Admission Requirements (In Addition to Those Listed for All Graduate Students)
Students must hold a valid classroom teaching certification before applying to Wayland’s school counselor education program. Once admitted to Wayland’s school counselor education program, students must enroll in CNSL 5010 during their first session of enrollment in order to apply and be admitted to Wayland’s Education Preparation Program (EPP) for School Counselor Certification. The Application for Admission to the EPP, and all supporting documentation, should be filed with the education coordinator at the student’s respective campus prior to the second session of enrollment. A fee of $55 will be charged to all students admitted to the education program to cover fees charged by the Texas Education Agency. Students in the school counseling program must: be certified to teach in the State of Texas; have taught full-time for a minimum of two years; complete CNSL 5010 and all subsequent trainings and requirements during their first session of enrollment; and, pass the school counseling practice exam before they will qualify to take the school counselor certification examination. Students must pass the school counseling certification exam before they will be eligible to take CNSL 5363 - Practicum in School Counseling . Once students have completed all of their degree requirements, they will be recommended to the state for certification.
Students must have either completed an undergraduate statistics or a quantitative research methods course, or passed the CLEP or DANTES statistics test, or taken the statistics tutorial before registering for CNSL 5302 - Research Methods and Data Analysis .
Advisories
Transfer Credit: Degree candidates for the M.A. in Counseling may satisfy a maximum of 12 graduate credit hours with approved courses transferred from another institution or degree.
Evaluations of students: Successful completion of the Master of Arts in Counseling program is based on the demonstration of effectiveness in academic, professional, and personal areas as they relate to the counseling profession. The faculty has both a professional responsibility and a moral obligation to evaluate all students throughout the training program for professional competence in academic course work; for weaknesses in required practical skills; for behaviors which are unethical, illegal, or unprofessional; and/or for dispositions deemed inappropriate for a professional counselor. The evaluative process provides students with information related to their progress to enable them to take advantage of strengths and to remediate weaknesses in their academic, professional, and personal development. The evaluative process provides faculty with information about student progress and suitability or unsuitability as counselors which will facilitate decisions in the best interests of students and the profession they are preparing to enter.
Practicum requirements: Prior to registering for a practicum, students MUST have completed a minimum of 24 credit hours in the counseling program, have credit for ethics (CNSL 5307 ), have passed the Texas counseling exam, and have a signed site agreement with the school in which they will undertake the practicum. Due to the travel requirements for the observation component of the course, a travel fee of $100 will be assessed. Students with teaching sites more than 30 miles from their home campus will also be assessed a fee for mileage.
The Texas State Board of Educator Certification requires a practicum in a school setting. The site supervisor for the practicum in school counseling should be a certified school counselor. The practicum also requires mandatory evaluation visits by the University’s school counselor supervisor.
Certification by the state: Before completion of the M.A. in School Counseling, ALL students seeking school counselor certification must pass the state-required test. No university can certify a counselor.
Students already possessing a degree in counseling with at least 48 hours and desiring to be certified as a school counselor with the state of Texas must complete the following courses:
CNSL 5317 and CNSL 5321 courses may count from counseling degree if taken at Wayland within the last seven years. CNSL 5010 and CNSL 5363 are subject to approval and may need to be repeated if a student is not certified in a timely manner.
