Praxis School Counselor cheat sheet

Frank Parsons opened the Boston Vocation Bureau in 1908, marking the start of the guidance movement; the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) was founded in 1952.

ASCA National Model editions: 2003 (1st), 2005 (2nd), 2012 (3rd), and 2019 (4th).

The ASCA Ethical Standards address responsibilities to students; to parents/guardians, school, and community; to colleagues and professional associates; to self; and to the profession.

FERPA (1974): parents or eligible students (18+ or in postsecondary education) may inspect education records within 45 days, and written consent is required before disclosure except for school officials with legitimate educational interest, health/safety emergencies, and judicial orders or subpoenas.

IDEA (2004) guarantees a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and permits counseling as a related service; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) prohibits disability discrimination and requires accommodations.

Confidentiality must be broken when there is danger to self or others, suspected abuse or neglect (mandated reporting), or a court order; these limits are disclosed to students and parents at the outset.

ASCA recommends a 250:1 student-to-counselor ratio; inappropriate duties include discipline, clerical work, and substitute teaching, with only fair-share responsibilities otherwise.

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model nests development in the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Developmental frameworks tested on the exam include Erikson (psychosocial stages), Piaget (cognitive stages), Kohlberg (moral reasoning), Gilligan (ethic of care), and Super (life-span, life-space career development).

The ASCA National Model has four components - Define, Manage, Deliver, Assess - built on the themes of leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change.

Define establishes the program mission, goals, and alignment with the ASCA Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors in the academic, career, and social/emotional domains.

Deliver comprises direct services (school counseling core curriculum, individual student planning, responsive services) and indirect services (referrals, consultation, collaboration).

Manage includes the annual agreement with the administrator, the advisory council, use of data, action plans, and the program calendar.

Use-of-time guideline: at least 80% of counselor time in direct and indirect services to students, and no more than 20% in program planning and school support.

Data types: process data (what was done), perception data (what stakeholders know, believe, or feel), and results data (impact on achievement, attendance, behavior, or graduation).

MTSS tiers: Tier 1 universal core curriculum for all students, Tier 2 targeted small-group interventions, and Tier 3 intensive individual supports and referral.

Closing-the-gap action plans target achievement and opportunity gaps using SMART goals and are monitored with pre/post data.

RAMP (Recognized ASCA Model Program) recognition is awarded to programs that meet the National Model's criteria, including data-driven results.

Rogers' person-centered counseling rests on three core conditions: congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding.

Ellis' REBT uses the ABCDE chain: Activating event, Belief, emotional Consequence, Disputation, and Effect.

Solution-focused counseling (de Shazer and Berg) uses the miracle question, scaling questions, and exception-finding to build on strengths.

Glasser's reality therapy/choice theory uses WDEP: Wants, Doing, Evaluation, and Planning.

Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.

Tuckman's group stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; psychoeducational groups are structured and curriculum-based, while counseling groups address personal/social concerns.

Consultation models include Caplan's client-centered, consultee-centered, and administrative approaches and Bergan's behavioral consultation stages: problem identification, problem analysis, plan implementation, and problem evaluation.

Suicide risk decision rule: ask directly about ideation, plan, means, and prior attempts; weigh risk and protective factors; do not leave a high-risk student alone; notify parents/guardians and follow district protocol.

Tarasoff duty to warn/protect: when a client poses a serious threat to an identifiable person, the counselor must take reasonable steps to protect the intended victim, with specifics set by state law.

Reliability types: test-retest (stability over time), internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach's alpha), and inter-rater; common guidelines call for coefficients of at least .80 for group decisions and .90 for high-stakes individual decisions.

Standard error of measurement: SEM = SD × √(1 − reliability); a 95% confidence interval is approximately the obtained score ± 1.96 SEM.

Standard score conversions: z-score (mean 0, SD 1), T-score (mean 50, SD 10), standard score/IQ (mean 100, SD 15), stanine (mean 5, SD approximately 2, range 1–9).

Normal curve: about 68% of scores fall within ±1 SD, about 95% within ±2 SD, and about 99.7% within ±3 SD of the mean.

Percentile rank is the percentage of the norm group scoring at or below a given score; it is an ordinal scale, not equal-interval, and is not the percentage of items answered correctly.

Validity types: content (covers the domain), criterion-related (concurrent and predictive), construct (measures the intended trait), and face (appears relevant to test takers).

Experimental designs use random assignment and support causal claims; threats to internal validity include history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, regression to the mean, selection, and attrition.

Statistical decisions: p < .05 indicates results are unlikely under the null hypothesis; Type I error is rejecting a true null (false positive), Type II error is failing to reject a false null; Cohen's d of about .2 is small, .5 medium, and .8 large.

Program evaluation phases: needs assessment (what is needed), formative or process evaluation (whether the program is delivered as planned), and summative or outcome evaluation (whether it worked).