Master's in School Counseling

Program Overview

The School Counseling program’s mission is to prepare ethically and culturally informed school counselors who understand the uniqueness and meet the diverse needs of P-12 students in educational settings.

School Counseling students will:

Develop clear school counselor identity;
Acquire the skills to promote equity and inclusion in school settings;
Demonstrate the ability to successfully handle legal and ethical issues; and
Gain the knowledge to successfully complete the state school counselor exam.

The School of Counseling at the University of Akron offers a Master's Degree in School Counseling. This course of study is based upon Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Professions (CACREP) and the Ohio Department of Education's standards. It is designed to prepare students to become effective leaders in the process of transforming school counseling under the ASCA's National Model for School Counseling Programs.

The academic foundation is built upon the eight core areas of the CACREP* Standards:

Professional identity
Social and cultural diversity
Human growth and development
Career development
Helping relationships
Group work
Assessment
Research/program evaluation

Additional coursework specific to school counseling includes foundations and contextual dimensions of school counseling and consultation. A unique focus of the program is training future school counselors in social justice advocacy. Program faculty prepare students with strategies to close academic achievement gap and to assist K-12 students and families with overcoming barriers or impediments to success in learning and development.

Program Objectives:

Program-Specific Objective #1: Demonstrate knowledge and skills representing a clear school counselor identity in P-12 settings.
Program-Specific Objective #2: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to promote equity and inclusion in school settings.

Accreditation

This Master's Degree in School Counseling is accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

Links to School Counselor Organizations

Placement Objectives for Graduates

Graduates who pass the school counseling Pearson exam and BCI/FBI background check must submit the appropriate application to the Ohio Department of Education which issues the school counseling license. School counseling licensees then become eligible to be hired as school counselors in K-12 schools in the State of Ohio. Because the program is CACREP accredited, graduates find that school counseling license portability from Ohio to other states is possible.

Addressing the Needs of the State and the Region

According to the most recent information from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the employment growth rate for school counselors is expected to exceed the national average for all professions. The number of students attending schools at all levels is expected to increase. The School Counseling master's program addresses this need by offering a high-quality, nationally accredited program for training school counselors to work in Ohio and across the nation.