Graduate programs in the College provide opportunities for advanced study and research in education and foster the development of innovative responses to challenges in the field of education. They can be designed to meet licensure guidelines, licensing requirements, professional association recommendations, College and University requirements, and individual student goals.

The School Counselor Education concentration prepares school counselors to be leaders in creating and maintaining learning communities that empower all K-12 students to excel and create meaningful, productive, and satisfying futures. School counselor graduate students develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to become leaders in their schools and advocates for all K-12 students. Training is provided to help all school counseling candidates become multiculturally competent, advocates for social justice and equity in education, and able to implement evidence-based, national professional school counseling standards and models of practice.

Concentration Highlights

• Collaboration. Candidates learn in an environment emphasizing collaboration within the school and between school, home, and the community. We collaborate with, support, and follow national training standards and innovative initiatives (e.g., the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the American School Counselor Association’s National Model and National Standards, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).

• Reflective Practice. Becoming an effective professional school counselor requires candidates to explore and transform their own knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Reflective and intentional practice ensures that school counseling interventions and programs are supporting the development and success of all students in schools. Candidates use an electronic portfolio system to reflect on their growth and development across the key transition stages of their program of study.

• Multiple Ways of Knowing. Candidates develop competency in mixed methods investigation strategies (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, and action research).

• Access, Equity and Fairness. Effective professional school counselors need to be proactive and advocate for all students by paying close attention to both social justice and diversity issues. Through close collaboration with our Social Justice Education Program in SDPPS, school counseling candidates develop requisite knowledge, dispositions, and skills.

• Evidence-Based Practice. School counseling students learn empirically supported intervention strategies by learning from faculty who are research leaders in the field and utilizing all of the resources made available through our nationally and internationally recognized Center for School Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation (CSCORE).