While they are eager to help students build strong academic records for good jobs and college admittance, school counselors report that their training doesn’t prepare them well enough to do that, and that their day-to-day job duties don’t match up with those goals.
The study was issued last month by the College Board’s Advocacy & Policy Center. It finds that, while eight in 10 counselors hold master’s degrees, most report that their preservice training was not well matched with the demands of their job.
Fewer than half say their training “adequately covered” seven of eight key areas of good college and career counseling identified by the College Board, such as academic planning for college and career readiness, or transitioning from high school graduation to college enrollment.