How Do You Find A Qualified Educational Consultant?

Educational consultants can make all the difference in the culture of a school district. Some consultants can come in once a year and get the whole staff pumped up. Almost like a staff pep rally. Other consultants will come in and have teachers questioning why they ever got into education in the first place. How do you tell the winners from the losers? How do you get in touch with those elite consultants?

A qualified educational consultant, also called a certified education planner, is a person that helps a family make plans and decisions regarding their children's educational path. The task of a qualified educational consultant includes finding a school for the child where he will perfectly fit. But as consultants always say, they do not guarantee placement so they always suggest alternative options

But how do you find a qualified educational consultant? It depends on what one is looking for. There are three types of qualified educational consultants. One is a state education consultant, the other is an educator, and the third is an advisor.

A state education consultant is a member of the department of education of the state and is commissioned to inform the state regarding matters that are within his area of expertise. What these educational consultants do is to be the advocates that will make sure that laws and regulations, and necessary standards related to affecting the educational welfare of students. They also give advice to institutions for teachers' training regarding the ever-changing competency standards for teachers and students.

The second is the educator. Qualified educational consultants who are educators are usually those who are retired from teaching who have a lot of classroom experience that they can use and classroom training that they can apply in private practice as consultants and independent contractors in their areas. These types of educational consultants usually are great when dealing with issues for schools, parents, also for the issues of organizations and of the state.

The third is the advisor. A qualified educational consultant who is an advisor assists in making matches between schools and students. They are also called the certified educational planners.

There are three organizations that can assist anyone in finding a qualified educational consultant. These organizations are the IECA, AICEP and HECA. The Independent Educational Consultants Association or the IECA is the country's leading professional organization for educational consultants working independently and privately. It has been helping families make educational decisions for 35 years. Their assistance includes college education, boarding schools, schools, etc.

The American Institute of Certified Educational Planners or AICEP is the organization that represents educational consultants working full-time. These consultants are experienced and based in schools. The goal of AICEP is to give recognition to these consultants who have reached the highest level of competence, and with this to raise the standards higher for the profession of educational counseling.

The Higher Education Consultants Association or HECA is an organization that is focused on the practice of consultation for independent admission to colleges. This organization has been in the industry since 1997 and has, since then has been dedicated to raising the standards for consulting fields in higher education. This organization also supports the member consultants while they are guiding the students with their transition from high school to college.

You can find consultants and workshops from the educationalconsulting.org, aicep.org, and hecaonline.org. These are the websites of the aforementioned organizations that are guiding and supporting qualified educational consultants. They have available search assistance that would help anyone on the site to search for a consultant service. When asking how do you find a qualified educational consultant, you can do a search by name, or by location or by specialty.