How Collaboration and Research Can Affect School Counseling Practices: The Minnesota Story

Abstract

Collaboration among various professional groups to enhance student learning is a very useful strategy. This article describes how one state, Minnesota, over time (1960–1990), employed collaboration among schools, universities, professional organizations, and the State Department of Education to affect student counseling practices where needed. Efforts were directed to investigate and integrate all components of the school counseling profession by beginning with the possible impact of current practice, then researching various implementation models based on appropriate psychological theories, and finally changing counselor certification and graduate education to close the gap between relevant theory and professional practice. Such efforts have supportive implications for the national standards of the American School Counselor Association.