MTTC School Counselor (051) study plan
MTTC School Counselor (051) · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Counseling Foundations and Professional Practice & Comprehensive School Counseling Program Design and Delivery
Map the four domain weights onto a personal study calendar, allocating the largest blocks to Domains 1 and 3.
Define each major counseling theory orientation (psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, person-centered, solution-focused, Adlerian, reality/choice) in one sentence each without notes.
List the ASCA ethical standards categories and identify three decision-making steps to apply when an ethical dilemma arises.
Outline the components of a comprehensive school counseling program (foundation, delivery, management, accountability) from memory.
Your checkpoint
A one-page domain-weight study calendar plus a 25-item self-quiz on theories and program components, scored and error-logged.
Counseling Foundations and Professional Practice
Differentiate the roles of school counselor, school psychologist, and social worker in an IEP and 504 context.
Sequence the key legal and ethical obligations around confidentiality, mandated reporting, and parental rights for minors.
Compare individual, group, and classroom counseling formats and state when each is indicated.
Identify the stages of the counseling relationship from intake through termination and referral.
Your checkpoint
A written decision-tree for a confidentiality/dual-role dilemma with legal and ethical citations, plus 30 practice items answered with rationale for each wrong option.
Comprehensive School Counseling Program Design and Delivery
Draft a needs-assessment plan that uses achievement, attendance, discipline, and climate data.
Write SMART annual student outcome goals tied to the needs-assessment results.
Design a classroom guidance lesson aligned to a specific student competency standard.
Distinguish Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 interventions and match two examples to each tier.
Your checkpoint
A program design brief containing one needs-assessment plan, two SMART goals, and one fully outlined Tier 1 lesson.
Comprehensive School Counseling Program Design and Delivery & Student Development and Learning
Build a calendar of counseling program activities that protects direct-service time.
Explain how developmental stage theories (Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Gilligan) inform counseling at elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Describe how to use data to identify students for Tier 2 small-group interventions.
Summarize the role of the counselor in supporting academic, career, and social-emotional development across grade bands.
Your checkpoint
A mock midterm of 60 mixed items across Domains 1-3, taken timed, with a scored error analysis grouped by domain.
Student Development and Learning
Trace typical development of self-concept, identity, and peer relationships from childhood through adolescence.
Differentiate learning disabilities, ADHD, emotional-behavioral disorders, and autism spectrum characteristics as they affect school functioning.
Describe how trauma, grief, and family change manifest in classroom behavior and how to respond.
Explain how to recognize risk indicators for self-harm, substance use, and abuse and the appropriate referral sequence.
Your checkpoint
A two-column reference sheet pairing each developmental or exceptionality concept with a counseling implication, plus 40 practice items scored.
Collaboration, Consultation, and Program Evaluation
Explain consultation models (behavioral, mental health, organizational) and how to apply them with teachers and families.
Outline the steps of a student-centered multidisciplinary team meeting from referral to follow-up.
Describe how to build referral and community partnership networks for mental health, social services, and career resources.
Identify how to communicate program results to administrators, staff, and families using data displays.
Your checkpoint
A stakeholder communication packet: one consultation case write-up, one MTSS meeting agenda, and one results-report one-pager with charts described in text.
Collaboration, Consultation, and Program Evaluation & Counseling Foundations and Professional Practice
Design a program evaluation plan that includes process, perception, and outcome data.
Interpret a results report and state what it does and does not prove about program effectiveness.
Revisit ethics and legal content and apply it to a consultation or evaluation scenario.
Identify how to advocate for the counselor role and defend the program to a skeptical administrator.
Your checkpoint
A program evaluation plan and a written response to a scenario-based advocacy prompt, peer-reviewed against a rubric you write.
Counseling Foundations and Professional Practice & Student Development and Learning & Comprehensive School Counseling Program Design and Delivery & Collaboration, Consultation, and Program Evaluation
Complete two full-length timed practice tests and review every missed item.
Consolidate an error log into the 15 highest-frequency weak concepts and re-teach each to yourself in writing.
Rehearse test-day strategy: pacing, flagging, and eliminating distractors.
Verify registration, test-center details, and required identification.
Your checkpoint
A final error-log summary with a one-page concept review sheet for each weak area and a confirmed test-day logistics checklist.
Milestones
Week 2: Score at least 75% on the self-made Domain 1 quiz and correctly explain mandated reporting and confidentiality limits without notes.
Week 4: Score at least 70% on the timed 60-item mock midterm, with no single domain below 60%.
Week 6: Produce the stakeholder communication packet and score at least 75% on Domain 4 practice items.
Week 8: Score at least 80% on both full-length practice tests and have a completed weak-concept review sheet for every missed item.