One wonderful point made in the article is that counselors simply cannot keep up with the ever-changing admissions/standardized testing process put forth by organizations like The College Board. Despite their attempts at diligence, counselors cannot be experts in the admissions/testing field while they are constantly called for mental health interventions, special education meetings, skills groups and additional duties. From what I have learned in graduate school however, school administrators are now realizing the need for specialized professional development for counselors instead of offering it concurrently with the teachers.
On a different note from this article, I disagree with the notion that if a student has a parent who has attended college (hence, is not a first-generation college student), they automatically have a college advisor built into their home. First of all, as the article notes, college admissions are always changing, so the parent may not be able to advise on “how it works” today – a school counselor is much better suited for this. Secondly, everyone’s college application process and paths are different. Young people are able to travel much more these days and choose from a variety of eclectic majors, unlike many of our parents. Many students today also go directly from high school to college, but many parents did not – neither of mine did. Though I felt like my parents were interested in me attending a four-year college, it certainly was not a requirement and we did discuss other options, such as enlisting in the military or attended community college. Lastly, regardless of whether a student’s parents have attended college or not, he/she deserves the same expertise and leadership from a counselor to assist with the process.
This article is a must-read for school counselors, especially high school counselors who advise students on post-secondary planning. It also really informs on the newest grants and initiatives to make college planning easier for counselors and helping to ease the overall demand on counselors today. One way to do this is to hire more school counselors so the student to counselor rate is closer to 250:1, as recommended by ASCA.