Counseling Ratios Are Down. That’s Good—Right?

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

The school counseling profession got some good news this week. Following a years-long trend, the national student-counselor ratio dropped again last year, now standing at 372-1. While some states saw increases, the high school counselor range fell to 195-224, the first time it’s fallen within the ASCA recommended ratio of 250 to 1.

The benefits of a smaller ratio tend to speak for themselves. Fewer students on a caseload tends to mean more time with each student on a caseload, as well as more time to develop group guidance activities, outreach to parents, and creation of a counseling curriculum. Given the significant increase for mental health counseling since COVID, these innovations go a long way to meeting the needs families have come to count on counselors to fulfill.

This good news is certainly cause to celebrate, but it is also a time to exercise some caution:

Middle school and elementary ratios It’s not hard to do the math here—if high school ratios are below the national average of 372, that means middle and elementary school ratios are way above the national average. Given the joyous nature of young children, it’s hard to see why schools don’t understand the need for counselors in younger grades. It’s time to keep singing that song.

Beware of cuts, Part One You can bet counselors aren’t the only ones noticing the drop in ratios. That means school administrators may be looking at this and thinking, geez, if we have fewer students, maybe we can live with fewer counselors. If you have a retiree or departing counselor in your midst, make sure you keep a close eye on efforts to replace them. Otherwise, your ratios go right back up.

Beware of cuts, Part Two The other way counseling departments get cut is by administrators deciding there are more non-professional duties counselors can do, now that they have all this “free time”. There’s always one time of year when extra duties are doled out. If you don’t know when that is, see if you can find out, and make sure you aren’t on the list for getting an extra helping of bus duty.

Develop something tangible I get it—the first thing you want to do as a counselor is better serve your students. To most counselors, this means more individual services and meetings, an idea that makes perfect sense; since growth in life is individual, plans for growth in life should be individual, too.

That said, it’s important to remember public perception of counselors is mixed at best, and that’s largely due to the nature of our work. We can’t exactly send an email blast to all families saying, “And this week in the counseling office, Josephine overcame her shyness, Bill finally quit smoking, and Steve and Julie patched up their broken relationship.” On the other hand, if we don’t make some effort at promoting the work we do, it’s sometimes perceived as mysterious, and support for that work diminishes—and, as a result, so does the emotional and fiscal support we receive.

One way to meet this need is program development. Since a recent survey showed less than a third of public high schools had a college counseling curriculum, now might be the time to use some of this ratio reduction to create guidance structures everyone can see and take advantage of. The bonus here is that this strengthened curriculum means less time in individual meetings discussing general issues, and more time focusing on individual student needs. If you’re looking for a college counseling curriculum that’s good to go, try this one.

Administrative Support Lacking? Give Them This Quiz

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

This was a social media question that was right up my alley. “What are the 5-7 “non-negotiable” questions every high school should be asking, and be able to answer, about their students’ postsecondary outcomes?”

My first thought was, geez, only 5-7? I could come up with at least twice that many for just the college outcomes. Still, I decided to take the question at face value, and provided these five. Remember—these questions are designed as if your administrator were asking them of themselves.

How well do I really support our college and career awareness program? This question may be a little too open-ended for some, but it’s designed to see just how the administrator defines support. Is it through the budgeting process? Staffing? Allocation of physical space? Praise of the program at school events? Finding out what your admin sees as support goes a long way in shaping any goals you may have on how to expand that support, since you may have needs that aren’t even on their radar.

Is that an understanding based on professional training, or is it based on my personal perceptions and experiences? Very few administrator training programs include awareness of just what school counselors do, or what postsecondary curricula look like. If your admin’s understanding of these things only comes from experience as a classroom teacher, it’s likely that understanding needs to be significantly enhanced—by you.

What roadblocks do I put in the way of school counselors that prevent them from fully implementing a comprehensive postsecondary curriculum? The Geometry teacher’s car won’t start, so your admin comes in and asks you to cover the class—just as you were about to give the 9th grade Health class a presentation on careers. Along with excessive duties, schedule changes, testing coordination, and more, admins often use counselors as spare adults, not as professionals with specific skills. That’s a real problem.

What training opportunities do I allow them to engage in to make sure their postsecondary counseling skills are up to date with present industry standards and trends? An increasing number of counselors report admins won’t let them out of the building for professional development training, college visits, or worksite tours. College and career advising changes daily, so staying on top of these trends is a must. That can’t be done if admins insist counselors have to be in the building no matter what.

How often do I meet with school counselors to discuss their postsecondary counseling curriculum, and how I can support their efforts? Some counselors see meetings with admins as a two-edged sword; if they don’t meet often, it’s felt that counselors have free rein to do what they want. On the other hand, if admin support is lacking, it’s pretty likely that behavior won’t improve until it’s discussed. Like dealing with a student who doesn’t do their homework, the best way to move forward is to talk about it.

If you’re thinking hey, maybe it’s time to present these to my admin, you may be on to something. Before you do, do yourself a favor, and write down your best guess as to how the admin would answer these questions—in other words, what do you think they’ll say? The accuracy of your perceptions will tell much about your relationship with your admin.

In addition, don’t hesitate to add another question or two that may be important for you to ask. If I had to do it over again, I’d add “If there were one thing I should do to improve my school’s postsecondary curriculum, what would it be, and why?”

Enjoy!

The Profession Needs Your Help

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the need for our profession to include a separate course in college counseling as part of school counselor training. 

So here’s where the profession needs your help. I have developed such a course. 

It’s been taught for graduate school credit, and as part of professional development programs in public schools. 

It’s been used to meet the recertification requirement in Michigan for school counselors.

It’s been taught at national conferences.

It’s been taught in at least four states.

It covers everything you need to develop a comprehensive college counseling curriculum, all in 45 hours of instruction.

It’s been taught in 6, 12, and 15 week formats.

It’s been taken by new counselors and 25-year veterans, who all say the same thing:

• It’s one of the most demanding classes I’ve taken
• I wish I had taken it sooner

Unfortunately, the one grad school where it was taught decided their online courses should be taught by e-mail.

This is too important to leave instruction to an e-mail format.

So, can you help the profession out?

• I’m happy to send you the syllabus—just click this link to my email, and you’ll have it in 24 hours.
• Reach out to the counseling program that taught you, to a local graduate program, to your local counseling organization, to your state professional development organization—to see if they’d be interested in expanding their offerings to include this important, online course. Is your Aunt Sue a counselor educator? Buy her lunch.
• Don’t know what to say? “I’m contacting you as a school counselor who believes high quality counselor training in college counseling is a must, since all students deserve a chance to explore college and see if it’s for them. There’s a course for aspiring and current counselors that achieves this goal, and the syllabus and curriculum are free. Would you be interested in looking at them? I can send them to you, and get you in touch with the counselor who designed the course, who has taught it nationally.”

I don’t have to teach it—in fact, I hope so many organizations want to teach it, I couldn’t teach all the sections.

The lesson plans already exist—12 online units for an asynchronous class, all without videos, all for free. They can add to the course—I sometimes have a weekly discussion period—but the course is good to go as is, with all the notes and readings (yes, there is a recommended text, but they are welcome to pick their own). I’d also be happy to talk with them, and offer suggestions on how the course could be taught. All they need is a description of the offering (I can give them that too), a way to get people registered, a platform to teach it—and, if they want, a teacher. I provide the rest.

And a desire to improve the profession by meeting a dire need.

They are welcome to teach it for graduate credit, continuing ed credit, other credit, or no credit. They can amend it into more manageable parts for a conference, or change it into a hybrid course, or an in-person course.  They can offer it for free, and change it to meet needs in their area if need be. They can hire whomever they wish to teach it, but it’s usually best if it’s a current counselor with experience in college counseling.

I don’t care about making money or getting credit for this training.  As long as it gets offered.

Your future peers will thank you.

More important—so will their students.

Too Many Students? Try This

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I had a ridiculous caseload, at least at the time. 325 students—I know, I know, many of you would love to have a caseload that small—seemed just unmanageable at first, and serving them all was clearly out of the question.

Then something interesting happened—the students started sorting themselves out. First came the seniors, who were generally eager to see me for two reasons:

• If they loved school, they saw me to apply to college

• If they hated school, they saw me to make sure they were going to graduate from high school, and never go to school again

It’s certainly true I didn’t see much of the latter group after September, but it’s also safe to say most of them didn’t really need a lot of counseling at that point. The ones who didn’t have a post-high school plan were easy enough to spot in September, so they would get some extra appointments, of course. The others got a wave in the hallways, to let them know I was there.

The 9-11th grade students needing help also rose to the top, thanks to three things:

• Self-referrals—it’s amazing how many kids who need help actively seek it

• Teacher-referrals—the teachers with huge hearts who would run into the office at the bell and say “You have to see Belinda, and soon.”

• The high school policy that students with more than two failing grades at the quarter had to be seen in the first three weeks of the next quarter.

With that in place, I decided I’d try something, and see every 9th grader in a month, and every 10th grader the month after that. This was pre e-mail, so you can only imagine the organizational nightmare this was, and it certainly kept the student helpers busy in the office. But even though the meetings were about 10 minutes each, something magical happened—we got to know each other, especially when there was no burning issue to discuss. Some only came the two or three times I asked them to, and some came back more often, but the whole tone of my relationship to my caseload changed, 10 minutes at a time.

If I were doing this today, I’d make some small changes:

• Introductory e-mail: I’d send a note the week before the appointments started to let the students know I was setting time aside for them. I’d tell them if there was anything they’d need to prepare ahead of time, then let them know this is really their time, so if there was anything they wanted to know about—scheduling, careers, college, jobs—they should bring those questions with them. I was here for them.

• The meeting: The actual meeting would likely be the same—some initial chit-chat, a couple of minutes on the task at hand, and then I’d turn in over to them. Sadly, since most students aren’t used to working with adults who want to put the student’s future in their own hands, I’d need to have some key questions handy for the student who didn’t know how to lead or help themselves. These aren’t just questions to kill time; they are questions to model self-leadership skills.

• Post meeting: A quick email to thank the student for coming in, mentioning what we discussed, along with some follow-up information in case there were some questions I needed to look into after the meeting.

A counselor’s job is a tough one for many reasons, but it’s vital to find ways to make the job work for us, not against us. This one worked for me.

Giving A Gift For School Counseling Week

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

Hamtramck is a Detroit enclave with Polish roots, a part of town where, in the day, neighbors would scrub their sidewalks together until you could eat off them. It’s a wonderfully diverse neighborhood now, still hosting a Paczki run each Lenten season, named after the Polish donut with a zillion calories you eat on Fat Tuesday. The route runs through neighborhoods, and your 5K effort is rewarded at the end with a table of Paczki.

As I ran past these very-close-together houses with kids in their pajamas sitting on the stoops, cheering for the runners (remember, this is February), I wished there was something I could do for this old-school, blue collar community. I was born in a neighborhood in northwest Detroit that wasn’t too different from this one, with homeowners who had been raised in the Depression, most of them having served in World War II, Korea, or both. Once they came home, there were only three things they wanted in life: a house with indoor plumbing (no, I am not kidding), a small yard to cut on sunny Saturday mornings and sit in on sunny Saturday afternoons in a folding chair, and the chance for their kids to go to college. Hamtramck was screaming the same vibe. If only I could figure out how to help. 

It turns out I didn’t have to do much but wish to make it so. About a week later, and completely out of the blue, the Hamtramck PTA president somehow tracked me down, and asked if I’d give a college access talk at their high school. We talked to set things up, and it was clear she was a go-getter, on of those moms who talked on the phone to set up dentist appointments with a baby on her hip, while gesticulating to her other children to get ready for school. It turned out Donna Reed wasn’t dead. She was now Greek, and living in Hamtramck.

I was ushered into a barren auditorium that was rich with the memory of ten thousand assemblies that all started with the Pledge of Allegiance. The walls were undecorated, likely holding their color from the Eisenhower administration, and the kid from the AV club set up a microphone the Andrews Sisters could have used. Students filtered in, many of them girls with covered heads, accompanied by mothers with covered heads, and several younger siblings. I shifted my gaze back and forth, seeing the face of each parent in the face of each student, and caught my breath. I was witnessing an illustration of the dictionary definition of family.

My presentation was warmly received, but only a handful of audience members came up to ask questions. At first, I wondered if my talk had met the needs of those in attendance, since most of my other presentations were concluded by go-getter parents lurching to the front of the room to ask about Harvard or something like that. It then occurred to me: this neighborhood doesn’t work that way. You make the most out of what’s given you, and express gratitude for the chance to do just that.

The PTA president was the last to talk to me, energized by the presentation, overflowing with kindness and gratitude. My payment was a handwritten thank you note and the best homemade Greek pastries I’ve ever had…

…and a reminder how lucky I am to be in a profession where I can make a difference, if only I put myself out there a little.

I know you’re busy. I am too. But you’ve got a Hamtramck, too.

Think about it.

Your Wish List for National School Counseling Week

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I’m always a little hesitant to visit counselor chat rooms and social media posts this time of year, since a too frequent post appears:

“How are you celebrating National School Counseling Week?”

At one level, I get it. Since it’s National School Counseling Week—with an ing—this is a great opportunity to promote all the services counselors offer, or can offer, and refresh your school community’s awareness that your program exists, and is there to help. 

At another level, I can’t help but feel like we’re throwing our own birthday party. No, it isn’t National School Counselor Week—with a lor—but there’s something about us hosting events to celebrate what we do that makes me wonder—why isn’t somebody else shouting out for all we do?

It then realized I was looking at this all wrong. When someone asks what I want for my birthday, I’m not shy. Same thing with Christmas—after the year I got four chess sets, I decided maybe I needed to regulate the good intentions of my gift givers, all in everyone’s best interests.

That leads to this conclusion. Write a memo to your principal, reminding (informing?) them your profession’s big week is coming up, and ask if they would celebrate by giving you an hour of their time.

Yup. You need to party by taking a meeting.

You do this for three reasons. First, it’s the best way to make sure NSCW is on your administrator’s radar screen, increasing the chances they will arrange some schoolwide recognition. Second, if that doesn’t happen, it’s more likely they’ll at least bring coffee cake to the meeting.

Third, it provides an important opportunity to look at the big picture of your school counseling program, and ask for the help and support you need to help and support your students. There are way too many times during the school year when counselors think, hey, we really need to start doing this, or stop doing that, or change the way we do this. Why not use NSCW as an opportunity to put all those ideas together, and put them on the table?

It’s likely you already know what to talk about, but if you need a jumping off point, try these:

Job awareness This is a great time to tell your new administrator exactly what it is counselors do (don’t assume they know) or to update veteran administrators on how the job is going this year—are there more absence issues, social-emotional cases, etc? If you don’t typically get their ear, now is the time to basically make them listen, and that’s OK.

Annual review If it’s not already in place, this is the perfect time for you to request two meetings- one at the start of the year, and one at the end—to discuss the goals and progress of the school counseling curriculum. The fall meeting clarifies what you will and won’t be doing for the year, including those famous “other duties as assigned”. The spring meeting is a springboard for modifications you can work on over the summer.

Speaking of other duties You can’t hope to do more than classroom faculty, but you shouldn’t have to do more. This is the perfect time to discuss that.

Blue sky time It’s good to finish this meeting by going around the room and asking “What’s one way you’d like counseling to change?” (make sure you answer the question as well.) These short answers can be very revealing, and give you things to consider in preparation for the spring annual review meeting they just agreed to.