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Principal-Counselor Relationships Critical to
Student Success
A recent survey reveals that establishing strong relationships between school principals and counselors is one of the most important elements in helping students find success in postsecondary pursuits. This is particularly important for students from low-income, first-generation and other traditionally underrepresented populations, who may have few sources of support outside of school.
The survey was a collaborative effort between the College Board's National Office for School Counselor Advocacy, the American School Counselor Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, which began in 2008 to study the relationship between school counselors and school principals. The collaboration between these three organizations was founded on the shared belief that when principals and counselors work together effectively, they can have a huge impact on student achievement.
The research took two forms, resulting in a two-part report released last month. The first was an extensive survey of more than 2,300 secondary school principals, assistant principals and school counselors across the country, who shared their views on the principal-counselor relationship, including what they considered to be the most important aspects of an effective relationship between principals and counselors; whether they thought those aspects were present in the principal-counselor relationships in their school; on what counselors should spend their time in order to improve student outcomes and where that time is actually spent; and their general thoughts about barriers to an effective principal-counselor relationship and the respective roles of the principal and the counselor in education reform efforts.
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The report, “A Closer Look at the Principal-Counselor Relationship,” shares the findings of the survey, which showed a strong agreement among principals and counselors about the most important characteristics of these relationships — communicating openly, sharing ideas, sharing information, including school counselors on leadership teams, jointly setting goals, mutual trust, mutual respect, sharing a vision, sharing decision making and a collective commitment to equity and opportunity. Here are the survey’s key findings:
- Principals and counselors both ranked communication and respect as the two most important elements in the principal-
counselor relationship. - Principals and counselors both saw time as being the biggest barrier to collaboration between them.
- Principals had a better match between their perceptions of how important an element is to a successful principal-counselor relationship and the extent to which they saw that element as being present in the principal-counselor relationships within their own schools. When elements were rated as important, principals tended to rate them as being more present than did counselors.
- When asked what one thing they would change that would lead to an improved principal-counselor relationship within their own schools, both principals and counselors most frequently mentioned communication, followed by respect/understanding.
- Principals and counselors agreed that the most important activities for a counselor to engage in to improve student outcomes are helping to promote student personal growth and social development, and helping students with career planning.
- While both principals and counselors agreed that supportive administrative tasks are less important for counselors to engage in to improve student outcomes, principals saw these tasks as taking up less of counselors’ time than counselors said they took.
- Both principals and counselors saw state test scores as the area where gaps between subgroups most needed to be addressed in their schools.
- When asked about the roles of principals and counselors in education reform efforts, both principals and counselors most often said that the role of the principal is to be a leader and the role of the counselor is to be an advocate.
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The second part of this research effort was a study of principals and school counselors recognized by the College Board, ASCA and NASSP for their leadership and success. “Finding a Way: Practical Examples of How an Effective Principal-Counselor Relationship Can Lead to Success for All Students” describes how these educators have created effective working relationships because they understand and respect their counterparts’ roles within the school. The teams, which were selected from both rural and urban schools across the country, include NASSP Principals of the Year, an ASCA Counselor of the Year, Recognized ASCA Model Program school award recipients, and teams from schools recognized by the College Board’s Inspiration Awards program. This report offers an intimate look at each team’s relationship dynamics, school culture, systems of problem solving and manner of managing change. Each team faces different challenges, yet all have found a way to work together, and each school can point to remarkable student success as a result.
“Educators face enormous challenges in helping their students achieve college success,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “We hope the characteristics of an effective principal-counselor relationship highlighted in this report will be helpful to schools across the country as they work to improve the college-going culture on their campuses.” He added, “Without the involvement of ASCA and NASSP, a project like this could not have been so successful.”
This two-part report will be distributed to tens of thousands of school counselors and secondary school principals and more than 100,000 other educators and administrators across the country. By sharing the results of the survey and the stories, strategies and practices of the seven effective teams, the College Board, ASCA and NASSP hope to inspire educators to examine professional relationships in their own schools and work together more effectively to improve educational outcomes for all students.
“Through this research, we’ve been able to provide resources and examples so that other principal-counselor teams will be able to emulate the best practices from these schools to work out relationship issues in their own buildings and become more effective in increasing student achievement,” said College Board Assistant Vice President Patricia Martin, leader of NOSCA.
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