Who is really guiding students??

I came across this article in many of the listservs that I am signed up on via e-mail. I couldn't help but read both the article and the blog on the NYTimes website.  I can't say that I am surprised about this. In the work that I do, we survey our students at the end of their senior year of college and one of the questions that we ask is similar to this topic - who provided you with graduate school advise. In my work, the students often say parents, family members and/or employers.

I suppose that this sort of interaction is to be expected at the college level when you are supposed to be reaching out to your advisor on your own. But it is not expected in high schools. Although I am from NYC, I did not go to public high school. Instead, I went to a private school. We had two college counselors in addition to the advisors we saw every morning - like homeroom. If I remember correctly, there were approximately 120 students in each grade, so that means that each counselor had 60 students. This isn't bad. Especially when the article says that 100:1 is optimal and that nationally the average is 265:1.

But do I think that my college counselor had a lot to do with my college choice and/or my future career choices? Not really. Of course the teachers that I saw every day for the four years of high school had a greater influence on me than my counselor who I met at the end of my junior year. Wouldn't that be obvious? In my opinion, it is the counselors job to help get you to where you want to go. By the time that high school students meet with their college counselors, they should have a pretty good idea of what they are interested in.  Wouldn't the teachers notice if one of their students excels in their class and push them to study it in college and suggest types of careers they could go into? I know that happened with me.

However, I do think that counselors should make sure that students are familiar with the application process at the very least.  Students should not feel as though they "are another face in the crowd" when they are with their counselors. I think that schools need to hire an appropriate amount of counselors for their school size. A ratio of 265:1 is simply unacceptable.

I completely agree with the response to the report by a veteran high school counselor:

The challenge for school counselors, as noted in this report, is first and foremost a math problem. Parents and education advocates are up in arms when the student-to-teacher ratio in the classroom starts to creep up. But student-to-school-counselor ratios have historically been completely out of line. With the average high school having a ratio of 400 students for every counselor, no wonder many young adults reported unsatisfying relationships with their counselors. This part of the problem is easily addressed by putting more counselors into our schools.

If policymakers, educators, parents, etc. want to continue to see their students succeed, this issue needs to be addressed.

Who is really guiding students??