The Education Trust, a non-profit organization that works towards the high
achievement for all students, emphasizes the importance of five transformed school
counselor roles: leader, advocate, collaborator, counselor and coordinator, and data
utilizer. This study examined high school students’ perceptions of the roles of school
counselors and the functions associated with those roles. A 20 item questionnaire was
administered to students at two urban high schools. The questionnaire instructed the
students to rate the importance of 15 school counselor functions based on the five school
counselor roles. Furthermore, the students rated the importance of five noncounseling
functions that school counselors often perform (e.g. test administration, registration).
Overall, the students rated the five school counseling roles as important, indicating that
students perceive the transformed roles as significant. However, the students also rated a
few noncounseling functions as important, demonstrating that misperceptions of the
school counselor’s role still exist.