Public Schools fail to promote College

I have admired sports broadcaster, Frank Beckmann, for many years as an avid fan of Michigan and Detroit sports and appreciate his efforts to address some important issues confronting educators and families in Michigan.

As a school guidance counselor for twelve years, I chuckle at comments and articles made like this; unfortunately, these critical comments aren't laughable since they are hurtful to many in my profession including myself. For this reason, I'd like to address some of these issues professionally.

The first area that Mr. Beckmann addresses is the perception that to enjoy a successful life, one must possess a college degree. He cites Lieutenant Governor Cherry's concern about the 23% dropout rate, and a recent EPIC/MRI poll projecting 27% of parents believing that a college degree is essential while half of Michigan's parents disagree that every child should go to college.

Yes, guidance counselors face a substantial challenge when the culture at home doesn't support strong educational values; however, guidance counselors are not the only educators that are responsible for curing dropout problems or facilitating students to higher education opportunities. The entire public school system: school boards, administrators, teachers, etc. help influence and facilitate student choices in addition to their home and community. While many public school districts like to highlight their points of pride with how many students attend colleges and universities, no districts are bold enough to make school board policies regarding higher education placement.

In many schools, the ratio of students to guidance counselors is quite high. Nationwide, it is approximately 590 students to one guidance counselor. Only one public school district in Michigan contractually will add a guidance counselor if the ratio goes above 250:1 as the American School Counseling Association recommends. More and more guidance counseling jobs are being eliminated and/or guidance counselor to student ratios are being increased. It is difficult to see every student especially when there are complaints about students missing important class time.

Guidance counselors are also given a myriad of duties that have no relationship to counseling activities we were educated for; we are given many administrative and/or secretarial duties that may take precedence over other duties. Still, in spite of many obstacles to facilitate higher educational opportunities, school guidance counselors have been instrumental in encouraging students to challenge themselves to take more rigorous coursework as the President's Council suggests (http://pcsum.org/ and http://www.michiganprincipals.org/parentresources/pdf/dyf.pdf), keys to high school success that Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals and Designing Your Future suggest (http://www.michiganprincipals.org/parentresources/hs_scheduling.html) and ACT standards of transition and pathways to success (http://www.act.org/standard/) are recommended.

A minority of people in our state, our nation or in the world possess a bachelor's degree so it is by no accident that many hold the beliefs they have. A bachelor's degree is no guarantee of career success in today's economy in Michigan or elsewhere. While I possess four degrees in higher education and strongly believe in the principle of life-long learning, and encourage others to strongly consider these values, each person must formulate their own educational goals to achieve.

The second area that Mr. Beckmann addresses is the perception that guidance counselors are doing an "abysmal job." He references two university presidents supporting his assertions with Dr. Coleman at Michigan and Dr. Simon at Michigan State, and makes references stating how guidance counselors are "worn out" and lacking professional education.

As is true in every profession, there are a few people that contribute to unprofessional perceptions; however, the vast majority of the guidance counselors are highly professional doing a wonderful job that is appreciated by students, parents, staff and administrators they serve. To be certified, all school guidance counselors must complete a master's degree with sixteen or more graduate courses in addition to their undergraduate work and teaching experience prior to becoming school counselors. (CACREP standards: http://www.cacrep.org/2001Standards.html) Many guidance counselors hold additional degrees and have attended several certification workshops in an effort to improve their skills. We are a profession that is very well educated. Due to a shortage of people entering our profession, our state association consented to allow state legislators to temporarily decrease the state requirements to allow more people into the profession.

For Mr. Beckmann, Dr. Coleman, Dr. Simon or anyone to ascertain that school guidance counselors are doing an abysmal job is very unprofessional. We all work very hard to help individuals and families with their unique situations which could range from encouraging higher education opportunities to fulfilling district graduation requirements, increasing academic achievement, referring students and families to many available resources: tutoring, therapy, testing, etc.

It would be highly unlikely that these same university presidents would criticize state English teachers for the significant amount of students who enter colleges or universities without adequate writing skills.

Dr. Coleman and/or Dr. Simon may also want to address their own issues in higher education before being critical of other professions. An example would be the state higher education drop out rate of 25% for college freshmen and 50% by the Sophomore year. At Michigan State, 15% of their student body is on academic probation in any given semester. In addition, there are significant amounts of students currently enrolled in our state's community colleges and/or vocational schools that already possess a bachelor's degree. They enrolled in an effort to obtain the skills necessary to become employable since their bachelor's degree didn't culminate in a rewarding career to date.

The financial aid system in our country for higher education is the most complicated by far in the entire world, and it is no wonder why we have so few students and their parents taking advantage of these opportunities. Every year, school guidance counselors provide local financial aid meetings facilitated by experts in higher education financial aid and every year we have low turnouts from students and parents. Every year, we promote and facilitate scholarship opportunities at the local, state and national levels only to receive a handful of applicants. Please don't blame school guidance counselors for the lack of applicants for financial aid. Students enrolled in higher education aren't taking full advantage of these opportunities either, and university president's may want to look at their own systems to help determine the answers.

In addition, try researching any college or university in our state or others for their placement rate. That is, their rate of students obtaining jobs in their area of study (or any area) after graduation. My research tells me that there is no reliable data supporting any assertions that their bachelor's degree has provided a sure path to career success.

The final area he addresses is that there is a "new breed" of guidance counselor that is younger, better trained and more "in tune." He uses statements from the new education superintendent, Dr. Flanagan, to support his beliefs that students be "steered" towards appropriate educational opportunities.

Mr. Beckmann and others need to understand that it is not the mission of any university school guidance counselor program to educate and train school guidance counselors to become higher academic advisors for public schools. The missions of public school guidance counseling programs in Michigan or other states are not solely to enhance higher educational opportunities; it is simply one of the many duties that we do in the course of any school year. (How do children choose careers? http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-122-1678_2568_2578---,00.html )

The "new" breed of guidance counselor includes many young, capable people, but this "new breed" can't change the current system of public education; the system of public education must reinvent itself to better serve the needs of its stakeholders. A quick example is that the career and employability standards (http://michigan.gov/documents/Career&Employ_Standards_12_01_13760_7.pdf) component accounts for only 2% of the new state report card while MEAP assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies are 66%.

This "new" breed has helped to implement comprehensive guidance that has a threefold mission: 1)help students to learn about themselves and others (developing self-awareness, appropriate attitudes and interpersonal relationship skills), 2)help students to learn about career (this may mean higher education opportunities, but also many other things like career awareness, decision-making skills and pre-employment skills like interviewing), and 3)help students in educational development (to help students improve their academic, study skills and the relationship between academic achievement and their academic and/or career goals). The comprehensive guidance model (powerpoint: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MCGCP_Long_Version_37787_7.ppt) has had a varying degree of success since many districts have experienced difficulty implementing the curriculum when other curricular areas take precedence.

The effort to scapegoat school guidance counselors as the primary problem in the public school educational system of transitioning students to higher educational opportunities was not researched well enough and simply isn't a truth or an accurate perception. It is a perception than many highly credible people choose to believe without doing their homework.

Yours in education,

Dave Taylor, N.C.C.