Comprehensive School Counseling Programs Are Essential to
Student Achievement and Successful Postsecondary Transition
Recent developments in technologies have driven worldwide economic changes that demand
that all workers have 21st century knowledge and skills in order to be competitive and to
manage inevitable life-career transitions. Data trends suggest that today’s students and their
parents understand that success in careers of all types now requires more training and
education than was demanded of previous generations. The number of students aspiring to
postsecondary education has never been higher. Between 1980 and 2002, the percentage of
national tenth-graders hoping to complete a bachelor’s degree nearly doubled from 41 to 79
percent, across all ethnic groups. The numbers of students taking the SAT has risen from
8000 in 1926, the first year the SAT was administered, to 1,376,745 in 2006.
Unfortunately, an alarming gap exists between student’s aspirations and their achievements.
State and school data trends point out how many students are ill-prepared for post-secondary
success. For example, for every 10 students entering 9th grade in the state of Florida, only
six will complete high school. Of those six, only three will go onto college and only two will
complete a baccalaureate degree program within six years. For those students who do
graduate from high school, a vast majority (61%) do not go on to earn a postsecondary
certificate or degree within five years, if at all.
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the first major school system to track and publicly
report the college enrollment patterns of its graduates, document similar outcomes.
Mirroring the rising college aspiration rates noted above, nearly 92% of 1999 CPS
graduating seniors said they planned to attain a postsecondary degree at a four- or two-year
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college or vocational/ technical school. However, almost half of the students who enter a
CPS high school never make it to graduation. And only one-third of those who complete
high school enroll in a four-year college; of the cohort that does enroll in college, just 35%
graduate college within six years. Why?
Why did only six percent of the students who started in a CPS high school in the mid-1990s
– in a situation that is not unique to Chicago – earn a four-year college degree by the time
they were in their mid-twenties? What did or did not occur during students’ high school
years that contributed to such dismal postsecondary outcomes? Administrators and
educators must work with partners in and outside the school to address this alarming gap
between students’ aspirations and their actual educational achievements. Emerging trends
suggest that this is best accomplished through a comprehensive school counseling program
focused on career development.
The National Leadership Cadre (NLC) is an organization of nine states that supports school
counseling reform with a focus on career development. The NLC maintains that graduation
and postsecondary placement rates, in addition to other student achievement indicators
such as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports and standardized test scores, improve
when school administrators implement a comprehensive developmental guidance (CDG)
program that aligns with the American School Counseling Association’s (ASCA)
National Model and focuses on career development as its ultimate mission.
Implementation must begin at the state level, through leadership and coordination of
partnerships comprised of government agencies, state school counseling associations, and
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institutions of higher education. With state policies, recommendations, and endorsements as
necessary leverage, district and local administrators can call upon staffs for similar
coordinated implementation of school counseling programs that focus on students’ life career
development.
In this accountability-driven era, educational administrators at all levels want to support
strategies that improve student outcomes and demonstrate results. Education focused on the
life career development of students can be a means to those ends. For example Missouri, one
of nine Cadre states, found that high schools implementing the ASCA Model and delivering
educational and career planning documented higher gains in meeting AYP benchmarks than
their counterparts who did not. In addition, the Missouri study documented better attendance
rates, fewer discipline problems and higher math scores on the state assessment test among
middle school students.
A Reform Primer for Administrators
School counseling is a profession in transition. Its vocational and career-focused heritage,
dating back to the 1900’s, was a response to the economic, educational, and social problems of
the time. These same influences are placing enormous demands on schools once again and
thus are reshaping the profession. Even service-based employers who need not fear
outsourcing are demanding employees with the flexible higher-order thinking skills required
to learn and adapt as technology-driven demands change their industries.
Working against
the demands for such a workforce are alarmingly high dropout and postsecondary remediation
rates; deficient math, science and reading skills; and increases in youth risk behaviors and
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achievement gaps that separate students of color and low-income students from white and
more affluent students. In addition to efforts to revise curricula and instruction is a strategy too
often overlooked: a well developed and implemented school counseling program driven by
needs assessment data and outcomes.
School counselors’ training and skills and their unique role in the school make them ideal
coordinators and leaders in implementing a Comprehensive Developmental Guidance
program in which all staff play a role. In a comprehensive developmental guidance model,
school counselors develop and deliver curriculum and interventions that support life-career
development. They collaborate with other educators and business/community partners to
ensure that students transition to postsecondary education and the workplace with
essential knowledge, attitudes and skills for success. Successful implementation of this
model, however, requires that administrators understand the emerging role of school
counselors in the 21st century as outlined by ASCA as well as the basic tenets of a
comprehensive developmental guidance program.
Triangulated Leadership
Transforming the role of school counselors within the school with a focus on career
development requires buy-in and collaboration at all levels. To strengthen the pivotal role that
school counselors can play in promoting student achievement and future success, change must
take place at the state, district, and school level. The National Leadership Cadre offers the
following recommendations:
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Leadership at the state level:
Department of Education offices:
 designate and publicize a leader or coordinator to support implementation of CDG
programs and work in partnership with state agencies, associations, and colleges,
universities .
 point person to develop state school counseling programs.
 mandate development of educational and career plans for all students, K-12.
 initiate and nurture partnerships with state school counseling associations and
institutions of higher education to develop a state model that includes school
counseling curriculum focused on promoting career development and academic
achievement.
 support professional development of practicing school counselors in order to actualize
the Model.
 partner within the DOE as well as with other state agencies who are stakeholders in
life career development (e.g. Special Education. Career and Technical education,
State Departments of Labor, Economic and Workforce Development)
 align licensure requirements with state models.
 seek grant opportunities to fund state-wide school counseling initiatives that include
implementation of new models, implementation of effective practices, and professional
development needed for integration of career development and academic achievement.
State School Counseling Associations:
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work in partnership with to build good state policy to mobilize their members to fully
participate in school counseling reform initiatives.
lead statewide efforts to promote increased attention to career development by school
counselors.
lead statewide efforts to promote the integration of school counseling program with
state educational reform initiatives.
establish a task force to create a state model that aligns with the ASCA National
Model.
sponsor professional development opportunities at annual state conferences
use a state association website to highlight and share best practices in life career
development education.
Counselor Education Training Programs:
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encourage state school counseling training programs to work with the Department of
Education, the state school counseling association, and each other to build good state
policy and to promote needed reforms in school counseling preparation.
update the counselor education curriculum to teach best practices in preventative
interventions to increase academic achievement and enhance career development.
update the counselor education curriculum to teach best practices in organizing school
counseling programs to support student achievement and educational reform.
partner with exemplary school districts to support school counseling innovation and
reform.
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Leadership at the school district level:
 adopt a comprehensive K-12 guidance model with an explicit focus on academic
achievement and career development for all students.
 promote professional development that will enable school counselors to fully
implement this comprehensive guidance model.
 hold all schools accountable for creation of impactful educational and career plans for
all students.
 establish a district wide policy for common planning time, if only during in-service,
where counselors can work with teachers and paraprofessionals to analyze needs, data
etc.
 appoint or support existing district level guidance directors to coordinate linkages
between community based organizations, businesses, postsecondary institutions, and
regional employment boards
Leadership at the school building level:
 connect the school counseling program to the school’s goals in promoting academic
achievement, career development, and successful transitions.
 restructure school counselors’ time to eliminate non-professional duties to promote the
ability of the school counselor to reach all students through classroom, large group,
and small group interventions.
 provide common planning time on a regular basis.
 convey message that career curriculum is important and requires and integrated
system-wide approach.
 establish and lead a team with representatives from the school counseling, special
education, and technology departments to develop the most efficient method to create,
store, and access career plans.
 work with school counselors to identify times in the master schedule for delivering
career guidance lessons at each grade level.
 work with school counselors to develop opportunities for parents to give input to their
child’s educational/career plan.
 send a team of school counselors to visit a school where a successful career planning
process is already underway.
 allocate necessary funds for purchasing assessment tools and career software.
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Endnotes
1
Roderick, M., Nagaoka, J., Allensworth, E. (2006). From High School to the Future: A first
look at Chicago Public School graduates’ college enrollment, college preparation, and
graduation from four-year colleges. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School
Research at the University of Chicago.
2
Education Online Search. About the SAT.
Retrieved May 5, 2008, from
http://www.education-online-search.com/articles/testing/sat_testing/about_the_sat
3
Florida Educational and Training Placement Information Program. Retrieved September 14,
2007, from http://www.fldoe.org/fetpip/
4
Chicago Postsecondary Transition Project, From High School to the Future: A first look at
Chicago Public School graduates’ college enrollment, college preparation, and
graduation from four-year colleges. (2006).
5
Lapan, R., Gyspers, N., Petroski, G. (2001). Helping seventh graders be safe and successful:
A statewide study of the impact of the comprehensive guidance and counseling
programs, 79 (3), 320-30.
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