An accountability model for counselors

A sound counselor accountability system would collate counselor accomplishments with costs. Better decisions could then be made about effective methods, staffing, student needs, and training. The system would define the domain of counselor responsibilities, use student behavior changes as evidence of counselor accomplishments, state counselor activities as costs, promote self-improvement, permit reports of failures and unknown outcomes, be designed by users, and be subject to revision. An illustrative accountability report shows how the cost, but not the value, of an outcome can be estimated. Experimentation is needed in order to answer the practical implementation problems of the system.