Counseling Program Progress Monitoring and Retention

The Miami Counselor Education Program has established a set of expectations and review processes for students to ensure they are meeting the necessary requirements for academic and professional success. These expectations include academic performance, professional conduct, demonstrating ethical competence, and clinical skill development.

Each semester, instructors, site supervisors, and advisors evaluate students' academic performance. This evaluation considers counseling disposition, micro-skills, attendance, 22 participation, completion of the Pre-Practice Experience, progress in both Practicum and Internship, and academic performance. In addition to growing in clinical skills, students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to remain in good academic standing. If a student falls below these thresholds, they may be placed on a Professional Development Plan (PDP) and could be dismissed from the program.

As mentioned, students must also demonstrate professional conduct and ethical competence. This includes adhering to the code of ethics established by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), and the American Mental Health Counseling Association (AMHCA) and maintaining appropriate boundaries with clients/K-12 students. Any violations of ethical standards may result in a PDP, disciplinary action, and dismissal from the program. Students must understand that while they are counselor trainees, they must adhere to the code of ethics and maintain the proper professional counselor-client relationships.

Finally, students must develop their clinical skills under the supervision of licensed professionals for their respective specialty areas. The state of Ohio and CACREP accreditation require a minimum number of supervision hours from the program and a minimum number of on-site supervision hours from site supervisors. Students must demonstrate growth and competence in providing counseling services to clients/K-12 students. Supervision supports the gatekeeping of the profession by tracking the development and growth of a student’s skills. Any concerns about a student's clinical skills will be addressed through regular evaluations and supervisor feedback at mid-term and finals of practicum and internship. More information can be found in the field manuals related to site-supervisor evaluations.

Overall, the Miami Counselor Education Program has established a rigorous set of expectations and review processes to ensure that students are prepared for successful careers as professional counselors. By maintaining high standards for academic performance, professional conduct, and clinical skill development, the program can produce skilled and ethical counselors prepared to positively impact their communities.

Students will be monitored by all faculty within the program as well as site supervisors. Advisors will complete rating scales during each advising session and review the rating scales completed by instructors from the previous semester. Instructors will complete surveys on each student during the final week of the semester, noting the student's progress in each development area. Please see the following survey for more information regarding the areas faculty will monitor related to student development. Site supervisors will complete a similar mid-term and final evaluation, but there will be a great focus on specific skill development. More information about site evaluations is included in the field placement manuals.

A Professional Development Plan (PDP) is a structured and strategic approach to provide remediation to improve professional skills, knowledge, and competencies when a student is not progressing adequately through the program. This information is gathered from site supervisors, instructors, and core faculty members through the progress monitoring process each semester and reviewed by faculty. The PDP may encompass areas that focus on counseling skill development, improving cultural competence, addressing ethical practice, and areas where personal growth is needed to support client/K-12 student care. This is not an exhaustive list of focus areas or reasons a student would be placed on a PDP. Additionally, as noted above, in the Pre-Practicum Experience, students will be placed on a PDP if they cannot pass the Pre-Practicum Assessment during their first attempt at the Pre-Practicum Experience. The goal of a PDP is to support a student to strengthen areas where improvement is needed to aid in the development of becoming a competent and professional counselor. Please see the supplemental documents for the PDP template.

The student’s faculty advisor will develop the PDP in collaboration with core faculty and arrange a meeting with the student and program director to review the plan. During the meeting, the faculty member and student will sign the document.

The plan will be reviewed, as outlined in the document, and the advisor will track progress and check in with the student regularly. Once the student has met all the goals and objectives outlined within the PDP, the advisor will work to summarize the progress made as part of the PDP, and the student will have successfully completed the plan.

If the student is unable to meet the goals and objectives outlined in the PDP within the established timeframe, the student will be dismissed from the program and will not continue any coursework or field experiences.

In some cases, violations or situations cannot be addressed through remediation of PDP and are grounds for automatic dismissal from the program. These include serious cases of ethical or legal violations where a client/K-12 student's health, safety, and/or wellness were jeopardized. Automatic dismissal is not limited to ethical or legal violations.