Policy Research on School-Based Counseling in the United States: Establishing a Policy Research Agenda

Abstract

School counseling has great potential to contribute to the public good by improving the educational outcomes for students in the USA. Following a review of recent, major policy studies concerning school-based counseling in the USA, this chapter proposes a policy research agenda to guide and support the practice of counseling in schools. These agenda include eight important policy research questions that need to be addressed: (1) What are the major policy objectives for school counseling at the national, state, and local levels in the USA? (2) What should be the goals toward which school counseling activities and programs are directed? (3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of different organizational models for school counseling? (4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of different staffing patterns for school counseling programs? (5) How are policy objectives, goals, organizational models, and staffing patterns the same and different for different public school contexts? (6) How are policy objectives, goals, organizational models, and staffing patterns the same and different at the elementary, middle, and high school levels? (7) Which school counseling activities and interventions are most effective? (8) How can US state departments of education best promote effective school counseling practice? A revisioning of school counseling in the USA is necessary in order to establish an approach to practice that fits with current education policy objectives and models of schooling and that frees practice from the historical constraints that limit possibilities for development and change. Policy research is needed to guide and support this revisioning.