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The professional identity of school counselors has evolved over time. This article traces the historical context driving this evolution, and suggests it is time for the profession to conjoin the roles of educational leader and mental health professional. This proposal is prompted by heightened awareness of unmet student mental health needs, referrals that go unmet, school counselors displaced by other mental health providers in schools, the potential loss of the unique school counselor role, and the natural link between the mental health professional role and the array of personal-social factors that impact student achievement. A conjoint professional school counselor identity that includes the roles of both educational leader and mental health professional positions school counselors to better respond to all students, including those with mental health needs. This article discusses potential roadblocks and offers suggestions for action.

This investigation examined the ability of teachers to identify depressive characteristics among middle school students. Participants were 356 students and 52 teachers. Teachers' perceptions of students' depressive characteristics were obtained via Likert ratings and nominations of students the teachers judged to be depressed. The depressive status of students was evaluated with a multiple-gating procedure using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (Reynolds, 1987) as an initial measure and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, Edition IV as a final measure. A correlation of .22 (p Ͻ .001) was obtained between teachers' ratings of student depression and students' self-reported depressed moods. Further analyses examined teachers' ability to identify high-depression students, as well as the impact of teacher and student variables on teachers' ability to discern students' depressed moods.

In light of the increasing gender gap in college enrollment, data from two waves of interviews with 115 elementary and middle school children were examined for developmental and gender differences in participants’ aspirations and expectations for their futures. While there were no gender differences in children's educational aspirations or expectations, girls were more likely than boys to aspire to careers that require a college education, more likely to emphasize career advancement in their rationale for attending college, and less likely to choose sex-typed occupations. Implications for professional school counselors are discussed.

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