The Virginia Department of Education, in collaboration with Henrico, York, and Fairfax Counties, as well as the Virginia School Counselor Association, has created an evaluation tool for school counselors. The School Counselor Summative Performance Report is intended as a tool for administrators and directors to provide school counselors with an assessment of their professional performance.
The Virginia School Counselor Association (VSCA) and Virginia Department of Education are collaboratively working to clearly define these services because we know that, by providing direct services that include individual and small group counseling sessions and evidence-based classroom lessons dealing with conflict resolution, bullying prevention, self-regulation, personal responsibility, frustration tolerance and more, school counselors have the ability to significantly impact the lives of all students, including students who have become disengaged and disenfranchised.
The VSCA has released an advocacy Power Point presentation to better explain the role of the school counselor and how a comprehensive school counseling program is essential to meeting the needs of the student, school, division, and state.
Are School Counselors Being Effectively Utilized in Your School and Division?
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) provides resources and professional development opportunities to school divisions across the country to address the role of the school counselor.
ASCA provides information and documents detailing the roles of a school counselor. For information on the school counselor role at elementary, middle, and high school, as well as school counselor roles, duties, and competencies, please visit the Careers/Roles webpage of the ASCA Web site.
ASCA also provides Position Papers to explain the school counselor's role for a range of critical topics.
Comprehensive school counseling programs are driven by data, based on standards in academic, career, and social/emotional development, and promote and enhance the learning process of all students. It is important that school counselors are utilized and evaluated on standards and competencies directly related to the work for which they have been trained. Professional school counselors should be an integral part of your overall school mission and vision and a comprehensive and developmental school counseling program, aligned to state and national standards, can improve student achievement and outcomes.