Counselor Competence: Some Proposals in Search of Advocacy

The competence of school counselors is traditionally assessed by administrators, who also determine which qualified and unqualified applicants will be admitted to practice and which practitioners will be retained, and pass various other judgments about guidance services and the persons who perform them. It is postulated that the public and professional interests would be better served were these judgments made by skilled counselors. Several methods are proposed by which school guidance workers might monitor their own services in order thus to sustain and improve quality according to appropriate professional criteria. To these ends, it is recommended that practitioners be involved directly in counselor education; that counselors‐in‐practice evaluate and judge each other through employment of several suggested approaches; and that committees of counselors be formed locally to select and supervise new guidance personnel, determine fitness of counselors for continued practice, and perform a complaint investigation function.