ABSTRACT
The primary objective of this chapter is o provide a critical analysis of the literature addressing the best practices in training school counselors in attending to the most critical issues in K–12 school settings. The first section presents extensive training content and guidelines that extend beyond the minimal standards purported by the Council of Accredited Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the American Counseling Association (ACA), and the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Model (MCGM), which has been revised and adapted to fit the needs of individual states. The second section provides an overview of the literature describing the process uniquely associated with graduate education and the relevance to enhancing current professional guidelines in the training of school counselors. The third section describes a master’s level, school counselor training model used at Michigan State University, which also includes additive training practices and that more comprehensively attend to the needs of both community counselor trainees and schools. The suggestions for consideration are based on the most recent literature and research findings, as well as on the authors’ extensive professional experiences within the school setting as consultants, building coordinator in a professional development school, school counseling supervisors, service providers, and researchers. This latter information regarding the experiences of the authors is important given the trend found that most citations in the literature consist of university faculty who have had very limited, if any, direct professional experience within the K–12 school setting (N. S. Carlson, 2001).
