How School Counselors Help Students: Empowering Academic and Emotional Growth

School counselors create supportive learning environments to help students thrive academically. The role of school counselors goes beyond academics or facilitating career development post-high school. As key education team members assisting in positioning students for future success, school counselors design and implement supportive programs that help build well-rounded students.

By working with students through academic, personal, and social challenges, counselors assist students in developing social skills that can lead to positive outcomes, such as:

• Confidence
• Positive self-worth
• Stronger friendships
• Better grades
• Good behavior

Guidance Counselor and School Counselor: What’s the Difference?

It is common to interchange the terms “guidance counselor” and “school counselor,” but their roles differ. A guidance counselor typically refers to a professional primarily focusing on providing students with academic and career guidance.

On the other hand, a school counselor usually encompasses a broader scope, including not only academic and career guidance but also addressing students’ social, emotional, and personal development needs. In other words, guidance is only one component of a school counselor’s job.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) states clear differences between the two as follows:

Guidance Counselor

• Adopts a reactive approach
• Perceptions and feelings form the basis of the outcome
• Complementary role in the school improvement process
• Works in isolation

School Counselor

• Uses a data-driven, proactive approach
• Attendance, achievements, and behavior data form the basis of the outcome
• Crucial role in the school improvement process
• Design and implement a well-thought-out school counseling program

In addition to the traditional role of a guidance counselor, research suggests that school counselors may juggle multiple responsibilities and roles, such as:

• Counselor: Prevents dropouts by helping students identify their abilities and interests and advising them on career decisions.
• Friend: Develops professional friendship through listening, supporting, and advising students, leading to trust and confidentiality.
• Psychologist: Addresses students’ personal concerns, such as school-related violence and other forms of trauma.
• Teacher: Assists classroom teachers in delivering engaging classes about emotional learning and social skills.
• Mediator: Acts as an advocate to mediate between students, as well as using diplomatic means to negotiate tricky situations involving teachers’ perceived unfair treatment of students.
• Disciplinarian: Addresses inappropriate student behavior and attendance issues and collaborates with administrators to decide the next course of action.
• Consultant: Works with the school organization to create and implement a robust school counseling program to meet students’ needs.

The Role of School Counselors

The specific duties of school counselors vary between educational levels. Here is an overview of what these professionals are often called upon to do at the K-12 school level.

Elementary School

Elementary school counselors focus more on collaborating with administrators and teachers to design and implement programs that help young children develop good habits during their formative years.

Counselors at this school level often work with students’ families to discuss developmental needs, behavioral issues, and classroom performance.

Middle School

School counselors at the middle school level have increasingly significant roles consistent with the future success of students, which depends largely on appropriate learning progress at this educational stage. In outlining the many functions of middle school counselors, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) lists preventative and responsive services as part of their essential duties and responsibilities.

In other words, besides providing critical support to help middle schoolers transition to teenagers, counselors at this level focus more on removing learning barriers to properly position students for both academic and personal success.

High School

In high school settings, the role of school counselors includes assisting students in making sound career decisions based on their skills and capabilities. In addition, counselors may help students navigate personal issues, such as bullying, drug abuse, or mental health problems.

How Do School Counselors Help Students?

According to ASCA, school counselors design and ensure the implementation of counseling programs that support students’ future success. Here are some important ways these professionals carry out their duties in assisting students academically and personally:

• Prepare students for life beyond school walls: Counselors in high school settings usually assess students to identify their aptitudes, strengths, and interests. This way, they can help guide students toward the most suitable career choices and lifestyle development.
• Help students overcome personal struggles: With their professional training, counselors can quickly recognize common social issues like interpersonal conflicts, bullying, and social cliques that may prevent students from thriving. Once identified, counselors can help students to overcome these stress-inducing problems by building self-worth, positivity, and confidence.
• Cultivate relationships: As students experience dramatic developmental changes (from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood), they need a sense of strong connection with families, peers, teachers, and others in the learning environment to thrive. Using specific bonding strategies, counselors can help students build and maintain trusting relationships ― a social skill that will prove worthwhile throughout their lives.
• Help students with special needs: Counselors may help students with learning difficulties integrate into classrooms and also recommend or provide appropriate accommodations for those with special needs.
• Conduct research and evaluate school programs: Counselors periodically evaluate school curriculums to ensure they meet students’ needs. By researching and updating their professional knowledge, school counselors can collaborate with administrators, teachers, and other key stakeholders to identify and remove elements within the curriculum that may obstruct students’ academic and career success.
• Develop helpful habits: An important way counselors help students is by encouraging helpful habits and skills, including time management, staying organized, and prioritizing academic studies.

The Impact of School Counseling

Having addressed the question, “How do school counselors help students?” it’s logical to examine the outcomes of effective counseling programs. How effective is school counseling on students’ overall progress?

To help understand the impact school counselors have on students and the learning environment in general, here is a summary of findings from a couple of studies on the effectiveness of school counseling:

• One study of over 22,600 middle school students found positive outcomes among those attending schools with more comprehensive counseling programs. Young children in those schools had fewer socializing problems, achieved higher grades, and felt safer attending school.
• A meta-analysis of 117 studies on school counseling outcomes involving 153 schools and over 16,000 students found that counseling had a significant positive impact on students who received appropriate counseling interventions compared to those who didn’t access counseling services.

From these and other studies, it is clear that counseling can make a huge positive difference in students’ lives in many different ways. However, the varied and dynamic workflow of school counselors can be overwhelming, and designing a truly comprehensive counseling program can be a daunting task without the right tools and support.

Thankfully, educational tools, like the Pathways college and career readiness software, allow school counselors to automate their workflow and significantly cut back the time they spend doing manual work. With this tool, counselors can invest more time in building valuable relationships with students. Get in touch with Education Advanced for more information on accessing highly effective educational tools.

If your school is interested in new ways to improve the learning experience for children, you may also be interested in automating tasks and streamlining processes so that your teachers have more time to teach. Education Advanced offers a large suite of tools that may be able to help. For example, four of our most popular and effective tools are:

• Testhound, our test accommodation software, helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students.
• Pathways, our college and career readiness software, helps administrators and counselors create, track, and analyze graduation pathways to ensure secondary students are on track to graduate.
• Evaluation, our teacher evaluation software, documents every step of the staff evaluation process, including walk-throughs, self-evaluations, supporting evidence, reporting, and performance analytics.