College and career counseling are some of the many responsibilities of high school counselors, who also coordinate student schedules, respond to crisis situations, comfort students in distress and arrange meetings with students, their parents and teachers.
More than 90 percent of high school counselors and administrators who participated in a national online survey this year agreed that counselors should be involved in ensuring a highquality education for all students and ensuring students have the skills to succeed in college and the work force.
But the survey of 2,084 high school counselors revealed that they struggle to accomplish those goals because of some of their dailyresponsibilities. The results were reported by The College Board Advocacy and Policy Center Office for School Counselor Advocacy. The College Board produces the SAT, an exam used for college admissions.
Counselors are mandated by the state to spend at least 75 percent of their time working directly with students and 25 percent on administrative tasks.
“It’s absolutely hard to do. It’s absolutely critical that we do that,” said Linda Haley, director of counseling for the Rogers School District. “It’s our goal to have contact with every student on our roster and be sure they are on track to meet their career goals.”
A good school counselor believes that all children belong, Haley said.
At the high-school level,counselors’ first priority is ensuring students choose courses that fulfill graduation requirements and fit with their career goals, Haley said. The second priority is removing barriers to their success, such as attendance problems, mental health issues and family challenges.
Most high school counselors who participated in The College Board’s survey in May and June think they are effective in ensuring students complete a college-preparatory sequence of courses, increasing college application rates and boosting the numbers of students taking advanced classes and exams.
A majority of the counselors also thought counselors were effective in reviewing student transcripts and raising high school graduation rates.
But fewer than 40 percent of high school counselors surveyed reported being accountable for dropout rates, collegeacceptance rates, college-application rates or student access to advanced classes. More than 60 percent of counselors instead reported being responsible for the development of the schoolcounseling program, administrative and clerical tasks, and coordinating tests.
HOW COUNSELORS HELP
School districts in Arkansas must hire a certified counselor for every 450 students. When a school has a counselor and fewer than 450 students, the counselor is not full-time and can be assigned other duties, said Cathy Edmonds, a counselor at Drew Central High School in southeast Arkansas.
As a counselor, Edmonds monitors students’ academic plans and stays after them to keep up their grades, she said. She reviews their transcripts three times a year and helps them research colleges and careers.
This week, Edmonds said, she picked up a student attending the district’s alternative school because of a situation with a teacher and brought the student to her office. They spent time talking about problems the student was having and how the student would earn credits for graduation. She checks that students turn in assignments and attend afterschool tutoring.
Edmonds led her campus in starting a Career Action Planning program, modeled after one developed in the Springdale School District, she said. The program, which involves parents, guides students in planning careers, choosing the right courses and researching colleges.
She credited the program with helping one young man realize he was smart enough and could find the resources to attend college. The student received scholarships to pay the full cost of his tuition and is on track to graduate this year from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
“It has increased the awareness that they can go to school,” Edmonds said. “There’s ways to pay for it. If they have just the slightest desire, they can do it.”
Edmonds also is involvedwith a professional development program for teachers, scheduling courses for students, and a leadership team for the high school, and serves as her building’s test coordinator.
She is responsible for double-checking that she has enough testing materials and provides them for all the teachers. She also files reports through the state’s electronic student-management system.
FINDING BALANCE
At 190-student Omaha High School in Boone County, counselor Sandra Roberts wishes she could devote more time to meeting with students, but she has to balance her counseling duties with paperwork and administrative responsibilities, she said. The more time she spends with students, the higher the percentages of students who take the ACT, an exam used for college admissions, and who apply to college.
When she became a counselor, Roberts thought she would be in and out of classrooms, working with teachers and students, she said.
“I don’t get to do as much as what I thought I would do,” she said. “At small schools, there’s not a person on this campus that doesn’t do three different jobs.”
In addition to counseling duties, Roberts is the district testing coordinator and is responsible for ordering all tests, taking inventory, arranging scheduling for testing and makeup examinations. She also works with scheduling courses at the high school.
Some of the large high schools assign clerical tasks to other staff.
At Fayetteville High School, four counselors are available for the 1,900 students attending the main high school. A fifth counselor works at an alternative school, and the high school employs a sixth staff member who is a college and career counselor, said Doug Wright, one of the counselors. Counselors do not have responsibilities for testing, he said.
Instead, counselors focus on everyday problems of students, from monitoring whether students are on track for graduation to comforting them after a break-up or helping their families when they can’t pay the electric bill, Wright said. He advises students on planning for college.
Some students request a letter of recommendation and provide all the information the counselor needs, while others will decide late in the school year that they want to go to college and aren’t sure what to do.
“Any time I can help, it’s a good feeling,” he said. “I actually don’t mind doing whatever it takes. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do.”
However, counselors at large schools are responsible for more students, Wright said. He previously worked at Elkins High School, with 350 students in the ninth through 12th grades. At Fayetteville High School, he is responsible for 475 to 500 students in the 10th through 12th grades.
“I haven’t found a way yet to get to know all the students as well as I would like and meet with all the seniors to talk about their college plans,” he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/30/2012