50 School Counselor Interview Questions 2019

School Counselor Interview Questions – A school counselor is part of the education team and is a person who gives important assistance to students, aiding them with their academic goals, their social and personal development, and with their career development. They work in public or private elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.

School counseling takes place in public and private school settings in grades K-12. Counseling is made to foster student achievement, improve student behavior and attendance, and aid students develop socially.

Mental health professionals with master’s degrees or beyond, school counselors both provide counseling and serve an educational role in and around schools.

Many schools have full-time counselors on staff in order to support students who are experiencing personal or academic challenges, help students choose careers and plan for college, and intervene when students face behavioral, physical, or mental health challenges

Duties of a School Counselor.

• Providing instruction on psychological and social issues. School counselors might teach sex-education classes, offer information to students about bullying, or offer seminars on study skills.
• Vocational guidance. Many school counselors assist students to prepare for college or select careers.
• Counseling. School counselors aid students mediate conflicts with their peers, teachers, or parents. Many school counselors also offer therapy and counseling services to students during school hours.
• Early intervention. School counselors receive training about learning difficulties and psychological concerns that commonly manifest in children and adolescents. They may also provide referrals, recommendations, and education to parents about mental health concerns.
• Special needs services. Counselors often help special needs students integrate into classrooms and may oversee programs that address requirements for students with special needs or learning difficulties.

Also, counselors often help students:

• Sustain academic standards and set goals for academic success.
• Develop skills to improve organization, study habits, and time management.
• Work through personal problems that may affect academics or relationships.
• Foster social skills.
• Cope with school or community-related violence, accidents, and trauma.
• Know interests, strengths, and aptitudes through assessment.

Required Training for School Counselor

1. School counselors must complete a master’s degree, at minimum, in school counseling, psychology, or social work and obtain the relevant state certification, endorsement, or licensure to gain employment.
2. This may involve taking a comprehensive exam and logging hours in a supervised counseling setting. In many cases, counselors will need to complete an internship or practicum, and some states also require previous teaching experience.
3. School counselors are required to renew their licensure every three to five years. This timeline depends on the requirements of the state in which they are employed. In order to renew licensure, continuing education classes or professional development courses are generally necessary.

Required Skills

Learn which personality traits and professional skills you’ll need to be a successful school counselor.

You should have…

• Excellent communication skills
• Goal-setting skills
• High ethical standards
• Clear boundaries
• Good mediation skills

50 School Counselor Interview Questions

• 1. What do you see as the main role of a school counselor?

• 2. Have you implemented any components of the ASCA National Model for School Counseling?

• 3. What do you think is the most important characteristic of a school counselor?

• 4. When considering school counseling ethical standards and school policies, how would you handle a conflict

• between the two?

• 5. What do you think the role of the school counselor is in preventing school violence?

• 6. What can you provide that is different from a social worker, school psychologist, or mental health

• counselor?

• 7. What is the difference between a therapist and a school counselor?

• 8. What does your future comprehensive school counseling program look like? What is your plan for

• achieving this?

• 9. What influenced you to be a school counselor?

• 10. What practical experiences have you had that make you feel capable of being a school counselor?

• 11. What is your strongest asset?

• 12. What do you know about our school that you would consider a strength? a weakness?

• 13. Tell us about a successful (satisfying) case that you have handled? And, one that was not so successful;

• what would you have done differently?

• 14. What makes you want to work at ______ School?

• 15. What is it that you like about working with (grade level) school students?

• 16. How would you deal with cultural differences in a school setting?

• 17. What is something new you could bring to our program?

• 18. How do you handle criticism?

• 19. How do you handle stress?

• 20. Are you available to work in the evenings for functions such as parent programs, student programs, etc.?

• 21. What experiences have you had in working with special education students?

• 22. What have your experience been in working with students of color & gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgendered students?

• 23. What is your experience with parenting programs?

• 24. How do you approach writing letters of recommendation (HS)?

• 25. What does school counseling mean to you?

• 26. How do you keep yourself organized? Discuss how you multitask.

• 27. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

• 28. Are you proficient in a language other than English?

• 29. How does a comprehensive school counseling program support the school’s academic mission?

• 30. What is your school counseling/educational philosophy?

• 31. What is the counseling theory or approach that you most closely follow?

• 32. What is your experience with the implementation of the school counseling core curriculum?

• 33. How would you approach individual student planning?

• 34. How do you develop a positive relationship with students in individual counseling?  Small group counseling?

• 35. How would you handle a large group of students having attendance problems?

• 36. What experiences have you had with developing transition plans?

• 37. Describe how you would implement small group counseling/classroom lessons?

• 38. What might your professional development plan look like?

• 39. How do you use data in a school counseling program?

• 40. What type of school counseling activities would you institute to help close the achievement gap at our school?

• 41. What innovative and new ideas would you like to employ as a school counselor?

• 42. How would you divide your time between meeting the immediate needs of the students and keeping up with the paperwork?

• 43. What technology applications do you see being useful in your work?

• 44. How will you evaluate your school counseling program?

• 45. What type of data would demonstrate an effective school counseling program?

• 46. What do the most recent state standardized test results indicate about this school district and this school; and what is your role regarding standardized testing?

• 47. How do you see the word “leader” fitting into your role as a school counselor?

• 48. What leadership experiences have you had?

• 49. How have you advocated for students?

• 50. How do school counselors advocate for students differently than other school staff?

Qualities of a School Counselor

1. Be a good listener

The principal thing that rings a bell is that school guides must probably tune in. To their understudies, guardians, other employees… An enormous bit of a guide’s time is burned through tuning in and preparing the data given to you by others.

Make sure to listen first and pose inquiries later. On the off chance that you need an explanation on something, dependably talk up yet make certain to include subtleties that let the individual realize you heard what they said in any case. Listening is a significant quality for any school instructor to have.

2. Be Able To Assess

Some portion of a guide’s main responsibility is to make precise evaluations of their understudies to set them up for life past school. In the event that you need to work in a secondary school setting, this incorporates having the option to precisely evaluate an understudy’s victories and deficiencies with regards to settling on school decisions, where to apply, and helping them restricted down what can be an overwhelming rundown of decisions.

Making these evaluations precisely – and having the option to report your discoveries to guardians, another staff, or advanced education organizations – is a significant piece of guiding.

3. Be an incredible communicator.

Having incredible relational abilities is a standout amongst the most significant aptitudes a school advisor can have. Having the option to impart thoughts, contemplations, and emotions verbally is a characteristic that can never go uncelebrated as a school guide.

Frequently, you will bob thoughts off an understudy to enable them to achieve a significant choice – or talking about an understudy with their parent or a group of employees. Ensuring that you can pass on your appraisal of your understudy verbally is imperative.

4. Appreciate Diversity

Understudies originate from a huge number of foundations, and having the option to acknowledge and grasp decent variety is another characteristic that is essential of a school advocate.

Understudies originate from varying backgrounds and a wide range of families, and helping understudies figure out how to acknowledge and grasp their own decent variety in a school setting is basic to an advocate’s prosperity.

5. Be inviting.

School guides must be warm and congenial to their understudies, and furthermore to guardians and employees. Being open and gregarious will frequently imply that understudies will confide in you more than they trust their folks, and getting understudies to open up and let go of their weights is a standout amongst the most compensating things a school instructor can achieve.

Frequently, understudies are exhausted and set with overwhelming achievement records, so having somebody to tune in to their inconveniences is an approach to make understudies feel less pushed.

6. Be definitive.

At the point when the circumstance calls for it, a direction guide must cross the limit from companion to proficient. On the off chance that misuse or disregard is suspected or present, or if an understudy is taking part in dangerous or unsafe conduct, an advisor must realize when to demonstrate their power and find a way to guarantee their understudy’s wellbeing.

7. Be Round minded

A school advocate will regularly have a wide scope of interests outside of work, and no one can tell when one of these interests will resound with an understudy and brief an association that gets your understudy to open up to you. Having an assortment of diversions and gifts outside of the workplace makes for a more joyful, friendlier school guide.

Having the option to talk about your encounters in life will enable you to extension holes with understudies and offer counsel and offer tips and building hinders for social improvement that you might not have generally had.

8. Be Able To Coordinate 

Guides fill in as facilitators for some, school projects and exercises. From school visits, setting state-administered test plans, and even managerial assignments – the advisor must almost certainly facilitate various errands at once.

Ensuring these things dovetail and all run easily (notwithstanding when they may look turbulent outwardly) is an imperative piece of what makes a fruitful school advisor.

9. Have great assessment abilities.

Advisors invest a great deal of their energy assessing test scores or overseeing tests to understudies. Having the option to precisely assess and make an interpretation of these outcomes to talk about an understudy’s scholarly exhibition, or help a teacher in making an exact appraisal of an understudy’s aptitudes is fundamental.

Having the option to assess the aftereffects of these tests as something beyond numbers on paper, and seeing the significance past the test is a piece of what makes a powerful school instructor. Regularly, understudies will see their test scores as high contrast with respect to their future prospects.

It is the activity of their direction advisor to offer the numerous shades of dark in the middle of and investigate all open doors accessible to their understudies, paying little heed to test scores.

10. Have a sense of Humor

Frequently, having a sense of humor will be a school instructor’s greatest resource in picking up an understudy’s trust. Having the option to snicker at yourself, and offer interesting accounts for what you have encountered in life will demonstrate understudies that you’re shockingly human, as well! Having the option to see things with a side of giggling is a pivotal quality for any school instructor, and goes far toward making your days more brilliant.