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Education and Human Services - Pupil Personnel Services Program (School Counselor)

Introduction

The student personnel services program, leading to the Master of Arts or Master of Education degree, offers a concentration in school counseling. This program is designed for students with professional backgrounds in education.

Students are expected to take electives in areas other than counseling and guidance. The student and the advisor mutually decide upon elective courses. Graduate courses in the behavioral sciences (anthropology, psychology, sociology) are suggested electives. Depending upon the student’s background and educational objectives, other electives may be more appropriate.

Students entering the program for counselor preparation must complete both the admission procedures and the appropriate graduate core requirements for their area of concentration and complete an exit evaluation, which is a written comprehensive examination.

The following requirements and procedures must be met by students applying for the M.Ed. or M.A. degrees within student personnel services: complete appropriate graduate core requirements for area of concentration; complete an interview with the assigned advisor and file a planned program of study; demonstrate proficiency with specified counseling behaviors during CNL 863; and complete the application for a counseling practicum during the first week of the term preceding the quarter in which the practicum is offered, except for fall quarter for which application is made during the first two weeks of spring quarter.

Licensure Requirements for School Counselors (Ohio Department of Education)

Students seeking to pursue eligibility for licensure as a school counselor must complete coursework in core areas of counseling training. These core areas include Counseling Theory and Practice (RHB 701), Techniques of Counseling (CNL 863), Counseling Practicum (CNL 865), Social and Cultural Foundations in Counseling (CNL 973), Counseling for Life Span Development (CNL 971), Group Processes (CNL 667 or CNL 767), Career Development and Information Services (CNL 762), Behavioral Assessment (RHB 705), Statistics and Assessment (EDL 751), Legal, Professional, and Ethical Issues in Human Services (CNL 972), Exceptionality (EDS 655), Curriculum Theory and Practice (EDL 773), Program Development, Implementation, and Evaluation in School Counseling (CNL 765), and Counseling Internship (CNL 867). Students must pass the Praxis II specialty area exam and also apply for licensure to the Ohio Department of Education.

Admission

In addition to meeting requirements for admission established by the Graduate School, candidates for these degrees who do not meet the minimum cumulative GPA requirement to waive the GRE or MAT, must submit satisfactory Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or Miller Analogies Test (MAT) scores, unless otherwise noted (see Waiver of GRE/MAT). The Adolescence Young Adult, Multi-Age, and Middle Childhood initial teacher licensure programs require passing scores on the state of Ohio’s mandated Praxis II Specialty (Content) Area Exam(s). Contact the college’s Office of Student Services or visit their Web site at www.cehs.wright.edu/ss/ to learn more about the Praxis II exams.

All students considering graduate-level courses in education and human services should do so with the understanding that graduate study differs in quality epectations from undergraduate study. Graduate study requires that students be increasingly self-directed and possess strong analytical skills. Students are not guaranteed a master’s degree by attending and completing courses. Exit requirements must be met in all programs.

Admission to the College of Education and Human Services is based on the candidate’s written statement of purpose, consideration of undergraduate and/or graduate cumulative grade point average, submission of satisfactory scores on either the MAT, GRE, or other required examination, and in some cases, letters of reference and a personal interview (see Waiver of GRE/MAT).

Technology Policy
For admission to the college, all College of Education and Human Services students, graduate and undergraduate, part-time and full-time, will be expected to certify that they own or have access to a computer and the Internet.

In order to meet the mission of the college “…to prepare professionals to meet the educational, leadership, and human services needs of a diverse, democratic society,” it is necessary for our students to play an active role in the technological environment the college and Wright State University are creating to assist in the completion of this mission. An increasing number of classes and options will become available to students using a variety of distributed learning formats; library resources are available in a growing number of full-text formats, and global connections via telecommunications will be part of daily operations. Students preparing to become professionals in education and human service areas must demonstrate appropriate and effective skills and knowledge in technological aspects of their work.

Minimum equipment requirements are recommended by Wright State University’s Computing and Telecommunications Services (CaTS). Please check the following Web Site http://www.wright.edu/cats/purchase/pcguidelines.html for current information about minimum equipment requirements.

The college supports Macintosh computers in faculty and staff offices and maintains a computer lab. Wright State University has purchased a site license for most Microsoft software (see the Web page for Wright State’s Computing and Telecommunications Services, http://www.wright.edu/cats/for details).

Tk20
In order for an Ohio college or university to prepare educators for licensure by the Ohio Department of Education, we must demonstrate that we meet the standards of the National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE). Programs that meet NCATE standards are approved to prepare educators to hold licenses in Ohio. NCATE standards require that all programs that lead to an educator license (including administrators, teachers, school counselors, etc.) must document how our programs prepare our candidates successfully to meet the challenges of today’s schools. This documentation must be uniform and systematic across all programs and licensure areas that the college offers. In addition, the college must show how faculty, staff and school partners utilize this information systematically to continuously improve our programs over time.

Since 2006 the college has utilized a data management system called Tk20 to collect key assessments to document the achievements of our candidates and programs. In order to do this, it is necessary for our faculty to ask students to submit certain assignments electronically. There is a one-time student fee of $100 to register for the Tk20 system. This system will be available to you and your professors for a period of seven years.

Admission Standards
Candidates with a grade point average of less than 2.3 on a 4.0 grading system are not ordinarily admitted to graduate school. A petition process is available to formally request admissions not having met an admission standard. Candidates for admission to the Department of Human Services must meet additional requirements, which include three letters of reference, a personal interview, and a writing sample. Candidates for admission to certain programs in the Department of Leadership Studies and Teacher Education must meet additional requirements, which include letters of reference, a personal interview, a writing sample, a self-assessment instrument, and Praxis II specialty area exams.

Waiver of GRE/MAT
Candidates to Human Services programs may not be required to submit passing GRE or MAT scores if their cumulative undergraduate GPA is a 3.3 or higher.

Conditional
Students who have an undergraduate grade point average of 2.5 or better, or who have an average between 2.3 and 2.5 with 2.7 or better in the last half of undergraduate work, may be granted conditional admission.

Regular admission to the College of Education and Human Services is granted after successful completion of 12 hours of course work with a grade of B or better in each course.

Licensure Candidate
Students who wish to complete licensure requirements at the graduate level but do not wish to pursue a graduate degree may be admitted as licensure candidates with the permission of the department in which the programs are housed. Persons pursuing a School Counseling license are required to complete the prescribed Praxis II exam.

Nondegree Status
Persons who have a bachelor’s degree may enroll in nondegree status for graduate courses without being admitted to a graduate program. If you wish to enroll in a degree program, only 50 percent of such credits may be applied to a degree program if they are appropriate, with the exception of the Department of Human Services, which only allows 12 hours of nondegree credit to be applied to one of its degree programs. Students in nondegree status are not considered to be candidates in a program.

Faculty

Professors
Richard A. Wantz, counselor education

Associate Professors
Stephen B. Fortson (chair), counselor education
Phyllis A. Henderson, counselor education
Mary Ann Jones, counselor education
Joseph Keferl, rehabilitation counseling
Donna Tromski-Klingshirn, counselor education

Assistant Professors
Eileen F. Self, counselor education

Course of Study

School Counseling
Introductory Course Work	12
RHB 701 Counseling Theory and Practice	4
*CNL 863 Techniques of Counseling	4
EDL 751 Statistics and Research for Education	4

*Unless permission is granted, you must take RHB 701 prior to or concurrent with CNL 863.

Professional Requirements	60
CNL 662 Problems in Student Personality and Development	4
CNL 667 Group Background and Theory	4
OR
CNL 767 Group Processes in Counseling and Guidance	4
CNL 762 Career Development and Information Services	4
CNL 765 Pupil Personnel Services in the School and Community Resources	4
CNL 779 Marriage and Family Counseling	4
CNL 971 Counseling for Life Span Development	4
CNL 972 Legal, Professional and Ethical Issues in Human Services	4
CNL 973 Social and Cultural Foundations in Counseling	4
EDS 655 Exceptional Learners	4
EDL 773 Curriculum Development for School Leaders	4
RHB 705 Behavioral Assessment	4
CNL 865 Individual and Group Practicum	4
CNL 867 Internship: School Counseling	12


Electives	to 5

Total	76-77