School counselor accountability practices: A national study

Abstract

This study focused on school counselor accountability practices. The role of the school counselor is changing and the need to be more accountable is now here. This study attempted to answer several critical questions regarding school counselor accountability. It examined the degree to which school counselors use accountability measures, to what extent they believed certain accountability practices were deemed helpful to their school counseling program, and what they believed their barriers were. Accountability is a “hot” topic in present school counseling literature; but little research has been done up to this point investigating these issues related to school counselor accountability nor school counselors’ perceptions and beliefs about them. This study attempted to delve into those perceptions and beliefs.

Participants were members of state school counseling associations from across the United States. Three hundred seventy-five school counselors participated. Of those, 70.2% were currently using accountability practices. A total of 47.4% of the participants report presently being required to implement accountability practices. The most frequently reported barrier to accountability practices was that it was “too time consuming.” The most frequently reported type of assistance desired from professional organizations or university programs was training. Support was reported most frequently as the type of assistance desired from school systems. Results from other analyses are also included. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for further research are provided.