Title and Role Confusions for School Counselors: Food for Thought and Discussion By Cynthia A. Esielionis, M.Ed., Governing Board Member and School Counselor, Ayer Shirley Regional Middle School
A Short History: Norman C. Gysbergs, Ph.D wrote School Counseling Principles Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future A History of School Counseling in 2010 (ASCA). He chronicled the ebbs and flows of the profession over about a century. It is amazing that he identified one of the issues as “varied and confusing terminology” (p. 27) and quoted Payne who said in 1925 “… In all of the divisions of education there is more or less difficulty with terminology. This is particularly true of vocational guidance.” (Organization of Vocational Guidance, New York: McGraw- Hill 1925, p. 34). Despite the many articles over time and in recent years, in various publications on the topic of guidance counselor vs. school counselor, this confusion and debate over terminology continues today. Over the years, legislation has had a significant impact on the definition of the school counselor and the various iterations of title and role that evolved over decades: from the National Defense Education Act (NDEA, 1958), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (EDEA, 1965), the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 1974), the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES, 2020) to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER, 2021) to name a few. Through these decades, it became apparent that school counselors, could have a great impact providing proactive services to all students with the delivery of comprehensive, developmental, vertically aligned curriculum. As Gysbergs details, there have been significant debates and philosophical shifts defining the difference in roles and responsibilities as well as
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Cynthia Esielionis
the profession expectations of, what is now, the school counselor, over the last century. Despite this history and the national and local efforts over the last 30 years to shift to the American Counselor Association’s (ASCA) vision of One Vision One Voice, there are still those opposed to using the title School Counselor. There are many factors that continue to contribute to the persistent use of the title guidance counselor as well as the role confusion between school social workers and school counselors. Some believe that the title change is so insignificant that the titles are interchangeable. They include a misunderstanding of the difference between the titles, the significance of that difference, the perceptions people have based on their experiences with professions while they were in school, the continued use of the term guidance counselor in a variety of written documents as well as confusion between the roles of school counselor and adjustment counselor/school social worker. Evolutions: Guidance counselors of the mid twentieth century grew from the origins of the vocational
counselor which was often a duty for experienced teachers. These professionals were primarily housed in the high school setting and tended to the post-secondary pursuits of students either guiding the college bound to appropriate schools or others to the military or workforce. These professionals were often given other administrative tasks that were not direct student services. As the needs of students changed, title and role debates continued, and legislation influenced the counseling role. Guidance counselor duties expanded, covering a broader range of issues. The responsive manner in which services had been delivered to some students, needed to change. The school counselor title was adopted by ASCA in the 1990s when they determined that guidance counselors could and should use a systems approach to proactively address all students’ growth in the domains of social/emotional, academic and career development. Through delivery of comprehensive, developmental (or vertically aligned) curriculum to all students, school counselors would be able to proactively give all students the opportunity to develop competencies in these areas and identify students who need more targeted interventions to achieve academic success. This multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) across all three domains assists every child in developing their best self. Title Clarification The titles are not interchangeable. The school counselor title was instituted by our professional organizations, ASCA and MASCA, in the 1990s. The title school counselor denotes that the professional has a recognized skill set including the approved subject matter knowledge and professional degree (continued next page) COUNSELOR’S NOTEBOOK
