As follow up to NSCA representatives recently visiting the offices of all 5 of Nebraska’s Congressmen all school counselors are encouraged to contact their US Representative and our US Senators and ask them to sign on as sponsors to the Pathways to College Act and the Increased Student Achievement Through Increased Student Support Act.  When contacting your Representative you are encouraged to also ask him to consider signing on to the Student Non-Discrimination Act as well.   When contacting Sen. Johanns, ask him to consider taking the Republican lead on the Senate version of the Student Non-Discrimination Act set to be introduced by Sen. Franken (D-MN).  It does not matter whether you email, fax, snail mail, or call, the important fact is that you make the contact.  It is worth noting that snail mail takes extra time post 9-11 as it is security screened in Washington. When writing do what you can to add personal stories and/or data about how school counselors have impacted students in your school.  Below are links to addition information about the proposed pieces of legislation and link to the website of each Representative and Senator.  Their websites contain the contact information that you need.

Information on the Pathways to College Act

Information on the Student Achievement Through Increased Student Support Act

Information on the Student Non-Discrimination Act

Senator Johanns Website

Senator Nelson Website

Representative Smith Website

Representative Fortenberry Website

Representative Terry Website

Sample Letter to all Representatives

Sample Letter to Senator Johanns

Sample Letter to Senator Nelson

The Public Agenda with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a report called “Can I Get a Little Advice Here?”. The report is generally critical of school counselors as the subtitle, “How an Overstretched High School Guidance System Is Undermining Students’ College Aspirations”, suggests. The four key findings in the report were:

1. Most students, even those who successfully complete college, give their high school guidance counselors fair or poor ratings.
2. Students who get perfunctory counseling are more likely to delay college and make more questionable higher education choices.
3. High school counselors are viewed as less helpful than teachers.
4. Advisers at higher education institutions get better ratings, but there’s room for improvement.

View the entire report

While as a school counselor this report is difficult to read as it is critical of the school counseling profession, it is important that all school counselors be aware of its content and be prepared to respond when questioned about it. There has been much written about the report and it is creating a buzz particularly within the education community. Below are some talking points prepared by NSCA after reviewing the American School Counselor Association official response and an article on insidehighered.com.

• The report also shows what can go wrong when pupil to school counselor ratios are not at the recommended level of 250:1. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) reports that the national average is 460:1 with it being as high as 1,000:1 in some school districts.
• The report also points out the school counselors are stretched too thin as they are increasingly called on to perform duties outside of their mission including: “discipline issues and sorting out scheduling and other administrative mix-ups within the high school...”
• The research survey used to support the report gathered information from people who graduated from high school between 1998 and 2006.  The ASCA National Model was released in 2003.  Therefore the people surveyed likely did not benefit from working with trained counselors under this model for a comprehensive school counseling program.  Given this the responses gathered in the survey are not entirely an accurate reflection of school counseling programs today.