Arkansas State University officials recently received notice that the school counseling program in the Department of Psychology and Counseling in the College of Education was granted accreditation.

Dr. Les Wyatt, president of the university, received notification from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

This decision was based on the CACREP Board's review of an extensive self-study by program faculty, a visiting team report, and correspondence between the department and the CACREP office. This national accreditation is for a seven year period through December 31, 2008.

The self-study, application, and review processes were led by Dr. Nola Christenberry, who also serves as the school counseling program coordinator.

Program faculty and other departmental faculty who participated actively in these processes include Drs. Ann Bauer, Sylvia Fernandez, Dan Holmes, Robert Johnson, Craig Jones and Lynn Howerton, who is the department chair.

Other current faculty with involvement in the school counseling program include Chris Anderson and Drs. John Hall, Lisa Ochs and Patrick Peck.

Achieving specialty accreditation is the culmination of a long-standing goal of the Department of Psychology and Counseling. Faculty in the school counseling program first began working toward this goal during the 1993-94 academic year when the curriculum was changed from 36 hours to 48 hours of academic credit requirements, according to Christenberry.

As a result the program was aligned with national standards for training of professional school counselors. The change was effective in August 1994, and the first graduate completed the program in May 1996. Since that time, 37 professional school counselors have completed this rigorous program of study.

With support from ASU academic administration, including Dr. Rick McDaniel, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Dr. John Beineke, dean of the College of Education, program faculty completed the formal self-study process in May 2000. The CACREP office sent a team of professional counselor educators to ASU in January 2001. The visiting team examined additional documentation and visited with students, faculty, administrators and school counseling practitioners involved with the program and submitted a report of its findings to the CACREP Board.

Decision options available to the CACREP Board include denial of accreditation, accreditation for a two year period with specific conditions to be met, or accreditation for a seven year period without conditions.

Only about 25 percent of the school counselor training programs in the nation are accredited by CACREP. Only one other program in Arkansas has this specialty accreditation.

The notification letter to ASU from CACREP stated, "Programs that receive accredited status for a seven year period deserve to be commended for the work they completed throughout the accreditation process. This is indeed a worthy achievement."


Photo Caption:
Dr. John Beineke (left), dean of the College of Education, presents Drs. Nola Christenberry (center) and Lynn Howerton with a letter announcing the accreditation to the school counseling program in the Department of Psychology and Counseling in the College of Education. Christenberry serves as the program coordinator and Howerton is department chair.

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