Blog # 14

           After attending the PSCA Conference over this past weekend, I saw firsthand how professional development can propel school counselors to the next level. One of the sessions I was privileged to go to was about advocacy and getting all stake holders on board with your program, mission and goals. I really got to see how systemically advocacy works at all levels. Much of the knowledge I gained from the session, I had knowledge on, but not the level of knowledge I know have and things I can do within a school myself when I become a school counselor at any level.

          Professional development is so important to becoming a more knowledgeable, and skillful school counselor. There is always room for improvement; creative ideas and lessons to teach, collaboration and consultation that can be used to increase effectiveness of programs. School counselors as well as all stake holders need to be held accountable for the programs implemented in the school setting. As the article by Burnham, Dahir & Stone (2009), points out, process skills, managing resources to motivate students to be successful, and using data driven evidence and outcome research is extremely important to having quality programs and skilled school counselors.

          In looking at the research in the article, I was not surprised to see that middle school counselors scored highest on readiness to implement programs in the personal/social domain; however I was surprised that elementary school counselors did not rate higher considering I would think they would need to be able to develop student's personal and social skills. The article noted that there were differences on school levels across elementary, middle & high school, but that is something that would be common based on the fact that at each one of the school levels, the students have different needs that are of most importance. School counselors that receive the correct trainings in delivering needs assessments and deciding what students at each level need, one can see why there are differences among grade levels. I do not necessarily think that is a bad thing but I do believe that the differences should not be so big that counselors are not being effective in all the areas of a comprehensive school counseling program.

        I personally feel better prepared to go out into the world and become a school counselor and implement programs into a school. Professional development is something that is always ongoing and I feel as though no one person could say that they do not need to learn anything else throughout their counseling career.


Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., & Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.