Notable efforts at transforming school counseling started in the early 1990’s when DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and The Education Trust collaborated to develop a national agenda to improve school counseling.  The main objective of this collaboration was to develop a plan for reshaping and transforming school counseling. To ascertain the current state of school counselor preparation, The Education Trust conducted a national assessment. The 14-month assessment included numerous individual interviews and focus groups with practicing school counselors and counselor educators. At the conclusion of the assessment, The Education Trust reached the following conclusions about current counselor education programs:

1. There was little relationship between how school counselors were trained at universities and the services they provided to students. Evidence did not indicate that time spent with students was intentionally guided by skills obtained during graduate school.
2. Changes in graduate level school counseling preparation encompassed “adding on of courses” rather than focused classes. Many programs offered training applicable to other counseling disciplines such as clinical, community, or rehabilitation rather than specific to school settings.
3. School counselors were trained separate from teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. Therefore, required counselor education courses were not connected to other education training.
4. Counselor training programs provided a variety of counseling core courses but did not provide counselors with specific knowledge, skills, or experiences needed to be effective in schools. Specifically, there was an absence of training in leadership, advocacy and collaboration skills.

In 1997, The Education Trust, with the support of The DeWitt Wallace Fund, developed a competitive grant process in which requests for proposals to transform the training of school counselors were sent to counselor education programs across the nation. Seventy-five counselor education programs across the nation responded; however, only ten universities received planning grants, and six received implementation grants. The grants awarded to the six universities started a movement that became known as the Transforming School Counseling Initiative (TSCI). Implementation awardees received funding for three years and were tasked to reflect fundamental changes in the following essential elements: (a) criteria for selection and recruitment of candidates for counselor preparation programs; (b) curricular content, structure and sequence of courses; (c) methods of instruction, field experiences and practices; (d) induction process into the profession; (e) working development for counselor educators; (f) university/school district partnerships; and (g) university/state Department of Education partnerships.

The intended outcome of the initiative was and still is to train school counselor graduate students and practicing counselors to close achievement gaps between low-income students and students of color by improving counseling services in public schools. As a result of this initiative, graduate students at the six identified TSCI universities were prepared to work as leaders in schools collaborating & coordinating efforts with all stakeholders and using data to advocate for systemic changes that remove barriers that impede student achievement. The six universities were (a) California State University at Northridge, (b) Indiana State University, (c) Ohio State University, (d) State University of West Georgia, (e) University of Georgia, and (f) University of North Florida.

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Rationale

Current Transforming School Counselor Preparation Programs

 Exemplar Components of Transforming School Counselor Preparation Programs

Benefits of Becoming a Transforming School Counselor Preparation Program

How to Become a Transforming School Counselor Preparation Program