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This study examines the role of school counselors in assisting high school students in high-poverty districts to transition to college or work. It explores counselors' perceptions, contextual factors, and strategies employed in this critical transition. The research contributes to understanding the impact of structural constraints on counselor practices and the challenges faced in high-poverty urban contexts.
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Cheerleaders and Dream Adjusters: High School Counselors and Students’ Transition to College or Work in a High-Poverty District
School counselors and the transition to school or work • Timely concerns: • Worsening labor market for those with a HS degree or less • Critical transition from high school to work or college • In high-poverty districts, low rates of direct college enrollment and degree completion among those who enroll • Critical transition: • School counselors are the central figures in helping students navigate this • Remarkably under-studied – particularly in disadvantaged districts • In-depth interviews with 15 high school counselors in a high-poverty urban district
Research questions • How do counselors perceive the population they are working with? • How do contextual factors structure and constrain the work that counselors do? • Given these perceptions and constraints, what strategies do counselors employ in assisting students making the transition out of high school?
Transformation of high school counseling • Classic monographs (Cicourel& Kitsuse1963; Rosenbaum 1975) concern the role of counselors in track assignment. • Since this period, counseling has changed dramatically as a profession • End of cross-curricular tracking • Course assignment authority migrates to teachers • School counseling consolidated as licensed profession • Rates of college-going increased dramatically • Modern school counseling has four domains: academic, college, career, and therapeutic counseling
The “College-for-All” counselor • Rosenbaum (1996): By 1990s, counselors evince “college for all mindset” • “the notion that since anybody can go to college, everybody should go to college” • Many youth unlikely to succeed in college • Counselors afraid to tell ill-prepared students that college dreams are unrealistic • This results in abdication of responsibility: • “By sending all students to college, counselors can avoid having to get students to plan realistic futures”
Contributions • Revisiting and updating Rosenbaum’s findings • Highlighting the role of structural constraints on counselor practices • Investigating counselor practices in high-poverty urban context
Sample • 15 school counselors with experience working with juniors and seniors • Single large urban district • Purposive sampling within school type (large comprehensive; academically competitive; technical/trade; charter; at-risk; alternative) • Represented schools serve over half of all district seniors • Interviewed counselors are 2/3 female, 2/3 White (district is about 85% minority)
Methods • In-depth interviews (@ 1 hour) • Focus on transition out of high school • Interviews are in the process of being team-coded
On-time graduation Source: State department of education website
Postsecondary enrollment Source: State department of education website
Youth unemployment rate Youth=Age 18-29; Source: Authors’ calculations from ACS 2010-14 samples (ipums.org)
Perceptions of students • College intentions common but abstract • Profound academic disadvantages • College not for all • Fragile ambitions
College orientation • Most students say they plan to go to college • Little understanding of what college is or requires • “College” represents hope and ambition • Non-college plans stigmatized
“When I go to classroom, the majority of the students are thinking about going to college. I mean, there's not many kids that will say, "College is not for me." Even though that I know that there are some students that college is not for them.” “College I think in general means hope for kids. An opportunity, you know. But they may not really get that you're really going there to study and to understand a particular… field.”
Student academic disadvantages • Counselors aware that most students have very low GPAs and ACT scores • These reflect academic skills years below grade level • Compounded by irregular attendance
“I mean our kids are unfortunately… low academically. And so we talk about creating a college-going culture, but if math and reading scores aren't there it makes things a little bit more difficult… We have attendance is an issue in the school. And obviously that magnifies any math or reading deficits that they already have. But it is also part of the reason why they're absent - because they're feeling unsuccessful in the classroom… If they're not coming to school they're not going to be successful in college.”
College for all? • Counselors do not believe that all students should attend college • Some would be better suited to apprenticeships and other skilled labor training
“Everything is college-ready for this, college-ready for that. Well, it's not a fact, you know? …You're telling me a kid that has a point-three GPA that's a, a fourth-year senior with ten credits - how is he going to go to college? I can't lie to kids.” “College isn't for everyone. And I'm OK with that. Training is for everyone but, you know, traditional four-year college is not every child.”
Fragile ambitions • Students seen as traumatized and surrounded by poverty, violence, and despair • Their capacity to believe that they can have a future that is different can easily be shattered
“The population that we're working has experienced a lot of trauma… I had a conversation with one of my kids the other day, about whether he wanted to be a statistic or go on and do something more positive with his life. And he said, I think I'm going to be a statistic. Because it's just, it's easier… That's years and years and years of him being raised, and his dad being killed. That's the life he has, and that's what he sees. And so, helping him see that he does in fact have the skills and that he could choose a different path.”
Structural constraints on effective counseling • Skill deficit • No institutionalized links to labor market • Limited opportunities for personalized career counseling
Counselor skill deficit • Graduate programs focus on psychological theory and therapeutic practices • Little coursework devoted to college or career counseling • Skills are learned on-the-job, supplemented by professional development seminars
“I was taught how to be a therapist. So when I started here, I had to learn everything on the job… I really thought some of my classes were great. But in general, it was very focused on theory. And that's great if you're going to be a counselor or a therapist. But we didn't learn anything about college planning, and transition planning. And that's so much a part of what our jobs are.”
Institutional connections to jobs • Counselors provided no examples of established linkages between their schools and employers or apprenticeship programs. • A few counselors had established such relationships, but these were idiosyncratic and tenuous
“There's not tons out there. I mean, they can do apprenticeships… But we're not as counselors very aware of them.” “I can help them work with a couple of employers… Last year, [an employer] came in… It's like a local small manufacturer over here… They interviewed kids on the spot. So I like literarily sat in hall pulling seniors in. Come on in, fill out this application. And they hired one kid.”
Limited opportunities for one-on-one transition counseling • Student-counselor ratios • As high as over 400 per counselor • Other counseling duties • Non-counseling duties (testing, collecting transcripts) • Crisis counseling • Getting students to graduation • Student availability • Unstable attendance • Frequent transfer
“So, like, I try to have a plan as much as I can during, you know, for my days. But, sometimes you don't get anything done in your plan because you're just meeting situations, responding to fights.” “Homelessness is huge. And I didn't really realize how huge it is, but that's a huge issue. So that's kind of where we're at.” “I have 85 seniors who are definitely not graduating… Calls will go home, and then I'm meeting with them individually. Um, not like super, super long conversations… Just like this is the situation. What is the plan?” “It's not uncommon for a lot of our students to have been to six different schools.”
What counselors actually do • Mass approach • Having a plan • Dream Adjusting • Cheerleading
Mass Approach • In class presentations • Counseling curriculum • Career Cruising
Having a Plan • Directionless Students • Emphasis on having a plan • Not necessarily college focused • Having a plan to protect themselves
“So, my primary goal is not to always push college. It's to push transition…a student would sit in my office that has 50% attendance, they're barely graduating, they don't like school. And I said, what do you want to do when you graduate? And he said, I want to go to college. I said, do you really? Because it's not-- your grades, do you like school? No, I hate school. So, why do you want to go to college? …And then we do some assessments, some career assessments, some job assessments…whatever that is, for whatever student-- whatever student needs to help them self-examine what they want to do, what they have to do to get there, to make a plan and they have to execute their plan.”
I mean, they're hopeful, you know, they don't-- you know, they experience the violence. They see it. It may be part of their community but they're hopeful because they have a plan. They have a way out because they're prepared. And from my experience, colleges won't be looking at kids that aren't well prepared you know, they have all these promises but, you know, read the fine print is only for some kids. And so, you know, I can count the number if kids that are really, really, really, really, that I felt hopeful that they have it, you know, the personal skills and the plan put together and they're going to go off and be OK. The great majority of them, I worry about them.…it goes back to you are well prepared and you have a plan and you have options.
Dream Adjusting • In response to misaligned ambitions counselors employ this strategic approach • Rooted in an understanding of student lived experiences • Counselors aim to be realistic while avoiding shaming and remaining trustworthy
“And then, when we start having the individual conversations, figure out if they have a legitimate plan or somebody today tell me they want to be a plastic surgeon and they're-- I'm just trying to get them to graduate and they only might have a 1.1. … as long you have the relationship, you can adjust dreams. I'm not a dream-crusher but a dream adjuster, really. You can help them see a different path. And as long as they know you have their best interest, they're-- in mind, they're--for the most part, they're willing to listen.”
Counselors as Cheerleaders • Aim to encourage students to follow through with plans • Delicate approach stems from counselors beliefs about fragile ambitions • Positive view of students ambition
“…we do a lot of just trying to help them feel safe and kind of being their cheerleaders…Because a lot of our kids feel terrible about school and failed at so much in the past. So trying to be their cheerleaders and trying to help support them with that.” “Like I said, I try to be the cheerleader, optimistic, trying to say you can do something. I think when they hear so much they can't do it, can't do it, can't do it, it's hard to hear the one voice that tells them they can.”
Misaligned Ambitions • Counselors regularly encounter students whose post-secondary plans do not align with the reality of their current academic status “I feel like there's a disconnect between where they're at and then, you know, the kids will, well I want to go to Clark Atlanta. Like they have a .6 GPA. “ “And definitely trying, my biggest thing is to avoid like shaming them or embarrassing them. But just helping them realize the steps. So I say you know what, you have a 1.3 and like a 14 on your ACT. And so these are, and these are [selective state school’s] admission requirements.”
Guiding Transitions out of High School • Majority of counselors identify two common problems • 1. Directionless students • 2. Misaligned Ambitions • Within the context of a high poverty district and low resourced schools counselors aim to preserve hope for the future • Two avenues this can take • For directionless students • Counselors emphasize having a plan • Counselors aim to be cheerleaders • For Misaligned ambitions • Preserve trust of students • Counselors aim to dream adjust
Community College as a Second Chance • While counselors acknowledge misaligned ambitions they encourage community college as a path for students to possibly achieve goals that are currently unattainable “But then once they get close to, you know, junior, senior level and if they have an F, I do become realistic with them and say, you know, "To get into UWM, you need a 2.5 and your GPA is a 1.9 But I'm like, "What do you think -- how do you think you're going to get in to [state school]?" "Probably not." "Right; you're probably not. But that doesn't mean you can't eventually." …I would definitely go to [local community college] first and transition to a four-year college.” “…But I tell the students, you know, "If your grades aren't that grade, don't look at it as a negative thing to go to [local community college]." I mean, they have great programs and you can get in there with your GPA. And I said, "I'll help you transition to a four-year college." And I said, "You don't -- you go there for two years, take all of your general requirements, you know, and transition." You know, so I don't want them to lose all hope, so I'll never say, you know, "You're never going to do anything. You're never --" but I just tell them, you know? I am trying to be realistic and say, "Well, let's talk about what your options are with this GPA and what you can do, where you can go.“”
