Ugh. Guidance Counselor

3/17/2015

Driving home from work yesterday, I heard this story on NPR. While I agree with the general premise that low income, high achieving students need more support in applying for prestigious colleges, I was completely annoyed at their use of "guidance counselor" and the statement that counselors "may not have gone to selective colleges themselves." Really, NPR? This perpetuates that sentiment that educators are not highly qualified members of society who may have gone to Duke, Harvard, Brown, or some other "selective college."

So I wrote them an email. I may even send a copy to the guest speaker who spoke so disdainfully of "guidance counselors." I tried to keep it brief, here's what I said:

I am writing to you about your piece on low income, high achieving students. Your guest spoke of the role of guidance counselors in choosing colleges. To begin, those of us in the profession prefer to be called "School Counselors." Gone are the days when the only thing a school counselor does is "guide" students through school. We implement comprehensive counseling programs designed to support all students. The American School Counselor Association recommends a 250/1 counselor to student ratio. Some states have in excess of 700 students per counselor. In fact, one in five high schools don't have any counselors at all. Unfortunately, many of the districts with a high number of students living in poverty also have the least money with which to hire counselors.

In response to your guest’s statement that counselors may not have gone to selective schools themselves, school counselors are required to have an undergraduate and masters degree. This statement infers that school counseling is not a prestigious career choice when even Harvard has a school counseling program. Instead of blaming the "guidance" counselor, or criticizing their college choice, perhaps we could talk about how to change the system of support to allow school counselors to do their jobs to support all students.

This is the first time I have used this space to rant, I hope you understand. What's irking you right now?

5 Comments

Rebecca Atkins

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Colleen Quinn

3/17/2015 06:17:10 am

I am a school counselor and disagree with the opinion of Ms. Caroline Hoxby, the economist from Stanford who posits pure conjecture in her assessment that “guidance counselors” are too busy and too overwhelmed by their caseloads to adequately help all students, particularly “the good kids with good grades.” While it’s true that school counselors must prioritize and must assess needs of students in order to be effective and produce results, a comprehensive counseling program addresses the needs of all students, by utilizing the American School Counseling Association’s (ASCA) National Model for Comprehensive Counseling Programs.

Hoxby mischaracterizes school counselors with her comment that “counselors may not have gone to selective colleges themselves”. Or…they may have. What does it matter whether or not the counselor themselves went to a selective college. So because I went to Colorado State University and not Stanford, I am unable to properly advise a student? This is a fallacy.

Her next statement confounded me with its ignorance. Hoxby says, “So, the guidance counselor is going to say, ‘Hey, you really should go to college. Go to a four-year college, and here is a college that I know of in our area that I think does a good job,’” This is an insult to school counselors everywhere, who are required to hold a Master’s degree, and take coursework in college admissions and career counseling. This is akin to saying that since your financial advisor is so busy, he/she will just give you the kind of advice that Joe Schmo down the street would give you, maybe because he didn’t go to a “selective college” himself. I don’t know of a single school counselor who conducts themselves in this mediocre and unethical manner. If I put this little effort into advising students and purposefully didn’t utilize my educational background and expertise to guide students in the right direction for them, I would be remiss and would probably be fired. Rightly so.

I understand that many people are unaware that “guidance counselors” have become school counselors and that we are not your grandparent’s school counselors. We don’t just hope to make a difference and offer nebulous advice on where to go and how to get to college. We are part of data-driven Counseling Programs which measure students’ academic success and our effectiveness as school counselors. It is no longer sufficient to simply work hard, we produce results with measurable data. We ask that you no longer ask, “What do school counselors do?” and instead ask, “How are students different because of what school counselors do?”

Rebecca Atkins link

3/17/2015 11:07:49 pm

Colleen- thank you so much for your eloquent remarks! What a great response.

10/2/2015 08:24:20 am

Rebecca, Thank you! I appreciate it.

Lavon Robinson

10/2/2015 08:05:25 am

Thanks for being a strong advocate for the profession. Way to go!

10/2/2015 08:16:30 am

Thanks Lavon!