School counselors can play a vital role in ensuring students meet their academic and career goals by helping them to create effective high school course schedules. The quality of the coursework students take in high school powerfully affects their life options after graduation.  School counselors can guide students through the course selection process. They also can help schools identify policies and practices that propel all students toward success, as well as those that hold some students back. The problem is that too many of today’s school counselors do not serve this function.

A report issued last month entitled Poised to Lead outlines what states, districts, and schools can do to help school counselors become leaders and advocates in the effort to prepare all students for college and career. Making sure there are courses in place which serve in the interest of student goals is a critical way of making school relevant. According to the report, good school counselors have keen insight (and data) into which students (including which groups of students) are on a dead-end path, which students are en route to a solid high school education that will produce real choices, and which students are somewhere in between. 

Some schools are reorganizing to absorb the loss of counselors who were recently cut from the budget because of the fiscal crisis. The Fontana School District school board recently approved drastic cuts to the school budget, including eliminating every one of the counselors in the district. According to Cali Olsen-Binks, Superintendent of the Fontana Unified School District, “As we move through any more years of these kinds of budget reductions, we will never recover.”

The current fiscal crisis serves as an important scale to weigh the relative value of the services provided by various positions. It is more important than ever for individuals to show measureable value to the organization and the students served. I highly recommend administrators read this report and reflect on how school counselors can best serve the interests of the school community. The report recommends, in part, that school leaders “revise the job descriptions for school counselors so they focus on equitable education and on preparing all students for college and career.”