Indicator: Access to college and career advising

Definition

College and career counseling services are available in high schools and college campuses.

Recommended Metric(s)

K–12: Ratio of number of students to number of full-time equivalent (FTE) counselors

Postsecondary: Percentage of students using academic advising and career counseling services

Type(s) of Data Needed

Administrative data (educator administrative data; student administrative data); surveys

Why it matters

Having access to effective college and career advising can help students navigate transitions between high school, college, and the workplace. A small but growing body of evidence shows that counselors vary in their effectiveness at boosting high school students’ graduation rates, college attendance, selectivity, and persistence; moreover, students from low-income households benefit most from being assigned to an effective counselor.1, 2 The American School Counselor Association recommends a counselor caseload of 250 students, yet many counselors manage double or triple that recommended caseload, with the national average caseload at 471 students.3 Many studies have shown that counselors in schools serving underrepresented students are often unable to advise students effectively because their caseloads are too large.3, 4   One study estimates that adding an additional high school counselor improves four-year college enrollment rates by 10 percentage points.5

In a postsecondary context, comprehensive, integrated support programs (including advising, tutoring, and career services, among other supports) have produced higher academic achievement and degree attainment for students from low-income households.6  Research has also identified specific characteristics of effective advising—specifically, humanized, holistic, and proactive advising—that contribute to the success of students of color at predominantly White institutions.7, 8   Yet use of college career counseling services is lowest among Latino college students nationwide (46 percent), followed by White students (48 percent) and Black and Asian students (53 percent). Students age 26 and older also used career counseling services significantly less than students younger than age 26 (57 versus 39 percent, respectively).9

What to know about measurement

The recommended metric for the K–12 sector should be considered a minimum benchmark for measurement, as the ratio of students to FTE counselors does not provide insight into the quality or effectiveness of advising services. For a fuller picture, data users might be interested in additional information, such as the percentage of time that counselors dedicate to advising, how many students within the school they serve, the amount of time that other staff dedicate to advising (such as school-based administrators, third-party nonprofit program staff, and part-time or full-time volunteers), and/or the degree to which counselors or other staff leverage data to understand matriculation patterns of their school’s graduates and help students make informed decisions based on the likelihood of completion (a practice that research links to the effectiveness of advising services).10

Currently, the field lacks feasible ways to measure the quality and effectiveness of K–12 advising services at scale, but the number of FTE staff in various student support roles can be measured consistently using administrative data. For example, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Teacher and Principal Survey collects data on the number of FTE counselors among a sample of schools. Therefore, we suggest tracking the ratio of students to FTE counselors at minimum, and strongly recommend that K–12 systems assess the quality of advising services by disaggregating data on key indicators of successful student transitions, such as early college coursework completion, SAT/ACT participation, FAFSA completion, selection of a well-matched postsecondary institution, senior summer on track, postsecondary enrollment directly after high school graduation, and/or successful career transition after high school. 

At the postsecondary level, data on student utilization of college career counseling services may not be systematically collected everywhere. However, items from the Strada-Gallup College Experiences Survey11 could be used to measure utilization of academic advising and career services among college students. Similar to the K–12 sector, we recommend that postsecondary systems also disaggregate data on key indicators of successful student transitions through postsecondary education, such as first-year credit accumulation, first-year program concentration, and gateway course completion to understand whether advising services are effective and for whom. Also see the chapter on evidence-based practices for summaries of effective advising approaches.

Source frameworks

This indicator appeared in four source frameworks reviewed for this report, such as the Urban Institute’s Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools (REMIQS) framework. Our recommendation to expand this indicator to include access to advising at the postsecondary level aligns with recommendations from the P-16 framework.

References