Leadership Practices of School Counselors and Counseling Program Implementation

Abstract

Leadership is recently touted as a necessary skill for school counselors and as a means of aligning their work more intentionally with school improvement goals. By using leadership practices, school counselors can implement a program that addresses the academic, career, and personal-social needs of all students. This article outlines a large-scale study examining the relationship between school counseling program implementation and school counselor leadership practices. Implications and recommendations for school administrators are also discussed.

Predicting School Counselors’ Supports and Challenges When Implementing the ASCA National Model

“…Evidence supports the positive impact of comprehensive school counseling programs and student success (Lapan, 2012) and the relationship between leadership practices and school counseling program implementation (Mason, 2010). School counselors are called to implement comprehensive programs, and specifically the ASCA National Model, into their practices.…”

“…However, these studies vary in how the programs or the ASCA National Model were measured, resulting in limited data for further understanding and reasons for underutilization of comprehensive program implementation. Therefore, Mason (2010) initiated a study to understand predictor variables related to successful ASCA National Model implementation. Mason studied the relationship between leadership practices of school counselors and their comprehensive school counseling program implementation and found leadership practices of modeling the way and enabling others to act predicted model implementation.…”

School Counselors’ Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship to Leadership

“…Young, Dollarhide, & Baughman, 2015) ranging from serving as accountability leaders (Sink, 2009) to advocating with and on behalf of students (Bemak & Chung, 2005;Ratts, DeKruyf, & Chen-Hayes, 2007) and facilitating school-wide screenings for mental health concerns (Erickson, 2013). Leadership practices of school counselors are also tied to greater implementation of school counseling programs (Mason, 2010;Shillingford & Lambie, 2010). Furthermore, school counselors have an ethical responsibility to "provide leadership to create systemic change to enhance the school" (ASCA, 2016, p. 6) and that requires leadership skills to navigate the myriad challenges that school counselors face.…”

The Content and Process of Counseling Leadership: Implications for Research and Practice

“…Across the limited counseling leadership literature, the leader locus has been defined in various ways. Some view counseling leadership as holding a formally defined role or position in a counseling organization (Black & Magnuson, 2005;Luke & Goodrich, 2010;Magnuson et al, 2003;Mason, 2010;Meany-Walen et al, 2013;Smith & Roysircar, 2010;Wahesh & Myers, 2014;West, Bubenzer, Ozborn, Paez, & Desmond, 2006), as a counselor educator (Gibson, Dollarhide, & McCallum, 2010), as a practitioner (Curtis & Sherlock, 2006;Dollarhide, 2003;Dollarhide, Gibson, & Saginak, 2008;Jacob, McMaster, Nestel, Metzger, & Olesky, 2013; R. E. Lewis & Borunda, 2006), and as a prolific writer or award recipient (Black & Magnuson, 2005;Magnuson et al, 2003). Paradise et al (2010) contended that all counselors, by nature of their training, can been viewed as leaders.…”