedspecific duties that teachers endorsed as being appropriate.

Implications for School Counselors

While this research study offers data on a national level, school counselors need to be aware oftheir own stakeholders' perceptions of the tasks that they believe school counselors shoulddoing, as it may impact the success of their school counseling program (ASCA, 2005; Jackson etal., 2002). School counselors failing to engage in valued tasks may be viewed as failing to meetstakeholder expectations (Gysbers, 2001). Furthermore, overlooking stakeholder expectationsmay result in school counselors and/or the school counseling program being viewed asineffectual.

School counselors might consider conducting needs assessments within their own school to


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measure the perceptions that different stakeholders have about school counseling programactivities and school counselor effectiveness, and identify other priority needs that thosestakeholders expect school counselors to address in their schools. Because needs assessmentsserve as a foundation of perception data (ASCA, 2005), collecting these data may assist schoolcounselors in program planning, as it will reveal the needs and priorities of their ownstakeholders. Additionally, doing so allows stakeholders to feel as though they are being heard,that their thoughts are valued, and that school counselors are concerned about their needs.Upon addressing the identified priorities through the needs assessment, school counselors canadvertise the original need, indicate how they addressed this priority, and identify how well theneed was addressed (ASCA, 2005).

Implications for Counselor Educators

In light of the findings in this study, counselor educators may communicate to students thepossibility that some stakeholders may still expect school counselors to engage in someinappropriate activities. Furthermore, novice school counselors need to be aware that they arcbeing evaluated on what they are perceived as doing or not doing, and of the importance ofengaging in appropriate responsibilities while demonstrating effectiveness in those areas.

If it is in fact the case that the current findings are really a result of teachers lacking anawareness of what school counselors are doing in their schools, then counselor educators mayconsider teaching pre-service counselors how to increase role awareness through demonstratedeffectiveness. Engagement in appropriate school counselor responsibilities such as developingand administering needs assessments, employing strategies to address the identified priorities,and demonstrating effectiveness through tools such as MEASURE may serve as valuable selfadvocacy efforts. These suggested self-advocacy efforts allow school counselors to make theirinvisible role responsibilities visible to stakeholders and demonstrate the effectiveness of schoolcounselors to con tribute to student achievement.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future research could determine if teachers endorse the inappropriate activities because schoolcounselors are engaging in those activities, or if school counselors are engaging in thoseactivities because it is an expectation set by stakeholders. Because the findings of this studywere consistent with a previous study conducted with principals and school counselors on theschool counselor role (Prusse et al., 2004), additional research also might include gatheringdata on the perceptions of multiple stakeholders including principals, other pupil personnelprofessionals, parents, students, and the community. Because school counselors serve multiplestakeholders, each individual group of stakeholders may have similar or differing beliefs on theresponsibilities school counselors should be engaging in and perceptions of school counselors'engagement in those activities; this may ultimately impact their evaluation of school counselors.Using this information, school counselors could identify those expectations and either addressthe expectations or educate stakeholders about their appropriate role activities. Finally, furtherresearch could be expanded from this research study to compare teacher perceptions withschool counselors' reports on their engagement in the appropriate responsibilities andinappropriate activities to cheek for consistency and accuracy. Comparing teacher perceptionsand school counselors' reports of engagement may reveal whether perceived engagement issynonymous with perceived performance adequacy.

Limitations

First, this study was limited to high school teachers who were employed in public schools. Inaddition, data were only collected from those who were willing to participate and mail back thecompleted questionnaire, which limits this study's generalizability. Also, self-selection may haveonly elicited responses from individuals who were comfortable sharing their thoughts or whohad time to complete the questionnaire. Another limitation was that teachers were asked to rate


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their perception of school counselor engagement in various activities. In many cases,respondents indicated their perceptions of several school counselors' engagement in variousactivities; results may have been impacted by individual school counselors' weaknesses,strengths, or reputations. Finally, two of the respondents indicated that they had never met withtheir school counselor(s) and three respondents indicated that they were unaware of how manyschool counselors worked in their school building. These five respondents, while theirperceptions matter as they represent members of their school building, may not be able toaccurately assess the school counselors due to their limited knowledge or interaction.

Conclusion

The ASCA National Model (and associated role responsibilities) was only introduced in the pastfew years, and little empirical research exists regarding how school counselor roles andresulting teacher (and other stakeholders) perceptions are impacted as a result of incorporatingthe ASCA National Model. There is also limited empirical research on student outcomes as aresult of incorporating the ASCA National Model. This research provides counselor educators abasis to conduct additional research to determine if engagement in the ASCA-describedappropriate responsibilities (and integration of the ASCA National Model) leads to (a) teachersperceiving school counselors engaged in the appropriate responsibilities and (b) the positivestudent outcomes in the academic, career, and personal/social domains that ASCA asserted.This research also provides school counselors with empirical information regarding teacherperceptions to consider when implementing the ASCA National Model as the basis for the schoolcounseling program. In this particular study, teachers believed, for the most part, that schoolcounselors should be engaging in the roles asserted in the ASCA National Model; uponreviewing this study, school counselors could perhaps expect teachers to be supportive in theimplementation of the ASCA National Model into their school counseling program.

There seems to be consensus that teacher support is important to the success of the counselingprogram.

There is a lack of research examining teachers' agreement that school counselors should beengaging in roles endorsed by ASCA.

Teachers agreed that school counselors should engage in 13 of the 16 appropriateresponsibilities and only 5 of 12 inappropriate activities.

In this study, teachers believed, for the most part, that school counselors should be engaging inthe roles asserted in the ASCA National Model.

References

American School Counselor Association. (2002). The ASCA national model: A framework forschool counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 6, 165-169.

American School Counselor Association. (2004). The role of the professional school counselor.Retrieved March 12, 2006, from http://www.schoolcounselor.org/content.asp?pl= 325&sl=133&contentid=241

American School Counselor Association. (2005). The ASCA national model: A framework forschool counseling programs (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author.

Burnham, J. J., & Jackson, C. M. (2000). School counselor roles: Descrepencies between actualpractice and existing models. Professional School Counseling, 4, 41 -49.

Campbell, C. A., & Dahir, C. A. (1997). National standards for school counseling programs.Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association.


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Clark, M. A., & Amatea, E. (2004). Teacher perceptions and expectations of school counselorcontributions: Implications for program planning and training. Professional School Counseling, 8,132-140.

Dillman, D. (1978). Mail and telephone surveys: The total design method. New York: Wiley.

Gysbers, N.C. (2001). School guidance and counseling in the 21st century: Remember the pastinto the future. Professional School Counseling, 5, 96-105.

Jackson, C. M., Snow, B. M., Boes, S. R., Phillips, P. L, Powell-Standard, R., Painter, L. C, et al.(2002). Inducting the transformed school counselor into the profession. Theory into Practice,41, 177-185.

Market Data Retrieval. (2008). Education lists. Retrieved February 15, 2007, fromhttp://www.schooldata.com/ mdredlists.asp

Nunnally, J. C, & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Prusse, R., & Goodnough, G. E. (2001). A comparision of existing school counselor programcontent with the Education Trust Initiatives. Counselor Education and Supervision, 41, 100-110.

Prusse, R., Goodnough, G. E., Donegan, J., & Jones, C. (2004). Perceptions of schoolcounselors and school principals about the National Standards for School Counseling Programsand the Transforming School Counseling Initiative. Professional School Counseling, 7, 152-161.

Remley, T. P., & Albright, P. L. (1988). Expectations for middle school counselors: Views ofstudents, teachers, principals, and parents. School Counselor, 35, 290-296.

Stone, C. A., & Dahir, C. A. (2007). School counselor accountability: A MEASURE of studentsuccess. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Whiston, S. C. (2002). Response to the past, present, and future of school counseling: Raisingsome issues. Professional School Counseling, 5, 148-155.

Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Participant Responses to Appropriate

Responsibilities and Engagement in Appropriate Responsibilities

In My Opinion, To the Best of My

School Counselors Knowledge, Our

Should School Counselors

Engage in

Appropriate

Item Responsibility Stem n M SD n M SD

3 Design individual student 344 3.18 0.800 339 2.74 0.911

academic programs

4 Interpret cognitive, 338 3.23 0.798 334 2.85 0.913

aptitude, and

achievement tests

5 Counsel students with 338 3.31 0.801 337 2.32 0.862

excessive tardiness or

absenteeism

6 Counsel students with 345 3.18 0.847 343 2.32 0.843

disciplinary problems

9 Counsel students about 344 2.72 0.921 341 1.86 0.776

appropriate school dress

10 Collaborate with teachers 337 2.95 0.820 336 1.9 0.840

to present guidance

curriculum lessons


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11 Analyze grade-point 339 3.33 0.699 337 2.79 0.8

averages in relation to

achievement

12 Interpret student records 342 3.53 0.591 340 3.14 0.787

13 Provide teachers with 330 1.89 0.901 326 1.24 0.581

suggestions for better study

hall management

16 Ensure that student 343 3.59 0.690 341 3.42 0.758

records are maintained

in accordance with state

and federal regulation

17 Assist the school 343 3.48 0.611 342 2.92 0.814

principal with identifying

and resolving student issues,

needs, and problems

18 Collaborate with teachers 338 3.00 0.776 338 1.91 0.821

to present proactive,

prevention-based guidance

curriculum lessons

25 Assist students with 341 3.81 0.449 339 3.39 0.676

academic planning


career planning


personal/social development

28 Develop goals and 345 3.42 0.664 342 2.68 0.866

activities based on needs

assessments

Note. Responses for "In my opinion, school counselors should" were

on a 4-point scale ( 1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree).

Responses for "To the best of my knowledge, our school counselors

engage in" were on a 4-point scale (1 = never, 2 = rarely,

3 = often, 4 = consistently).

Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations for Participant Responses to Inappropriate

Activities and Perceived Engagement in Inappropriate Activities

In My Opinion, To the Best of My

School Counselors Knowledge, Our

Should School Counselors

Engage in

Inappropriate

Item Activity Stem n M SD n M SD

1 Register and schedule 345 3.63 0.64 346 3.71 0.60

all new students 343 3.08 0.90 343 2.84 1.04

2 Administer cognitive,

aptitude, and

achievement tests

7 Sign excuses for 344 1.51 0.78 341 1.56 0.77

students who are tardy

8 Perform disciplinary 346 1.59 0.76 344 1.35 0.65

actions

14 Send home students who 342 1.69 0.87 340 1.19 0.48

are inappropriately

dressed

15 Teach classes when

teachers are absent 345 1.70 0.90 344 1.21 0.51

19 Compute grade point 344 3.01 1.05 342 2.93 1.16

averages

20 Maintain student 342 3.40 0.81 343 3.36 0.83

records

21 Supervise study halls 334 1.60 0.83 331 1.15 0.48

22 Keep clerical records 342 2.26 0.99 339 2.20 1.09

23 Assist with duties in 345 1.81 0.89 340 1.67 0.84

the principal's office


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24 Work with one student 338 3.07 0.83 334 2.54 0.90

at a time in a therapeutic,

clinical mode

Note. Responses for "In my opinion, school counselors should" were on a

4-point scale ( 1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Responses

for "To the best of my knowledge, our school counselors engage in" were

on a 4 = pointy scale (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = often, 4 =

consistently).

~~~~~~~~

By Summer M. Reiner and Robert D. Colbert

CONTRIBUTED BY Robert D. Colbert and Rachelle Prusse

Summer M. Reiner Ph.D., is an assistant professor with the Department of Counselor Education,College at Brockport, State University of New York. E-mail: [email protected]

Robert D. Colbert, Ph.D., is associate professor with the Department of Educational Psychology,University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Robert D. Colbert, Ph.D., is associate professor with the Department of Educational Psychology,University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Rachelle Prusse, Ph.D., is associate professor with the Department of Educational Psychology,University of Connecticut, Storrs.

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Perception of the Professional School Counselor Role