Portfolio Information

School Counselor Portfolio – updated May 2006

 Counselor Education Students enrolled in the school counselor emphasis will be required to develop a portfolio of their academic career.

This portfolio will demonstrate a student's progress in the mastery of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of Professional School Counselors in the State of Wisconsin related to PI 34 Pupil Service Standards and Content Guidelines for School Counselors, North Central Association of College and Secondary Schools (NCATE), and Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

 What is a portfolio?

•  A visual showcase of a student's work that demonstrates professional growth, achievement, and competence in the field of counseling.

•  An instrument designed to facilitate self-reflection, self-improvement, intrapersonal understanding, conceptual understanding, and skill development.

•  A tool used to document a student's philosophies of education, counseling, and school counseling; as well as understanding and application of the PI 34 Pupil Service Standards and the Content Guidelines for School Counselors, NCATE Standards, and CACREP Standards.

Why are portfolios important?

• Students are active participants in their learning as they collect, select, reflect, and assess the work in their portfolios.
• Students learn to assess their growth in the field of school counseling.
• Supervisors use portfolios as a tool to provide feedback to students on progress and performance standards.
• Portfolios provide students with a visual representation of their competencies as a school counselor when seeking employment.
• Portfolios create a written record of a student's achievement in the Counselor Education Program.

  What types of evidence do I choose? Where do I get it from?

• Select artifacts (coursework—papers, projects, etc.) that illustrate understanding or implementation of a specific standard.
• 5-7 artifacts must come from core courses and the rest from school counseling courses.
• Save and organize all course information and assignments for possible use in the portfolio.

Directions For Developing The School Counseling Portfolio (effective Summer 2006)

 The School Counseling Portfolio is designed to be developmental (showing learning and growth), reflective (documenting reflection upon that learning and growth), and evaluative (providing feedback to the student and to the program about graduates' competencies).

 Students in the school counseling emphasis will be asked to attend an informational meeting on the development of the professional portfolio. The portfolio will be submitted for evaluation and feedback three times. Specific dates will be announced by the department at the beginning of each academic year.

  First submission: Semester in which Review of Progress is completed

•  Philosophy Statements and 2 Themes/Elements

  Second submission: Semester enrolled in Practicum

•  Philosophy Statements and total of 8 Themes/Elements

  Final submission: Spring semester of Internship year

•  Philosophy Statements and all Themes/Elements 

Please note that philosophy statements and reflective statements are to be revised based on current coursework and feedback from earlier submissions, but that artifacts are not to be changed once submitted. Students should not remove any prior material. (Place revised material with dates on top of old material indicating clearly that this is the updated version: All portfolio documents need to be dated to avoid any confusion).

• Portfolios will be presented in a binder for all three evaluations.
• Presentation and Readability are important to evaluation and feedback.
• Materials in the portfolios will be evaluated according to the form included in the portfolio packet.

 NOTE: For persons who have already started the portfolio process, the original guidelines and timelines will remain in effect. 

Submission #1: Semester enrolled in 738 (3 Philosophy Statements and 4 Themes/Elements)

Submission #2: Semester enrolled in 745 (3 Philosophy Statements revised and total of 10

    Themes/Elements)

Submission #3: Spring Semester of Internship year ( 3 Philosophy Statements revised and total

    of 18 Themes/Elements)