High school guidance counselors play a game with the objective to win. Sadly those victories come at the cost of the students in which the counselors serve. What I mean to say is: high school counselors do not always have their students’ best interests in mind.
What evidence do I have for this borderline-absurd claim? Most of this evidence comes from the report “Counseling at a Crossroads” derived from the 2011 National Survey of School Counselors. Let me give you some examples of the findings in the report:
- 75% of counselors in high poverty schools want to spend more time on building a college-going culture, compared to 55% of counselors in low poverty schools
- 46% of national counselors want college acceptance rates as close to 100% as possible
- 57% of counselors believe their effectiveness measured on college application rates, but only 27% say their effectiveness should be based on college completion rates
- 61% think college-prep course completion should be either very appropriate or somewhat appropriate
I want to focus on bullet point 2 and 3. Why have we created a culture of college being the only path? Why do we demonize alternatives to college?
Let me give you another source of concern regarding counselors that differs from the aforementioned survey. I was reading the NYT this past Sunday and I saw the article “Personalized Tips from a Counselor? That’s Priceless.” The article was a great and quick read about how counselors help first-generation college students receive guidance that would be unavailable had they not initiated that conversation. My heart warmed with such a thought of how counselors make a difference.
Then, I thought about the first lines of the article: “The United States has a dropout crisis. Sixty Percent of people go to college these days, but just half of the college students graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Some people earn a two-year associate’s degree. But more than a quarter of those who start college drop out with no credential.” Bloomberg’s 2015 optimistic estimate is that only 55% of those who attend college actually complete it. Harvard University released a study (2015) that concluded only 56% of students graduate from Bachelor’s programs within 6 years and only 29% graduate from two year programs within three years. NBC (2014) reported that 63% of college debtors never completed their degree.
What I gathered from these additional statistics is that pushing students to go to college isn’t the best choice. Many go into debt and many drop out without ever obtaining a degree. My question to you is: are high school counselors inflicting harm upon their students by pushing them to go to college? By wanting many students to attend college (point #3 above), but not caring once they arrive, I fear the incentives of counselors are misaligned.
Consider this story by Jillian Gordon:
A few years ago, I worked closely with a student who very much wanted to be a reporter. She was passionate about it, and spoke about her dreams with wide eyes and a contagious smile. The issue? This student’s writing was subpar at best, and her talents, while immense, were not shown through her academic ability. She simply did not have the grades to make it through four more years of college.
Guilty of it myself, I watched as all of her teachers smiled at her and encouraged her to follow her dreams, no one having the courage to push in her a direction that was more logical for her to take. We smiled and watched as she dropped out of college and moved back home with no back-up plan in place. I had to learn the hard way that sometimes it’s our jobs as teachers to tell students no, otherwise life will do it for them — and life is rarely ready to catch them when they fall.
Jillian is a teacher at Ridgemont Public Schools in Ridgeway, OH.
Her story can be found here on PBS.
Ultimately, there are three problems that I have with the high school counselor system that is put forth in American education:
- Not every student should go to college, but the pressure is placed upon the youth to think the opposite
- Counselors do not have a full understanding of the immense costs and disincentives associated with a four year degree. (Recall that 63% of college debtors do not hold a degree.) When I see a student attend a private school and complain about the immense debt, I lack some sympathy as there are public schools for a reason, but rarely do we see a big celebratory congrats coming to students enrolling in state schools or community colleges. The culture in high schools breed this mindset that private is the only way to go and in part counselors are responsible for that.
- Counselors and teachers tell students to follow their passion, but such advice may not be the best to follow. (My next blog post will be solely dedicated to the dangers of passion; therefore, I do not want to elaborate until next time.)
I want to write so much more about part three, but for now, I leave you all to brew over the thoughts I presented. Am I crazy? Is the interest in counselor’s self-worth misaligned with the interest of students’ success? Do counselors truly comprehend the debt-crisis that college students face?
thereisnopeak.com 