After reading the article by Studer, Oberman, and Womack, I started to think about all of the reasons why it would be beneficial for school districts have specific accountability policies in place. I have learned many important lessons throughout my short working career. One of those lessons involves valuing the importance of accountability.
Even though I agree that accountability practices need to be put in place for a school counselor, I also believe that accountability needs to be looked at consistently across the board. For example, if I am expected to live up to a certain standard as a school counselor, then administration should also be expected to live up to a similar standard. With that said, in order for consistent accountability practices to be put in place, clear and concise expectations need to be laid out for every position. I believe that each position should have a detailed job description that lists all of the expectations of the job. I also believe that each job description should list all of the ways in which each person is held accountable for their performance within each specific job. After an accurate and clear school counselor job description is developed, it should be the job of the administration and the school counselor to make sure that the job description is consistent with the work that the counselor is doing. For example, if the school counselor is spending the majority of their time doing clerical work, scheduling, etc, the job description and the accountability practices should be consistent based on the actual work the counselor is doing, not what the counselor is supposed to be doing.
I personally believe that everyone should hold each other accountable when working in a school. Sensitive open communication can go a long way, while passing judgment is always unacceptable. I am also a huge believer in holding myself accountable in all aspects of my life. So when the article talks about assessing your own counseling practices to measure the overall effectiveness, I am completely supportive of it. When I eventually do become a school counselor, I want to be the best counselor I can be. Only good things can come from gaining feedback from my students. As a counselor, my goal will be to constantly want to improve day to day. By assessing students for feedback, not only would that show administration that my counseling techniques are hopefully effective, it would also show the students that I am actually taking ownership of my job as their counselor.
Studer, J.R., Oberman, A.H., and Womack, R.H. (2006). Producing Evidence to Show Counseling Effectiveness in the Schools. Professional School
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