Unprepared to collaborate: the state of principal preparation and school counseling in Illinois

School counselors play a critical role in the academic, social-emotional, and postsecondary success of students. In order for school counselors to be effective in these roles, school principals need to understand what school counselors do, and how to best support them. The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to understand the reasons behind Illinois Principal Preparation Programs' decisions to include or exclude content on school counseling and the ASCA National Model within their curriculum. Fifteen of the twenty three ISBE approved Illinois Principal Preparation Programs were surveyed to determine if they include information on school counseling and/or the ASCA model in their curriculum. Follow-up interviews were conducted with four program directors (two whose schools do include school counseling and two whose schools do not) to better understand the reasons for including/excluding school counseling content in the curriculum. Analysis indicates that school counseling may not be included at schools because it isn’t required by the ISBE code that outlines requirements for Principal Preparation Programs. Some programs that do include content are including it as part of MTSS curriculum and student support services. Analysis seems to indicate that programs who also have a school counseling program and/or have former school counselors in their Principal Preparation faculty are more likely to include school counseling content in their curriculum.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Mulder, Jessica Lynn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Roegman, Rachel
• Bruno, Paul
• Herrmann, Mary
• Poh Hiong Tan, Kevin

• School Counseling
• Principal Preparation
• Illinois

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Jessica Mulder

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129461

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129461