Changing the Paradigm of School Counseling Practice Through School Principals' Leadership

• In Event: Collaboration is No Longer an Option: School Leader and School Counselor Connections

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes: The study identifies the degree to which school principals have the awareness, knowledge, and skills to successfully lead their school counselors into the realm of contemporary practice as newly regulated in May, 2017 by the New York State Education Department (NYSED). This study also explores the role that principals play in encouraging, facilitating, and/or inhibiting school counselor efforts to deliver a comprehensive school counseling program which is a critical component of the new regulations.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: School principals and school counselors have the ability to forge a unique collaborative relationship to improve student achievement. According to the traditional approach to school counseling, principals and counselors do not engage in ongoing models of collaboration and partnership (Baker 2001; Clemens, Milsom, & Cashwell, 2009; Gysbers & Henderson, 2001). With diverging views of the school counselor’s role as described by principals and school counselors, he dialogue continues. Critical to the success of the implementation and impact of the new regulations, success lies with the principal’s support and involvement (NASSP, ASCA, & College Board, 2009).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: The Assessment of School Counselor Needs for Professional Development [(ASCNPD) Dahir & Stone, 2003, 2007, 2014] survey was used in this study. The psychometric properties analyses of the ASCNPD (Burnham, Dahir, Hooper, & Stone, 2008) revealed high evidence of validity and reliability The ASCNPD is used extensively nationally and internationally to establish a baseline regarding perceptions of school principals and school counselors.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials: The survey was distributed to school principals in Long Island public schools representing all aspects of socio-economic variability in suburban and small city school systems. As the survey submission remains open due to various summer vacation periods, the return rate cannot yet be established.

Data analyses will include simple descriptive statistics including percentages, computed means, correlations, and cross tabulations as a first step to organize and sort the data. Inferential statistical procedures including co-efficient alpha, a measure of internal consistency and reliability, will assess the degree to which the scale items are measured consistently.

Results: The NYSED regulatory changes are intended to engage school counselors in the common goal of improving student achievement and success. This study will reveal the knowledge and skills that school principals identify as needed around the implementation of the new regulations.

Scientific or scholarly significance: With change comes uncertainly and resistance on the part of both the school counseling practitioner as well as the principal who is responsible for the implementation of the regulations. Preliminary findings suggest that intentional partnership around the common goal of helping students achieve at high levels is the common denominator for counselors and principals to ensure successful transition from traditional to contemporary practice.

This working relationship of principals and counselors is crucial to implementing the new NYSED regulations/policies to create the shared vision that will prepare every student for a successful future and postsecondary success (Caperton, 2009) in New York and in similar regulatory agendas across the US.

Authors

• Carol A. Dahir, New York Institute of Technology

• Robert Feirsen

• Daniel Cinotti, New York Institute of Technology