School Counselor’s Role
as an Active Participant in the
School Improvement Planning Process

Some would argue that nobody knows the school better than the school counselor.  The school counselor holds the barometer to school safety, peer interactions, the make-up of the students, academic successes and failures, extracurricular activities and community involvement.  Who better to lead or at least have as an active participant in the School Improvement Plan. 

School counselors are finding the need to prove what they do has an affect on student learning.  Counselor's are learning to approach this in a comprehensive way, addressing more than college guidance and crisis response.  School counselors can have an impact on school safety, bullying, attendance, parent involvement, behavior plans, setting class schedules, and the list keeps going. 

According to our text, School Counselor Accountability, "Counselors can be systematic change agents.  They cultivate a belief that all children are capable of achieving.  Acting as agents of school and community change, school counselors can create a climate where access and support for quality and rigor is the norm.  School counselors should be partners and collaborators in school improvement.  They are essential in fulfilling the mission of their school."

School counselors have been trained to collect, analyze and disaggregate data in order to analyze and problem solve issues. 

School counselors are typically considered part of the leadership team.  At times they work side-by-side with the principal or they may be assigned administrative duties.  Having this position allows the school counselor the ability to influence change.  School counselors know who should be involved and know how to get them involved. 

I view the school counselor similar to mid-management in the corporate world.  They speak on behalf of the students but  work for the administration.  They need to do the administrative tasks at the same time as having the  students bests interests in mind while trying to figure out if they were effective or not. 

School counseling is not an easy job.  I believe though, if we are solution focused with effective student learning as our goal we can be successful.  We need to keep our goal in mind with every task we do, interaction we have or program that is developed.  If the environment changes, the job will change to.