Texas Middle and High School
Counselor Demand and Supply
Greg Cumpton
Principal Investigator
Research Associate
Ray Marshall Center
LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas
Outline
• House Bill 5 Challenges
• Counselor Effects from the Literature
• Counselor Time and Student-to-Counselor
Ratios
• Research Questions
• New Paradigms
Challenges of House Bill 5
• HB5 radically altered the structure of Texas’ high
school curriculum:
– Foundation Graduation Plan
– Five Endorsements
• Students choose their high school course plan,
including endorsements, on entering 9th grade.
• Districts note that these student choices early on in
high school will likely impact their opportunities for
college enrollment.
• Counselors will play a large role in providing context
for these student choices.
Graduation Plan Effects
• Previous research has demonstrated that the
presence of diverse curricular tracks often result in
the reinforcement of social stratification on racial
and socioeconomic lines due to two interrelated
phenomena:
– Different curricular pathways provide students with varying
levels of academic preparation and, consequently, access
to higher education, and
– Racial minority, low-income, and first-generation students
are often the least informed regarding the long-term effects
of the academic pathways they choose.
Delany, 1991; Gamoran, 1992; Lee, 1993; Rosenbaum, 1976; Spade,
Colomba & Vanfossen, 1997
Counselor Effects
• High school counselors can have a pronounced
impact on students’ college outcomes by:
– Increasing their postsecondary aspirations,
– Assisting them in navigating the financial aid system,
– Expanding and refining the types of colleges they apply to,
and
– Helping them choose a postsecondary institution that is
aligned with their aspirations and abilities.
• More interactions between students and counselors
have a positive and significant impact on students’
likelihood of postsecondary enrollment.
Adelman, 1999; Belasco, 2013; Bryan et al., 2011; Holcomb-McCoy,
2010; Jordan, 2001; McDonough, 1997; Orfield & Paul, 1993; Perna
& Titus, 1997; Rosenbaum, Miller, & Krei, 1996, Belasco, 2013;
Engberg & Gilbert, 2013; Stephan & Rosenbaum, 2012
Counselor Time
• While counselors may be one of the most crucial
links between students and postsecondary life, a
number of factors already hinder counselors from
providing appropriate guidance and support:
– Counselors also engage in standardized test coordination
and administration, crisis intervention, developmental
counseling, and discipline.
– The more students a counselor has to provide support to
(the student-to-counselor ratio), the greater the diversity of
the supports and the smaller amount of time a counselor
may devote to helping any single student.
Ballard & Murgatroyd, 1999; McDonough, 2005a; NACAC, 2006;
Venezia & Kirst, 2005; Brown, Galassi, & Akos, 2004; Perna et al., 2008
Counselor Student Ratio
•
In Texas, we have approximately 11,000 Counselors* but recent budget
cuts and student population growth show a noticeable rise in the
number of students a counselor needs to serve.
450
445
440
435
430
425
420
415
410
405
400
Student-to-Counselor FTE Ratio,
in Texas from 2010-2014
446
440
443
418
2010-11
2011-12
*FTE Count and Calculations on this page from PEIMS Standard
Reports (2010-2014), Texas Education Agency.
2012-13
2013-14
Research Questions
• What has been the supply of high school counselors in Texas
since 2000?
• What has been the demand for high school counselors in Texas
since 2000?
• Have there been and are there regional variations in counselor
supply and demand, both in terms of the number of individuals
serving as counselors and whether these individuals meet the
educational and certification requirements of the profession?
• Is there historical evidence of an effect of changes in Texas
policies (such as graduation requirement) on counselor supply
and demand?
Data and Methods
• This project will use Texas Education Research Center data
housed at the Ray Marshall Center to look at counselor supply
and demand since 2000.
• Linking counseling staff to their school and district will be used
to calculate the general supply of counselors over this time
period.
• In order to calculate the demand for and actual availability of
services, we will examine trends in the demographic
composition of the student body.
• Examine the data for discontinuities in the student-tocounselor ratio. We will attempt to interpret these
discontinuities in light of substantive educational policies
implemented over these years.
New Paradigms
• RMC will also examine non-traditional or innovative
approaches for providing counseling services to
enable students to have a clearer understanding of
HB5 and its options:
– May increase the ability of counselors to more
effectively communicate,
– Provide more information on the potential longterm effects of student choices, and
– Target information to students who need it the
most.
Thank you!
Contact Information:
Greg Cumpton
gcumpton@raymarshallcenter.org
Matt Giani
matt.giani@raymarshallcenter.org
Chris King
ctking@raymarshallcenter.org