In the coming weeks, students and families across the country will receive their all-important college admissions decision letters. James Jump, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an organization of more than 11,000 college admission professionals, addresses college counseling and the importance of quality counseling in the admission process.
The Rest of the Story
By James Jump
President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling
And Academic Dean & Director of Guidance at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA
Earlier this month, several major newspapers, including The New York Times and USA Today, published articles about a newly-released Public Agenda report, “Can I Get a Little Advice Here?” The study, prepared for the Gates Foundation, reports widespread dissatisfaction with the college counseling provided by public school guidance counselors.
As a high school counselor and as President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an 11,000 member organization that brings together college admission professionals and secondary school counselors, I read both the articles and the report itself with interest. Nothing in the report broke new ground, and most public school counselors would agree with its conclusion that “counselors are often overworked and underprepared.”
What the report highlighted was what a 2008 Education Commission of the States Report termed a “misalignment” of expectations and results when it comes to college counseling in public schools. Students and parents see counselors’ primary responsibility as helping with the transition to postsecondary education, and yet the reality is that the guidance office has become a dumping ground for everything from discipline to scheduling to administering standardized testing, meaning that public school counselors spend their time actually counseling less than 25 percent of the time.
The counseling load doesn’t help, and in fact, practically guarantees that students will feel like “a face in the crowd.” The most recent NACAC State of College Admission report indicates that the ratio of students to counselors who provide college counseling in high schools nationally is 316:1, well above the 250:1 recommended by the American School Counselor Association. In large, urban public schools, where the need is greatest, the ratio is nearly double. As school districts respond to budget cuts, counselors are easy targets, and in California the ratio is nearly 1000:1.
Time to counsel is one issue — the other is training. Only a handful of the graduate programs in school counseling nationwide require a course in college counseling. In addition, less than one-third of public schools provide time or financial support for counselors to participate in on-going professional development related to postsecondary advising, all at a time when there is an increasingly complex array of postsecondary options, ways to apply to college and financial aid options and regulations.
What is most important about the Public Agenda report is not its analysis of the challenges facing public school counselors but rather its recognition of the importance of access to college and the role that counseling plays.
Education has always been the pathway to the American Dream, and access to a college education is more important than ever before as a means to economic success, personal fulfillment and an educated citizenry. In a global economy a college education is important not only for our citizens, but for our nation, as President Obama recognized in his State of the Union address. Access to education particularly is a way to bridge the divide between haves and have-nots in our society.
If college has the power to transform an individual’s life, it is also the case that the college search and application process should also be transformational, a voyage of self-discovery. The adults in a young person’s life — parents, teachers, counselors, others — can serve as mentors and guides on that voyage. If we want counselors to serve as the first responders in that process, we need to reduce student-to-counselor ratios, provide more time for counseling, and provide the access to specialized training in college counseling offered by NACAC and other organizations. We might also expand programs like the University of Virginia’s College Guide program, which sends recent graduates to high schools and community colleges to work with counselors in supporting students.
There is a hunger for information and knowledge about college admission. Those of us in the profession have a responsibility to make the admission and financial aid processes transparent and simple.
There is also a role for the media to play. Media coverage of the college admission process tends to focus on the small number of students who are fixated on admission to the Ivy League. A much larger segment of the population needs basic information about the realities of college admission. Our elected leaders can also be part of the solution, both nationally and locally. A bill currently before Congress, the Pathways to College Act, provides funds for the neediest school districts to improve access to college. At the local level, officials can make going to college a community priority, as Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has done with the Philly Goes 2 College campaign. State and federal legislators can sponsor college information nights for constituents, utilizing the expertise of college admission officers and high school counselors.
The Public Agenda report sheds light on the long-neglected college counseling function in our schools. Instead of blaming our overworked school counselors, let’s empower them to be part of the solution.