Program Overview

Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) Program

The Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) program is designed to provide candidates with the knowledge and skills necessary to become effective school counselors. The program focuses on the development of comprehensive school counseling programs that promote equity, structure, and support for all students.

Course Descriptions

• PPS 504: Methods of Research: This course examines multiple methods of research in counseling and human development, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research.
• PPS 510: School Counseling Practicum: This course provides first-year candidates with an opportunity to establish a professional identity as a school counselor through engagement in professional preparatory activities.
• PPS 511: Comprehensive School Counseling Programs: This course explores the influence of historical and philosophical changes in school counseling and introduces candidates to the development of comprehensive school counseling programs.
• PPS 512: Digital Literacy & Technology: This course introduces candidates to data, technology, and academic skills needed by practicing school counselors.
• PPS 513: Ethical Practice & Policy: This course introduces candidates to the ethical and legal standards, and related policy and organizational challenges involved in the practice of school counseling.
• PPS 514: School Counseling Skills for Academic Success: This course introduces counseling skills and focuses on building relationships, reflecting empathy, and prioritizing concerns to facilitate academic success.
• PPS 515: Developing School Counselor Leadership: This course provides an introduction to school counselor leadership and emphasizes the function and behaviors that comprise effective leadership.
• PPS 520: School Counseling Supervision 1: This course provides candidates with an opportunity to apply professional and accreditation standards in a PreK-12 setting.
• PPS 521: Advancing Educational Equity and Access: This course explores culturally responsive mindsets and actionable strategies that produce equitable educational access and success.
• PPS 522: Classroom Instruction for School Counselors: This course focuses on inclusive, data-informed school counseling classroom instruction in the academic, career, and social/emotional domains.
• PPS 523: School Counseling Skills and Intervention Strategies: This course expands and refines essential attending and response skills that promote healthy social-emotional development and academic success.
• PPS 524: School Counseling Theories and Academic Success: This course introduces candidates to the major theoretical approaches for counseling and typical and atypical development across the lifespan.
• PPS 525: Small Group Development for School Counselors: This course focuses on developing essential skills for designing and delivering small group counseling in schools.
• PPS 532: The World of Immigrant Students: This course provides candidates with knowledge to assess the learning style characteristics of linguistically diverse Latina/o youth in schools.
• PPS 533: Counseling Latino Immigrant Youth and Families: This course provides candidates with knowledge to assess the learning style characteristics of linguistically diverse Latina/o youth in schools.
• PPS 534: Bilingual Educational Theories: This course provides candidates with knowledge to assess the learning style characteristics of linguistically diverse Latina/o youth in schools.
• PPS 535: Academic Development & Success: This course prepares candidates to implement a comprehensive school counseling program focusing on developing prevention and intervention programs to assist PreK-12 students' academic performance.
• PPS 536: Inclusion and Equitable Practices: This course explores multi-tiered support systems, cultural capital, and strengths-based perspectives to develop strategies that encourage academic success for diverse student populations.
• PPS 543: School Counseling Programs and Legal Mandates: This course provides an overall perspective of school counseling, emphasizing the National Standard for School Counseling and legal mandates.
• PPS 544: Law and Ethics in Counseling PPS/LPCC Focus: This course covers the legal mandates and professional ethics associated with School Counseling and Licensed Professional Clinical Counseling.
• PPS 545: Comprehensive School Counseling: This course covers the history of the profession and introduces school counseling candidates to the professional role of the school counselor.
• PPS 546: Introduction to School Counseling: This course provides an introduction to the profession of school counseling, emphasizing historical foundations, theories, and practices.
• PPS 547: Theories for School Counseling: This course provides a general overview of core counseling and educational theories that support an effective counseling relationship in the school setting.
• PPS 549: School Counseling Theories: This course presents and examines various theories of counseling that form the foundation for the work of the school counselor.
• PPS 551: Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychopathology: This course provides graduate students with basic knowledge of psychopathology and familiarizes students with current concepts, diagnostic considerations, and empirical applications.
• PPS 554: Advanced Theories in Counseling: This course focuses on the integration of theory and practice for advanced graduate counseling students, providing a contextualized background for psychotherapeutic work.
• PPS 558: Psychopharmacology for School and Community Based Counseling: This course covers all aspects of psychopharmacology, including the biological bases of behavior and basic classifications of commonly prescribed psychopharmacological medications.
• PPS 559: Substance Abuse Counseling LPCC/PPS Focus: This course covers all components necessary for candidates to fully understand substance abuse counseling, including co-occurring disorders and addiction.
• PPS 560: School Counseling Supervision 2: This course provides candidates with an opportunity to apply professional and accreditation standards, focusing on ethical responsibilities and culturally appropriate counseling.
• PPS 561: Data, Research, & Evaluation: This course helps students understand the basic principles of research design, action research, and program evaluation, emphasizing the use of data to increase student outcomes.
• PPS 562: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for School Counselors: This course uses a lens of social equity to examine learning theory, pedagogy, instructional design, and classroom leadership, assisting students in developing culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy.
• PPS 563: Collaborative Strategies & Referral Systems: This course examines collaboration and consultation models, group dynamics, and the development of referral systems, facilitating effective meetings to advocate for student success and systemic change.
• PPS 564: Instruction and Achievement: This course provides an overview of curriculum standards, curriculum design, lesson plan development, and instructional strategies, assisting new teachers.
• PPS 565: Career Development: This course introduces theories, methods, strategies, assessment instruments, and materials used in educational and career counseling and guidance for students of all ages.
• PPS 566: Social Emotional Development & Academic Success: This course prepares candidates to implement a comprehensive school counseling program that incorporates data, positive behavior interventions, and restorative practices.
• PPS 567: School Safety and Crisis Prevention: This course introduces theories, methods, and strategies used in school safety, crisis intervention, conflict management, and violence prevention.
• PPS 568: Career Development & Academic Success: This course focuses on career development theory and readiness, including career identity development, assessment of interests and skills, and promotion of successful transitions to postsecondary education.
• PPS 569: Crisis Intervention & Trauma Informed Practice: This course provides a foundational understanding of crisis response, trauma, and related theoretical concepts, emphasizing prevention and intervention strategies that support students, families, and the community.
• PPS 571: Individual Counseling Skills: This course provides candidates with knowledge and skills of the elements of effective counseling and interpersonal skills to assist pupils academically and personally.
• PPS 572: Group Counseling Skills: This course provides candidates with knowledge of group dynamics and the skills to facilitate group work in a school setting.
• PPS 573: Counseling Diverse Populations: This course examines diversity in a school setting, emphasizing previously learned counseling skills as applied to culturally diverse populations.
• PPS 574: Facilitation, Consultation, and Collaboration Skills: This course introduces theories, models, and processes of consultation, examining methods, strategies, and skills to effectively coordinate and facilitate task groups.
• PPS 575: Counseling Skills: Level I: This course provides an introduction to the interpersonal skills and techniques used in counseling to support academic success, including in-class role play experiences.
• PPS 576: Organizational Management and School/Community Collaboration: This course studies the practices and principles of public school management, human relations, leadership, organizational systems, and school-community collaboration.
• PPS 577: Counseling Skills: Level II for Group Work: This course extends the skills and techniques learned in Counseling Skills: Level I, building an understanding of group dynamics and the skills needed to facilitate group work.
• PPS 578A: Practicum I in School Counseling: This course offers a structured opportunity for first-year educational counseling candidates to begin establishing their professional identity within the educational community.
• PPS 578B: Practicum II in School Counseling: This course provides a continuation of Practicum I, offering a structured opportunity for candidates to further establish their professional identity.
• PPS 580: School Counseling Supervision 3: This course provides candidates with an opportunity to apply professional and accreditation standards, focusing on ethical responsibilities, culturally appropriate counseling, and delivery of small group and classroom interventions.
• PPS 581: Leading School Counseling Programs: This culminating course focuses on the practical application of leadership, advocacy, and systemic change theory as it applies to developing comprehensive school counseling programs.
• PPS 582: Postsecondary Paths & Academic Success: This course prepares candidates to implement effective strategies for preparing all students for a successful transition to postsecondary education.
• PPS 583: SFBC to APCC: The Path to Licensure: This course prepares candidates who are completing the SFBC concentration to apply for the Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) number and uphold the requirements of their APCC number.
• PPS 583A: Supervised Field Work - Level I: This course provides school counseling candidates with 200 hours of supervised field work in school and/or community settings, emphasizing human assessment, counseling services, and legal and ethical issues.
• PPS 583B: Supervised Field Work-Level II: This course provides a continuation of Supervised Field Work - Level I, offering 200 hours of supervised field work in school and/or community settings.
• PPS 583C: Supervised Fieldwork Level III: This course provides candidates with 200 hours of experience in a school and/or community setting, engaging in counseling, consultation, and program development activities under direct supervision.
• PPS 584: Clinical Practicum: This course involves participation in planned clinical experiences in an approved agency or other setting under an approved supervisor, providing counselor trainees with clinical experience necessary to pursue a License as a Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC).
• PPS 585: Pedagogical Practices: This course prepares candidates to develop, implement, and evaluate school counseling classroom instruction for all students, emphasizing instructional and engagement strategies.
• PPS 586: Data Informed School Counseling Programs: This course provides candidates with an opportunity to operationalize the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model for School Counseling Programs, connecting data-informed programs with overall school plans.
• PPS 587: Advocating for Equitable and Ethical Practice: This course examines the values, ethics, and legal issues affecting professional practice in school counseling, practicing the application of ethical principles and legal mandates that support the implementation of equitable services.
• PPS 592: CWA: Supervised FW & Coursework: This course provides PPS candidates with supervised fieldwork hours focusing on child welfare and attendance in PK-12 settings, emphasizing compulsory education laws and student discipline procedures.
• PPS 597: Graduate Seminar in School Counseling: This culminating activity for the M.S. in Educational Counseling requires each student to develop a portfolio demonstrating their knowledge, experiences, and skills gained in the School Counselor Preparation Program.
• PPS 599: Independent Study: This course allows students to design their own courses, approved by a faculty member, with prior approval of goals, objectives, procedures, and assessment plan required.