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Counseling Matters: Knowledge, Assistance, and Organizational Commitment in College Preparation

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... Information is important for engaging in all aspects of postsecondary education guidance and planning, especially for students attending urban schools. Awareness of higher education as an option can influence student outlook and approach to high school (Bell et al., 2009;McDonough, 2005). An early understanding of college entry requirements can influence students' high school course choices and ensure they are academically prepared and qualified for MANAGING THE COLLEGE SEARCH PROCESS 6 admission (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000). ...
... Students attending urban schools often rely on their high school counselors for college guidance (Corwin et al., 2004;McDonough, 1997). High school counselors help with college readiness and provide valuable advice, support, and direction to students considering postsecondary education options (Bryant, 2015;Farmer-Hinton, 2011;Hatch, 2014;McDonough, 2005). Counselors influence student aspirations for college and contribute to the college-going culture in a school (Holland & Farmer-Hinton, 2009;Perna et al., 2008;Reid & Moore, 2008). ...
... Counselors and guidance may have a bigger impact on the college choice process of students who otherwise have less exposure to knowledgeable sources about college (Bergerson, 2009;Perna, 2004). But structural factors and lack of resources, including high student-counselor ratios 2 and additional work responsibilities, can limit counselors' effectiveness in college guidance (Corwin et al., 2004;McDonough, 2005). ...
Article
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Despite high aspirations, many students do not complete postsecondary education. Some scholars advocate for providing more college information to increase enrollment and reduce attainment gaps but this approach overlooks what school counselors and students do with information. Based on interviews and participant observations drawn from 20 urban high schools, this study explores how counselors and students make use of online college information in postsecondary education guidance. The findings reveal that counselors feel students hold responsibility for many aspects of their college searches. Students easily find college information online but experience challenges in understanding it, which leaves them with unanswered questions. Abundant college information may enable counselors to adopt the role of managing the college search process instead of directly guiding students. Scaffolding, active engagement, and additional resources are needed to support counselors and students in college guidance.
... But if information is powerful, it is also socially stratified. Less advantaged students and parents secure less information and poorer information about colleges, majors, and attendance modalities than do more advantaged students (Deutschlander, 2017;Grodsky & Jones, 2007;Horn, Chen, & Chapman, 2003;Kelly & Schneider, 2011;Kirst & Venezia, 2004;Lareau, 2015;Lareau & Cox, 2011;Lavecchia, Liu, & Oreopoulos, 2014;Luna de la Rosa, 2006;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005aMcDonough, , 2005bPerna & Titus, 2005;Rosenbaum, Ahearn, & Rosenbaum, 2017;Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen, & Person, 2006;Tornatzky, Cutler, & Lee, 2002;Velez & Horn, 2018; see also Ball et al., 2002;Hutchings, 2003). ...
... These differences in amount and quality of information about higher education certainly reflect the varying capacities (tied to education and income) and efforts of parents and students of different classes and races to acquire college information. Lower SES and of color parents are less able to provide good information to their children because they less often have gone to college, have fewer college-educated friends and relatives, and have less ability to pay for private college counselors than do high SES and White parents (Hossler et al., 1999;Lareau, 2015;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005aMcDonough, , 2005b. ...
... College-going students need to make sure they take the right courses in high school, engage in the right extracurriculars, and begin saving money (Harding, Parker, & Toutkoushian, 2017;Hossler et al., 1999;Knight & Marciano, 2013, chap. 2;McDonough, 1997, p. 105;McDonough, 2005b;Roksa & Deutschlander, 2018;Vargas, 2004). ...
Research
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This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States—whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular path through college—produces and legitimates social inequality. The paper’s central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices—while serving individual freedom and producing social well-being—produces societal inequality in a way that obscures that process of social reproduction for virtually all who participate in that choice regime. Students often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if students are faced with many choices and do not have adequate information. The incidence of those suboptimal choices is not random but is socially stratified. It is higher for less advantaged people, and unequal provision of good information plays a crucial role in producing those socially stratified suboptimal choices. Secondly, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality. Seemingly offered many choices in life, both the fortunate and unfortunate in society come to feel that much of the inequality they experience is due to their own actions and therefore is legitimate. The paper concludes by offering various prescriptions for reducing the socially stratifying impacts and ideological consequences of a high-choice regime.
... Indeed, one of the crucial goals of the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2019) is to provide school counselors with effective tools for promoting postsecondary readiness and success for all students. Ample research demonstrates the vital role that school counselors play in the college admission process for high school students (Bryan et al., 2011;Cholewa et al., 2015;Engberg & Gilbert, 2014;McDonough, 2005;McKillip et al., 2012;Perna et al., 2008). More specifically, research indicates that students' participation in college admissions and financial aid counseling in 12th grade are important steps on the pathway to college and precursors to whether students apply to and enroll in college (Fitzpatrick, 2019;Robinson & Roksa, 2016). ...
... This study is based on the recognition that, beyond student variables, multiple contexts and ecological systems affect students' college-going outcomes and these systems and power structures affect students differentially (Bryan, Henry et al., 2022;Bryan, Kim et al., 2022;Zyromski & Dimmitt, 2022). Indeed, research on college-going culture in schools has highlighted the importance of whole-school comprehensive efforts in enhancing college going and has emphasized the centrality of school counseling programs in this school-wide college-going culture (Engberg & Gilbert, 2014;McDonough, 2005). However, the existing research does not identify contextual variables specific to school counselors or how such contextual factors affect students with diverse identities. ...
... College and Career Readiness Activities. College and career readiness activities are essential tasks, practices, and programs that school counselors typically coordinate to promote students' college and career readiness, such as college visits, college and career fairs, career awareness activities and career assessments, and financial aid workshops and meetings (Bryan et al., 2016Conley & McGaughy, 2012;Goodwin et al., 2016;McDonough, 2005). Engberg and Gilbert (2014) defined college and career readiness activities, such as college course offerings, college fairs, information sessions, and financial aid assistance, as important resources in the counseling opportunity structure and important predictors of high school college-going rates. ...
Article
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This study examined how the culture in school counseling programs or departments shapes the college-related outcomes of high school students including students of color. With data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009, we investigated two major steps in the college-going process: (a) whether students see the counselor for financial aid counseling and (b) whether they seek college admissions counseling in 12th grade. We discuss the literature on the role of school counselors in college access, especially support for students of color, and how school counseling contextual variables and school counselor mindsets, which we term school counseling college-going culture (SCCGC), affect students’ college-going decisions. We conducted logistic regression analyses by racial/ethnic groups among 9170 high school students from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009–2016 dataset. The results indicated that counselor expectations, priorities, student–counselor contact prior to 12th grade, college and career readiness activities, and constraints affect students’ college outcomes differently across racial and ethnic backgrounds. This study has implications regarding what interventions, mindsets, and practices school counselors need in order to improve college-going outcomes (e.g., student–counselor contact for college admissions and financial aid counseling) for students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
... With an increased emphasis on college attendance and the expansion of institutions of higher education in the past four decades (Jones, 2013), more value has been placed on the role of college advising 1 in our nation's high schools (McDonough, 2005b). Unfortunately, "few staff members have college preparatory responsibilities as their main job, nor is there a regularly identifiable K-12 staff member who is held accountable for graduates' college enrollment" (McDonough, 2005b, p. 69). ...
... Traditionally, school counselors 2 have been tasked with assisting high school students who aspire to attend college. However, college advising is often not included in counselor education programs; therefore, many school counselors are not adequately trained in this area (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 1999;McDonough, 2002McDonough, , 2005b. Further, many counselors are overworked and have other competing priorities (McDonough, 2005b;Perna & Kurban, 2013). ...
... However, college advising is often not included in counselor education programs; therefore, many school counselors are not adequately trained in this area (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 1999;McDonough, 2002McDonough, , 2005b. Further, many counselors are overworked and have other competing priorities (McDonough, 2005b;Perna & Kurban, 2013). While college advising tasks are often left to school counselors, this default practice may not be the best approach. ...
... A key source of college information is school counselors (Bryan et al., 2011. School counselors are a source of social capital for students, providing a supportive relationship from which information and resources flow to facilitate students' pathways to college, especially for low-income and first-generation students, and students of color (Bryan et al., 2011;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005aMcDonough, , 2005bPerna et al., 2008). Through college admissions and financial aid counseling, counselors provide students with critical college-related information, such as knowledge about and assistance in the college application and enrollment process, and financial aid assistance and advice (Bryan et al., 2011). ...
... During the past two decades, researchers focused on the school's college-going culture (e.g., McDonough, 2005aMcDonough, , 2005bRoderick, Coca, & Nagaoka, 2011). These studies examined the important cultural factors in schools influencing students' college-going outcomes taking the stance that school counseling is just one aspect of that culture. ...
... These studies examined the important cultural factors in schools influencing students' college-going outcomes taking the stance that school counseling is just one aspect of that culture. McDonough (2005aMcDonough ( , 2005b identified nine central elements of college-going culture including college expectations, college talk, college partnerships, and a comprehensive school counseling program. More recently, in a study of how school counselors shape college opportunity and college-going culture, Engberg and Gilbert (2014) found that college opportunity structure, which they defined as counseling norms (i.e., average counselor caseload, priority of postsecondary preparation, and college counseling) and counseling resources (i.e., college visits and fairs, financial aid assistance, college information sessions), was linked to a school's four-year collegegoing rates. ...
Article
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This study tested the conceptual framework of school counseling college-going culture (SCCGC) using a national sample of 15,857 high school students from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009. We examined the relationship of SCCGC (i.e., counselor expectations and priorities, student-counselor contact for college-career counseling prior to 12th grade, college and career readiness activities, and constraints) to high school seniors' college decisions (i.e., student-counselor contact for college admissions counseling in 12th grade, student-counselor contact for financial aid counseling in 12th grade, number of college applications, and enrollment in college). Multinomial and ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed that counselors' expectations and priorities, student-counselor contact for college-career counseling prior to 12th grade, college application and financial aid help, and college information and Free Application for Federal Student Aid meetings were positively related while caseload was negatively related to students' college decisions (after controlling for parent involvement, academic performance and aspirations, and student demographics).
... A key source of college information is school counselors (Bryan, 2011. School counselors are a source of social capital for students, providing a supportive relationship from which information and resources flow to facilitate students' pathways to college, especially for low-income and first-generation students, and students of color (Bryan, 2011;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005aMcDonough, , 2005bPerna et al., 2008). Through college admissions and financial aid counseling, counselors provide students with critical college-related information, such as knowledge about and assistance in the college application and enrollment process, and financial aid assistance and advice (Bryan et al., 2011). ...
... These studies examined the important cultural factors in schools influencing students' college-going outcomes taking the stance that school counseling is just one aspect of that culture. McDonough (2005aMcDonough ( , 2005b identified nine central elements of college-going culture including college expectations, college talk, college partnerships, and a comprehensive school counseling program. More recently, in a study of how school counselors shape college opportunity and college-going culture, Engberg and Gilbert (2014) found that college opportunity structure, which they defined as counseling norms (i.e., average counselor caseload, priority of postsecondary preparation and college counseling) and counseling resources (i.e., college visits and fairs, financial aid assistance, college information sessions), was linked to a school's four-year college-going rates. ...
... More recently, in a study of how school counselors shape college opportunity and college-going culture, Engberg and Gilbert (2014) found that college opportunity structure, which they defined as counseling norms (i.e., average counselor caseload, priority of postsecondary preparation and college counseling) and counseling resources (i.e., college visits and fairs, financial aid assistance, college information sessions), was linked to a school's four-year college-going rates. However, researchers (e.g., McDonough, 2005aMcDonough, , 2005bPerna, 2006;Engberg & Gilbert, 2014) examined the role of school counselors in students' college choices through frameworks that do not consider the direct influence of school counselors and their programs. Students share numerous stories that attest to the ways in which school counselors help or hinder them in the college-going process regardless of/above and beyond the school wide college-going culture (e.g., Williams et al., 2014). ...
Preprint
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(Preprint of article in press). The study tested the conceptual framework of school counseling college-going culture (SCCGC) using a national sample of 15,857 high school students from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009. We examined the relationship of SCCGC (i.e., counselor expectations and priorities, student-counselor contact for college-career counseling prior to 12th grade, college and career readiness activities, and constraints) to high school seniors’ college decisions (i.e., student-counselor contact for college admissions counseling in 12th grade, student-counselor contact for financial aid counseling in 12th grade, number of college applications, and enrollment in college). Multinomial and ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed that counselors’ expectations and priorities, student-counselor contact for college-career counseling prior to 12th grade, college application and financial aid help, and college information and FAFSA meetings were positively related while caseload was negatively related to students’ college decisions (after controlling for parent involvement, academic performance and aspirations, and student demographics).
... Despite the increase in graduation rates, postsecondary enrollment was mixed, with a decrease to 73% for White students' enrollment, an increase to 69% for Black students' enrollment, and 51% of economically disadvantaged students enrolled in college. Thus it was clear from the high school demographics that there were some disparities based on race and socioeconomic status, and, given previous research on college enrollment (Freeman, 1997(Freeman, , 1999Gonzalez, Stoner, & Jovel, 2003;Hossler & Gallagher, 1987;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005Perna, 2000;Smith, 2001;Walpole, et al., 2005), it was likely that low income students and students of color graduating from this school would be less likely to apply to or enroll in college, which also made the school attractive for the service learning project. ...
... The first author specifically requested to work with students who were less likely to have family members or other adults who could assist them in the college application process. While this request seems general, the first author based it on research documenting that low income students and students of color are less likely to have family members who have attended college and who are thus able to assist their high school students in the college application process (Freeman, 1997(Freeman, , 1999Gonzalez et al., 2003;Hossler & Gallagher, 1987;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005Perna, 2000;Smith, 2001;Walpole, et al., 2005). Thus, the request was a way to ensure that the students chosen by the counselors were more likely to be low-income students and students of color, while also allowing the counselors to choose students in ways that did not involve substantial documenting or record keeping, which was critical to ensuring their cooperation. ...
... They applied to colleges with the assistance of their graduate student mentors, secured supporting material, and were communicating with their parents about moving forward with financial aid applications. Given that many of these students were first generation students and students of color, the course had a positive impact on a group of high school students who are underrepresented in colleges, and especially in four year universities, echoing previous research (Bushouse & Morrison, 2001;Cress et al., 2010;Freeman, 1997Freeman, , 1999Gonzalez et al., 2003;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005Perna, 2000;Smith, 2001;Walpole et al., 2005). Further, one insight of this study may be that service recipients experience positive outcomes as a result of service learning efforts that are similar to those of service providers, at least when both groups are students. ...
Article
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Aim/Purpose: Service Learning is not used in graduate education to the extent it is in un-dergraduate education. This paper utilizes a developmental evaluation methodological approach and a strategic partnership conceptual framework in examining a service learning course in which higher education master students gain valuable experience they can use in their careers while assisting high school students as they apply to college. Background: Little research has been done on service learning at the graduate level. Moreover, although service learning is growing on campuses, master of higher education students may not have experience with it. Additionally, gaps in college access by socioeconomic status and race continue to exist, yet little research has been done on how service recipients experience service learning. This paper evaluates a service learning course and addresses the service recipients who were high school students at the time and the experiences of graduate students who were enrolled in the course. The research questions are the following. To what extent do high school recipients report an increase in college application behaviors from the beginning to the end of the service learning experience? How do high school recipients describe their experiences with the graduate students? How do Master of Higher Education students describe their knowledge of the college admission process as a result of their experiences with service learning? How do they describe their experiences with service learning? What skills, if any, do they report improved as a result of the service learning experience? Methodology: The paper uses developmental program evaluation methodological ap-proach, and data collection strategies include survey responses and inter-views with former high school students as well as document analysis of former graduate students’ reflective essays and interviews with them. Contribution: Little is documented regarding graduate student experiences with service learning, particularly Higher Education master programs. Additionally, little research exists on service recipients experiences. Findings: The service learning course was helpful to the high school students’ college application process, and students reported increases in college application behaviors as a result of the service learning project. The course also strengthened the higher education master students’ communication skills, interpersonal skills, and awareness of diversity and equity issues. Recommendations for Practitioners: Service learning experiences can be utilized to strengthen higher education master students’ skills, and detailed information regarding the process of creating a service learning course are provided in the paper. Recommendation for Researchers: The paper recommends additional research on service learning in graduate programs and additional research on the experiences of service recipients and community partners. Impact on Society: This paper impacts master students who plan to work on college campuses and strengthen their skills in several areas that should positively affect the future students with whom they work. Additionally, the course resulted in high school students reporting increased college application behaviors, such as taking admission tests, seeking letters of recommendation, and writing essays, and may increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds who successfully enroll in college. Future Research: Additional research on service learning in graduate programs and additional research on the experiences of service learning recipients should follow this study.
... McDonough and Calderone (2006) describe five primary ways through which high school counselors impact the college preparation and advising process. These include structuring information and activities that promote college-going aspirations, assisting parents in understanding the college preparation process in order to support their child, assisting students in becoming academically prepared for college, supporting and influencing students' college decision-making process, and focusing the school as an institution on its "college mission" (Hossler, Schmidt, & Vesper, 1999;McDonough, 2005). ...
... In addition, high school counselors often carry inordinately high case loads, with some statewide averages nearing 1,000:1. Such extremely high caseloads are significantly more common in schools serving large numbers of poor students of color (McDonough, 2005). In comparison, in many private schools, which are often centered around a more explicit college preparatory mission, the availability of school counselors whose sole responsibility is college advising is a regular occurrence (McDonough, 2005).While most private high schools have counselors dedicated to advising and supporting students and parents in thinking about and planning for college, this is not the case in most public U.S. high schoolsparticularly in the under-resourced, high-minority, and high-poverty schools attended by a substantial proportion of Latino youth. ...
... Such extremely high caseloads are significantly more common in schools serving large numbers of poor students of color (McDonough, 2005). In comparison, in many private schools, which are often centered around a more explicit college preparatory mission, the availability of school counselors whose sole responsibility is college advising is a regular occurrence (McDonough, 2005).While most private high schools have counselors dedicated to advising and supporting students and parents in thinking about and planning for college, this is not the case in most public U.S. high schoolsparticularly in the under-resourced, high-minority, and high-poverty schools attended by a substantial proportion of Latino youth. ...
Research
Over a century ago, American philosopher John Dewey (1897) observed in his conception of the school as family, that education is a social process. Yet, as Mitchell and colleagues (2012) note, in recent history the pursuit of educational equality has been largely overshadowed by relentless and seemingly antisocial demands for the production of standardized adequacy. In this paper, we draw upon the growing body of research indicating that improving Latino college access and completion rates will require a greater investment in the social dynamics of education across the P-16 spectrum if the United States is to achieve both equity and excellence in educational outcomes. Perhaps because that which is social about education is so much more difficult to standardize and quantify, those who have sought to reform the system have been reluctant to engage strategies aimed at ensuring that all students and families have access to, and are able to effectively utilize, intentionally designed social support systems in their schools and communities. We suggest that the costs of not doing so are mounting for Latino students, and for the nation.
... We achieved this by extending Engberg and Gilbert's (2014) typology of schools based on their counseling opportunity structures (COS) framework. COS draws upon McDonough's application of habitus (a school's culture and climate) to the college-going culture of schools and emphasizes the importance of school contexts (McDonough, 1997(McDonough, , 2005. Engberg and Gilbert (2014) argued that high schools create or limit collegegoing opportunities for students through the norms they cultivate and the resources they provide (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001;Hill, 2008;McDonough, 1997). ...
... The extant literature documents myriad ways school counselors shape college-going student behaviors (Engberg & Gilbert, 2014;McDonough, 2005;Plank & Jordan, 2001). For example, counselors shape a school's college-going culture (McDonough, 1997), aid in the cultivation of college aspirations, usher students through the academic preparation necessary to succeed in college (Abrego & Gonzales, 2010;Plank & Jordan, 2001), and enhance students' social capital by facilitating access to college-going information (Bryan et al., 2011;Robinson & Roksa, 2016;Wolniak & Engberg, 2007). ...
... Cholewa and colleagues (2015) found that underrepresented students, including African American and first-generation students, were more likely than White and continuing-generation students to report that counselors had the most influence on their thinking about postsecondary education. Research also suggests that students who interacted with a school-based college counselor were more likely to aspire to attend college (Sáenz et al., 2018), receive the information they needed to pay for college (Ballysingh, 2016), apply to college (Bryan et al., 2011;McDonough, 2005;Poynton & Lapan, 2017;Robinson & Roksa, 2016), and enroll in college (Engberg & Gilbert, 2014). What's more, visiting with a counselor earlier and more frequently in one's high school career may increase students' probability of applying to a 4-year institution (Ballysingh et al., in press;Bryan et al., 2011Bryan et al., , 2017Robinson & Roksa, 2016). ...
Article
This article contributes to our understanding of the gap in college access by examining (a) the extent to which and (b) how high school counseling focused on college broadens access. We extend Engberg and Gilbert’s typology of schools based on high school counseling norms and resources. Using recent data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we identified three types of schools: norm-driven, resource-rich, and divergent.
... Indeed, in a national study, Militello, Schweid, and Carey (2011) found that team work, collaborative partnerships, college-focused interventions, parental outreach, and multilevel systemic interventions are integral components of high-poverty, high-minority schools that are successful in promoting college readiness and access. Counselors and staff in these schools recognize that partnerships with families and community members are an integral component of building a college-going culture (McDonough, 2005). ...
... Youths' education aspirations are influenced by a variety of factors, including race and the educational level of parents (Sirin et al., 2004). Additionally, the postsecondary educational aspirations of students are influenced by the aspirations that school counselors, parents, close relatives, teachers, and peers have for them (Kim, Mayes, Hines, & Bryan, 2017;McDonough, 2005). Furthermore, high school counselors' postsecondary aspirations or expectations for students may influence whether or not students talk to the school counselor about college, which may be particularly detrimental in the college plans of low-income students and students of color (Bryan, Holcomb-McCoy, Moore-Thomas, & Day-Vines, 2009). ...
... Comprehensive, multisystem partnership programs provide a network of services aimed at important college-readiness goals that intervene at various levels or systems (i.e., at student, family, classroom, grade, school, and community levels). Augmented by ongoing, systematic, and culturally competent college counseling, a comprehensive college-readiness partnership program targeted at multiple levels allows counselors and their partners to intervene in ways that change the structure, culture and environment of schools (McDonough, 2005). These partnerships allow counselors, other school staff, families, and communities to leverage relationships, resources and strengths in ways that can help improve schools' capacity to enhance collegegoing outcomes (e.g., college aspirations, college knowledge, college application rates, college enrollment, and graduation rates) (Cabrera, Deil-Amen, Prabhu, Terenzini, Lee, & Franklin, 2006;Cabrera & LaNasa, 2001;Gandara, 2002). ...
Chapter
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This chapter describes comprehensive and culturally relevant strategies that school and college counselors in K–12 schools and community settings can use to establish school-family-community partnerships that enhance students’ academic preparation, build students’ college aspirations, and provide students and their families with college planning and financial aid information conducive to successful enrollment in postsecondary institutions. We highlight the critical components of a comprehensive college readiness partnership program, offer some parent involvement and outreach strategies for collaborating with African-American and Latinx families, describe how to locate and leverage resources through community asset mapping, and discuss a partnership process model for building school-family-community partnerships focused on college readiness.
... Whether they undertake intensive English, mathematics, and science preparation in secondary school has a major impact on whether they enter HE in general and selective institutions and programmes in particular (Adelman 1999;Chowdry, Crawford, Dearden, Goodman, & Vignoles 2013;Moore, Mountford-Zimdars, & Wiggans 2013;Perna 2005;UK BIS 2015). Such choices are strongly affected by the quality of information, advice, and guidance provided by schools and other sources to students and their parents (McDonough 2005;Moore et al. 2013;Perna, Rowan-Kenyon, Thomas, Bell, Anderson, & Liet 2008;Sutton Trust 2008). ...
... 49-50). Compounding these high student to counsellor ratios is the problem that counsellors often have to devote considerable time to students with behavioral and emotional problems, leaving relatively little time for college counseling (McDonough, 2005). ...
... Such information is particularly important for working class, minorityethnic, and female students who need to weigh how welcoming different institutions and programs will be to people with their background (Crozier, Reay, & Clayton 2010;Harper & Hurtado 2007). More information and more equal information is a key means of reducing inequalities produced by class, racial/ethnic, and gender differences in choices produced under conditions of unequal information provision and utilization (Dougherty 2018;McDonough 2005;Rosenbaum et al. 2006). ...
Article
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England and the United States provide a very interesting pairing as countries with many similarities, but also instructive dissimilarities, with respect to their policies for higher education access and success. We focus on five key policy strands: student information provision; outreach from higher education institutions; student financial aid; affirmative action or contextualisation in higher education admissions; and programmes to improve higher education retention and completion. At the end, we draw conclusions on what England and the US can learn from each other. The US would benefit from following England in using Access and Participation Plans to govern university outreach efforts, making more use of income-contingent loans, and expanding the range of information provided to prospective higher education students. Meanwhile, England would benefit from following the US in making greater use of grant aid to students, devoting more policy attention to educational decisions students are making in early secondary school, and expanding its use of contextualised admissions. While we focus on England and the US, we think that the policy recommendations we make carry wider applicability. Many other countries with somewhat similar educational structures, experiences, and challenges could learn useful lessons from the policy experiences of these two countries.
... Part of the problem may reside in confusion about the role of high school counselors, specifically the relationship between college advising and other aspects of the work, which raises questions about larger challenges facing the counseling profession. Personal and therapeutic counseling became a major component of school counselors' jobs in the 1960s, and at that time, college counseling was a minor (albeit growing) part of the job, relevant only to the small number students who were heading to college (McDonough, 2005). However, in recent decades, the skill demands of the labor market have rapidly increased, and students have many more college options to choose from. ...
... These shifting demands may have led to a mismatch between counselors' and principals' views on counseling. While many principals see counseling as primarily academic advising, counselors often see responding to students' social-emotional needs as a primary responsibility (McDonough, 2005). For instance, a counselor at UHS explained that while she would like to do more work related to personal issues that prevent students from learning, the counselors "don't really have a venue to really do as much of that kind of counseling." ...
... Some college-prep high schools have tried to address these issues by outsourcing psychological counseling to private therapists and focusing their school counselors' efforts on college advising (McDonough, 2005). The dedicated college adviser position at UHS may be a step toward a similar specialization. ...
Article
While many high schools reproduce social inequalities in college access, little is known about the schools that successfully reduce them. To this end, Gorana Ilic and James E. Rosenbaum studied an urban high school that expressed a strong commitment to supporting all students’ college applications. In this article, they describe the organizational conditions and supports that enabled the school’s counselors to achieve ambitious college-enrollment rates, and they consider what sacrifices and challenges might have emerged in the process and ways to address these challenges.
... The literature clearly suggests that school counselors can have a positive impact on students' college choices, aspirations, and rate of applying to college (McDonough, 2005a(McDonough, , 2005bTerenzini et al., 2001). More specifically, research has indicated that the college plans of low-income students and students of color (e.g., African American and Latino students) are more likely to be influenced by their high school counselors; however, these students are least likely to have school counselors, more likely to have underprepared counselors, and most likely to have counselors who are forced to give up college counseling for other counseling and non-counseling-related tasks (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001;McDonough, 2005b;Plank & Jordan, 2001;Trusty & Niles, 2003). ...
... The literature clearly suggests that school counselors can have a positive impact on students' college choices, aspirations, and rate of applying to college (McDonough, 2005a(McDonough, , 2005bTerenzini et al., 2001). More specifically, research has indicated that the college plans of low-income students and students of color (e.g., African American and Latino students) are more likely to be influenced by their high school counselors; however, these students are least likely to have school counselors, more likely to have underprepared counselors, and most likely to have counselors who are forced to give up college counseling for other counseling and non-counseling-related tasks (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001;McDonough, 2005b;Plank & Jordan, 2001;Trusty & Niles, 2003). Corwin, Venegas, Oliverez, and Colyar (2004) concluded that in predominately African American schools, there are higher studentto-counselor ratios, fewer resources about college planning and preparation, and limited school-wide emphasis on college access. ...
... This is supported by the work of Farmer-Hinton and Adams (2006), which identified small, intimate high school settings as a necessary program component for effective college access, and a recent National Association for College Admission Counseling report (Hawkins & Lautz, 2005), which documented the relation between school size, student-counselor ratios, and various college access outcomes. Yet, data suggest that the school counseling profession is far from appropriate ratios as suggested by the American School Counselor Association (2005; see also Hawkins & Lautz;McDonough, 2005aMcDonough, , 2005b. This unfortunate reality may be more apparent in schools with high levels of student poverty. ...
Article
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Using the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study database, a national survey conducted by the National Center of Education Statistics, the authors investigated the characteristics of students who seek out professional school counselors in order to receive college information. Results indicated that African Americans and female students were more likely to contact the school counselor for college information. In addition, students in high-poverty, large schools and schools with smaller numbers of counselors were less likely to seek school counselors for college information. School counselors’ postsecondary aspirations for students also impacted students’ contact with the school counselor. Implications for school counselors and future research are included.
... Student perceptions of counselor expectations influence whether they and their families go to a counselor for college information (Gandara & Bial, 1999). School counselors can positively impact students' postgraduate planning (McDonough, 2005a(McDonough, , 2005b. Kerpelman and Mosher (2004) found a positive correlation between social self-efficacy, which is within the school counselor's domain (Whiston, 2007), and positive beliefs about future education. ...
... Although school counselors can assist in student development and postgraduate planning (McDonough, 2005a(McDonough, , 2005b, many do not fulfill that role (Paisley & McMahon, 2001). According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (2004), only 24% of school counselors said they had taken coursework in college admissions counseling. ...
Article
This study reports a qualitative grounded-theory investigation that explored school counselor trainees’ experiences engaging in psychoeducational group lessons with first-generation college-going (first-in-family) high school students. As part of this semester-long, group-based experiential training, counselor trainees developed and implemented school counseling core curriculum lessons (psychoeducational groups) related to career and college exploration in 2 urban high school settings. Findings supported a theory that included 4 main factors: (a) Profession, (b) Student, (c) Group Field Experience, and (d) Self. Subthemes within the factors are explicated, and implications for future practice, training, and research are discussed.
... Storlie et al.'s (2016) research on college Latinas highlighted the importance of college counselors in affirming their ability to go to college and in preparation for potential academic challenges. However, the absence of Latina/o college counselors and limited time spent with counselors, specifically in low-income high schools, also contribute to low college entry rates of Latinas (McDonough, 2004). Such inequities have direct implications for college opportunities, as counselors and teachers often introduce Latina/o students to educational opportunities (Martinez & Cervera, 2012;McWhirter et al., 2014;Stanton-Salazar, 2011). ...
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U.S. Latina youth are often positioned as invisible within educational systems and face numerous obstacles in their pursuit of higher education. In this pursuit, they have engaged in visible activism, as well as daily resistance to combat the marginalization they experience. To further explore these challenges and resistance tactics, we use a guerrera framework (Londoño, 2005) to analyze la palabra participants use to describe the assaults and symbolic violence they experience in pursuit of educational attainment. Within this framework, we center la piel y cuerpo in the exploration of how participants prepare for obstacles they encounter, while also examining how participants use la palabra to understand their being and identities, as well as how these obstacles led to defining or redefining themselves. The findings of this study emerge through further exploration of Latinas narratives in a community-based qualitative study previously executed. Our participant sample consists of 16 Latinas in urban schools in the Northeast United States. The use of the aforementioned framework as an analytic tool illustrates the complexity of surviving and navigating obstacles to access, how Latinas are prepared or prepare themselves to attain educational access, and the ways that resistance to symbolic and physical forms of violence is complex. More specifically, the three findings identified are as follows: preparación y acceso, navigating differences en piel y clase, y the embodiment of dandose a respetar.
... households making less than $20,000 a year Higher education is considered one of (McDonough, 2004). Those of low sociothe main paths leading to opportunify, social economic backgrounds and minorities face mobilify, and economic progress in the U.S. difficult challenges every step of the way. ...
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The pathway to college is not equal for all students. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and minorities often face difficult challenges in trying to obtain a college education. Thus, this study utilized a qualitative grounded theory approach to explore and to understand how first-generation minority college students are motivated to over-come their family histories to achieve a college education. The study consisted of two groups of participants. The first group, the central group of focus, was made up of three first-generation college students. The second group, the comparison group, consisted of two third-generation college students. Semi-structured interviews conducted in person and online were pivotal ways in which data were collected. After data collection, the data were transcribed, coded, and emergent themes identified. Results of the study revealed that first-generation college students, unlike the third-generation college students in this study (the comparison group), were not encouraged by family to attend college but their inner drive to attend college to achieve a better way of life for themselves led to them being the first in their families to attend and to graduate from college. In light of the findings of this study, it is suggested that teachers become mentors who can encourage students, particularly, minority students to attend college.
... School counselors join the profession to help students succeed academically, social-emotionally, and after high school (Armor 1969;Blake 2020;Bridgeland and Bruce 2011;McDonough 2004;Rosenbaum 2001). However, their work conditions constrain their ability to counsel students (Lipsky 2010;Ocasio 1997). ...
Article
Through three years of training, school counselors build a professional identity based on providing social-emotional, academic, and postsecondary guidance to students. But school counselors face conflict in meeting these expectations in a bureaucratic environment that asks them to prioritize efficiency when meeting with students rather than building one-on-one relationships. I draw from interviews with high school counselors and school personnel and a year of observations to study the institutional logics that govern their work and use inhabited institutional theory to study how time scarcity shaped how counselors interpreted these conflicting macro-level logics in their micro-level interactions. The counselors in this study developed patterns of practice that helped them manage this conflict, negotiating but eventually settling with nonideal strategies in the best way they could with the resources made available to them. Efforts to reject the efficiency model were met with pushback from school leaders and unintended consequences for counselors and students alike. The conflict inherent in their work left little room for the mental health or postsecondary counseling they expect and are trained to provide.
... Both schools employed four staff in the counseling department, but not all individuals in this role functioned as college advisors-a common occurrence in many high schools (McDonough 2005b;McKillip et al. 2012). 2 At Homestead, for example, counselors were primarily tasked with course scheduling and other administrative tasks. As the CAN advisor explained, "The counselors, they're not-they're really just focused on what they have to do, like the scheduling, the arts, the 504s, and all that stuff. ...
... These findings could also be explained by the role of the CCAC adviser in relation to school counselors. CCAC advisers may not focus their conversations with students as much on course enrollments because course scheduling is typically one of the school counselors' responsibilities (McDonough, 2005b;Perna & Kurban, 2013). While students might be encouraged by the CCAC adviser to take more advanced courses, ultimately, the CCAC adviser is not directly assisting students in course enrollment. ...
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This study examined the effectiveness of the Carolina College Advising Corps (CCAC) on two college readiness outcomes: advanced college preparatory course enrollment and SAT test-taking behaviors. The focus of this study is on concrete college readiness measures beyond mere college aspirations, as these measures more accurately predict college success. We utilized a difference-in-differences research design, which compares treatment and comparison schools over time using pre- and post-intervention panel data. The treatment group consisted of partner high schools in North Carolina that received the CCAC treatment, and the comparison group included public schools in the state that do not have this resource. We found that the introduction of a CCAC adviser increased schools’ SAT participation rate but lowered their overall average score. The results of this work add to the growing literature on the impact of college advising professionals and may help inform goal-setting for the CCAC and similar interventions.
... The expansion of higher education in many countries has increased the interest in first-generation students-college students who are the first in their family to enroll in higher education. Research indicates that first-generation students are disadvantaged with regard to grades, enrollment, attrition, and graduation (McDonough, 2005;Stephens et al., 2014). This disadvantage is partly explained by their socio-demographic characteristics, high school history (Ishitani, 2006), and socio-psychological factors such as self-esteem and locus of control. ...
Chapter
In this chapter, Nonna Kushnirovich provides a typology of ethnic economics and an evaluation of its role for immigrant and ethnic minorities. She formulates the concepts of ethnic economics and ethnic economy and explains the difference between them. The chapter discusses the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in ethnic economics. Utilizing ethnic networks provides competitive benefits to immigrant and ethnic minorities, helping them to find jobs, access information, gain promotion to managerial positions, mobilize capital, acquire clients and suppliers, and facilitate sales. However, co-ethnic dealing can also inhibit those involved in ethnic economics, and constrain market penetration and company growth.
... M. Holland, 2015;Stanton-Salazar & Spina, 2000;Willis, 1981). Finally, schools serving poor and working-class youth have larger school counselor caseloads than the national average (McDonough, 2004), which prior research has found is associated with students' likelihood of transitioning to college (Woods & Domina, 2014). ...
Article
Background Planning for college is an increasingly common rite of passage for high school students. Institutional agents—nonkin adults who possess institutional resources—are important sources of support and guidance in this process. Purpose This mixed-methods study examines social class differences in the involvement of school-based institutional agents such as teachers and school counselors in helping young people plan for college and the future. Population Interviews were conducted with 61 middle-class, working-class, and poor young women to collect information regarding their future plans, social ties, and role of social ties in guiding their plans. In addition, the author uses survey data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine the association between social class and the role of school-based ties in adolescents’ college planning. Research Design Analyses of in-person interview transcripts involved inductive coding and the development of effects matrices to compare coding output by class. Quantitative models were constructed based on qualitative findings. Based on these findings, analyses of ELS data used hierarchical models to estimate the association between social class background and receiving encouragement and information regarding college from social ties. Findings Analyses of interview transcripts reveal that disadvantaged young women see school-based ties as their primary means for college planning, whereas middle-class young women often discount advice from these ties when other sources of advice are available. Quantitative models also show that disadvantaged youth rely on school-based ties for information in the college planning process to a greater extent than do middle-class youth. However, disadvantaged youth receive less encouragement to attend college from school and nonschool ties, even after accounting for academic performance. Conclusions Inequality in access to college stems in part from differences in the resources available to high school students as they plan for the future. Disadvantaged youth look to schools to help them plan; if schools marshal their resources to assist these young people, they can help address existing inequality in access to college.
... This may explain why the families did not have close relationships with guidance counselors and/or why they were not receiving comprehensive college-going preparation from their schools. All the children attended large public high schools, which may have had high student-to-school counselor ratios, or counselors with a number of responsibilities outside of college advising (e.g., student behavioral issues, standardized test monitoring; McDonough, 2005). Instead, the college information being provided to families was typically based on the individual's personal experiences or anecdotal understandings, which could be incorrect, biased, or irrelevant to the family (Holland, 2010;Martinez, 2012;Pérez & McDonough, 2008). ...
Article
Background/Context Children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. child population, and these children are increasingly entering the U.S. educational pipeline and seeking access to college. Gaining access to college in the United States requires college knowledge. Yet, obtaining college knowledge can be difficult for immigrant families, who may lack familiarity with the U.S. education system. Although one third of all immigrants possess a college degree, many earned their degree abroad or in the United States as international students and/or adult learners. Therefore, the children of college-educated immigrants may be the first in their family to seek access to college via the U.S. K–12 system. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study explores how African immigrant multigenerational families engage in college preparation. All families had at least one parent who had attained a college degree. In each family, the college-educated parent(s) either received their degree abroad or received their degree in the United States as an international student or adult returning student. The research questions are: How do immigrant families explain navigating the college-going process when their children are first in the family to prepare for college via the U.S. K–12 system? How do immigrant families describe their level of comfort with college preparation when their children are first in the family to prepare for college via the U.S. K–12 system? Research Design A qualitative, multiple case design was used. Findings/Results The findings demonstrate that although the children in this study were not first generation to college in a traditional sense, they experienced many of the same challenges. For the families in this study, the parents possessed institutionalized capital but often lacked what emerged as “U.S.-based college knowledge,” which impacted their experience with the college choice process. Conclusions/Recommendations Families’ lack of familiarity with the U.S. college preparation process (college testing, academic tracking, cost of college/financial aid) leads to a call for complicating concepts of “college knowledge” and “first generation” to college in a globalized society.
... US students already face many different choices of programmes and institutions that carry very different costs and outcomes. More information and more equal information is a key means of reducing inequalities produced by class and racial/ethnic differences in choices produced under conditions of unequal information provision and utilisation (McDonough, 2005;Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen, & Person, 2006;Scott-Clayton, 2015). ...
Article
England and the United States provide a very interesting pairing as countries with many similarities, but also instructive dissimilarities, with respect to their policies for higher education access and success. The purpose of this paper is to explore these similarities and dissimilarities with an eye to what each country can learn from the other with regard to reducing social class and racial/ethnic differences in higher education access and success. We focus on seven policy strands affecting higher education access and completion: student information provision; outreach from higher education institutions; student financial aid; affirmative action or contextualisation in higher education admissions; higher education efforts to improve retention and completion; performance funding; and degree of reliance on sub-baccalaureate institutions. While not exhaustive, this list of interventions is meant to focus on key policies affecting the undergraduate student experience and to give a sense of their range. We explore possible lessons that England and the United States might draw from each other’s experiences, mindful of the dangers of uncritical “policy tourism”. In the case of the United States, we note why and how it might benefit from following England in the use of Access Agreements to govern the outreach efforts of its universities, making more use of income-contingent loans, and expanding the range of information provided to prospective college students about the programmes and institutions they are considering. Meanwhile, in the case of England, we examine how it might benefit from greater focus on the role of further education colleges, sceptical consideration of proposals to make greater use of for-profit higher education, greater use of grant aid in its financial aid system, more policy attention to decisions students are making in primary and early secondary school that affect their preparation for higher education, greater use of contextualised admissions, and very careful consideration of the possible downsides of performance funding.
... School counselors play a pivotal role in bolstering students' academic development, overseeing their enrollment in advanced coursework and teaching time management and study skills (Bruce et al., 2009;Davis et al., 2013;Kayler & Sherman, 2009). In their capacity as college advisers, counselors also promote students' postsecondary aspirations and readiness (Bryan et al., 2011;McDonough, 1997McDonough, , 2005 and strongly influence whether and where students apply to college (Belasco, 2013;Engberg & Gilbert, 2014;Hurwitz & Howell, 2014;Mulhern, 2019). However, many of the students who would most benefit from high-quality counseling are the least likely to receive it; lowincome students and students of color are the most likely to attend schools with high student-to-counselor ratios (Gagnon & Mattingly, 2016b) and with counselors who have limited training in and time for admission and financial aid counseling (National Office for School Counselor Advocacy, 2012; Savitz-Romer, 2019). ...
Article
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Profiles describing a high school’s quality and composition are one component of the undergraduate admission application to selective colleges, offering admission officers insight into a student’s academic environment. This study explores alignment between the data admission officers seek in a profile to support their holistic evaluations and the information profiles contain. Drawing on semistructured interviews with 25 admission officers and a content analysis of 100 school profiles, the study identifies 14 key components of a profile but finds that 43% of high schools incorporated fewer than nine of these elements into their documents. Using social worlds theory as a lens, the study explains how the profile’s status as a boundary object facilitates misalignment in its content. A purveyor of school contextual data, school profiles are designed to promote diversity within the admission process; this study illustrates how some profiles can constrain the ability of admission officers to make informed decisions, and thus may inadvertently perpetuate, rather than ameliorate, inequity.
... Researchers have pointed to any number of factors that influence Latino enrollment decisions, including access to college knowledge (McDonough, 2005; and appropriate academic preparation (Perna, 2005). College costs are also known to have a direct influence on Latino college-going. ...
... This aligns with literature that also suggests that students enter college with little understanding of college academic expectations (Serra & DeMarree, 2016;Stinebrickner & Stinebrickner, 2012) and that time management is a struggle for most first-year college students (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013). These findings are especially concerning when focusing on low-income, first-generation college students given that they have fewer access to opportunities acclimating them to college expectations (e.g., college counseling) (McDonough, 2005). As such, colleges across the nation are experimenting with college transition programs that include academic and social support only (Xu et al., 2018) or academic and social support coupled with financial aid (Clotfelter et al., 2018;Page et al., 2019;Scrivener et al., 2015). ...
Article
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Using a randomized control trial design, this study examines the extent to which a comprehensive college transition program (CCTP) shapes students’ time-use during their first 3 years in college. The CCTP provides comprehensive student-centered support as well as a generous scholarship. We compare students who had access to the CCTP with those who only received the scholarship. Findings indicate that both student groups spent similar amounts of time working for pay, studying, and on social media, and time-use had no differential bearing on college GPA by treatment status. In an exploratory analysis of program components, we find correlational evidence that academic-related interactions with faculty are positively associated with hours spent studying. We consistently find that the strongest predictor of time-use in college is how students spend their time in high school, suggesting that interventions aimed at shaping students’ time-use may be most effective if they are targeted at students’ precollege years.
... School counselors play a central role in preparing underrepresented youth for college (ASCA, 2014;Cholewa et al., 2018;Gibbons & Shoffner, 2004;Savitz-Romer, 2012), offering important college preparatory information such as social capital, institutional resources, college FIRST-GENERATION GROUPS selection, and career planning (Farmer-Hinton, 2008;McDonough, 2005). Despite these important contributions, school counselors can struggle to meet the needs of FGCS. ...
Article
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We applied a qualitative inquiry to explore the experiences of African American youth engaging in a group intervention at an urban high school. Group topics were tailored to the needs of prospective first-generation college students to enhance youth social and academic capitol and identity strengthening. Experiences included changed perspectives and increased knowledge of the college-going experience that, in turn, increased participant sense of efficacy in completing college. We discuss implications for school counselors.
... It is not hard to figure out why this is the case. Several obstacles ranging from extensive administrative demands to caseloads, far exceeding the recommended ratio of 250 cases, prevent counselors from engaging in academic socialization for college (McDonough 2005;Moyer 2011;Paisley and McMahon 2001). Yet, our study suggests that unlocking the power of parental involvement in academic socialization may be a way of multiplying the impact of counseling. ...
Article
Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a critical factor influencing the college choice process among families. What is not clear, though, is whether this parental driven factor also takes place at the school level along with school related factors. Using a national sample of 9th grade students drawn from about 900 schools, we found that parental involvement also operates at the school context along with a high school's academic press. Moreover, at both individual-and school-level contexts, parental involvement creates a "college-going" cultural capital in the form of attainment of milestones towards college.
... It is not hard to figure out why this is the case. Several obstacles ranging from extensive administrative demands to caseloads, far exceeding the recommended ratio of 250 cases, prevent counselors from engaging in academic socialization for college (McDonough 2005;Moyer 2011;Paisley and McMahon 2001). Yet, our study suggests that unlocking the power of parental involvement in academic socialization may be a way of multiplying the impact of counseling. ...
Article
Full-text available
Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a critical factor influencing the college choice process among families. What is not clear, though, is whether this parental driven factor also takes place at the school level along with school related factors. Using a national sample of 9th grade students drawn from about 900 schools, we found that parental involvement also operates at the school context along with a high school’s academic press. Moreover, at both individual- and school-level contexts, parental involvement creates a “college-going” cultural capital in the form of attainment of milestones towards college.
... School counselors play a central role in preparing underrepresented youth for college (ASCA, 2014;Cholewa et al., 2018;Gibbons & Shoffner, 2004;Savitz-Romer, 2012), offering important college preparatory information such as social capital, institutional resources, college FIRST-GENERATION GROUPS selection, and career planning (Farmer-Hinton, 2008;McDonough, 2005). Despite these important contributions, school counselors can struggle to meet the needs of FGCS. ...
Article
Full-text available
Researchers examined the experiences of two college preparatory groups with youth of color who are first-generation college-goers in an urban educational setting. An interpretive phenomenological framework was used to explore and identify participants’ experiences of the intervention. The youth noted appreciation of the group format as a means for promoting enjoyment and personal self-disclosure. Self-disclosure promoted peer connection in regard to universal experiences which, in turn, deepened supportive relationships and college-going knowledge and skills.
... One body of research has established that a lower student to counselor ratio is beneficial to students (Domina and Woods 2014;Hurwitz and Howell 2014). Another has shown that students benefit from face-to-face meetings with a counselor (Belasco 2013;Bryan et al. 2011;McDonough 2005b). A third has linked specific small-scale activities or programs to student postsecondary enrollment or success (Domina 2009;Plank and Jordan 2001). ...
Article
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Low-income and racial minority students access college at lower rates than their more-advantaged peers, caused in part by lesser social capital. Low socio-economic status (SES) students’ networks of rarely provide help navigating the application and enrollment process, preventing even academically-capable students from competing in the near-Darwinian process of college admission because of their low social capital. Research indicates that counselors can mediate SES-based disparities in college readiness but provides little guidance on how counselors should help students. I conduct multi-level logistic regression analyses of nationally representative longitudinal data to investigate (a) which specific advising activities impact college knowledge, eligibility, and enrollment, and (b) how impacts differ for underserved students. I find that the outcomes respond to different treatments. Creating an education plan in 9th grade increases students’ likelihood of reaching college eligibility in math and annual review of plans increases the odds of planed Free Application for Federal Student Aid submission, with larger effects for underserved students. However, most marginal benefits are small and do not persist to become differences in college enrollment.
... The expansion of access to higher education has led to a parallel increase in the number of students HSCs support in the transition to postsecondary education (Krei & Rosenbaum, 2001). Prior literature demonstrates the influence of HSCs on creating a college-going culture and contributing to students' transition into college by providing information about the college application process and exploration of major and career opportunities based on students' interests and skills (Engberg & Gilbert, 2014;McDonough, 2005b;Poynton & Lapan, 2017). Not surprising, improved college-going outcomes such as number of applications and enrollment occur with lower studentcounselor ratios and more time students spend with their HSC on the college-going transition process (Bryan, Moore-Thomas, Day-Vines, & Holcomb-McCoy, 2011;Engberg & Gilbert, 2014). ...
Article
Research about dual enrollment (DE) participation indicates high school students’ success on various academic achievement measures including enrollment, achievement, attainment, and persistence in college. Background environmental influences, specifically staff in the high school and college settings may contribute to the positive outcomes of DE but have yet to be explored. Staff, both academic (instructors) and academic support (high school counselors and higher education institution staff, such as academic advisors and DE coordinators), support students through their DE coursework. Community colleges, in particular, provide a large percentage of DE courses and authorize and supervise DE instruction and would benefit from understanding the perspectives and work of high school counselors (HSCs) related to DE as DE expands and collaboration is needed. This qualitative study explored HSCs’ perceptions and roles related to the expansion of DE offerings. Findings include HSCs’ perspectives of benefits and challenges of DE, processes for identifying students for DE participation, expecting independence or fostering it through DE, commitment of counselors to promote DE success, and an individualized approach to meeting the needs of DE students. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed to inform the work of partnering high schools and colleges.
... Once again, we must examine the structures that limit opportunities for these Latinas. In low-income, urban high schools there is often high counselor turnover, limited time spent with counselors, and an absence of college counselors (McDonough, 1997(McDonough, , 2004 four-year aspirations will shift towards community colleges and/or proprietary education by the time they graduate high school. It is also likely that as their four-year aspirations shift, their likelihood of eventually completing a baccalaureate degree will also be reduced. ...
Article
The proximity of proprietary institutions to working-class urban areas is rarely explored as a factor in Latina student college choice. Utilizing Chicana Feminism as a conceptual lens, this study explores the path of proprietary college choice for Latina high school students. Qualitative interviews and geographic data reveal how factors of race, gender, and class contribute to the marketing and location of proprietary institutions. The authors argue that marketing expensive vocational programs to Latina students who cannot afford tuition contributes to the maintenance of racist, classist, and sexist hierarchies. © 2018 Association for the Study of Higher Education All Rights Reserved.
... 155). The notion that brokerage mediates agency is relevant to college access given that first-generation students often rely on the high school's guidance to navigate college going (McDonough, 2005). The present study employs Small's (2009) heuristic to describe how Jackson Magnet High School brokered social capital opportunities through its college access partners, and the implications for students. ...
Article
Full-text available
Social capital research has demonstrated the value of relationships and networks to enhance college opportunity for first-generation students. While most work has focused on individual students and their ties, high schools play a critical role in social capital processes by connecting students to external college access organizations and resources. This case study employs Mario Small’s organizational brokerage theory to investigate social capital formation among college-bound first-generation youth in an urban high school. Specifically, we explore how the school itself brokered college-going resources through its partner organizations. Findings illustrate a range of passive and active brokerage strategies that influenced the quantity and quality of available resources, and in turn, the amount of student agency required to secure social capital gains.
... Despite several decades of research on improving persistence, a significant portion of students who start college still do not obtain their desired degree. Beyond an insufficient knowledge about successfully navigating the college environment, which can be attributed to aspects of social and cultural capital (Coleman, 1988;McDonough & Calderone, 2006;Yosso, 2005), low-income and first-generation college students experience barriers related to college costs, securing financial aid, and the general admissions and application process (Kane, 2004;McDonough, 2005). In addition to factors such as inadequate access to guidance counselors in high school, scholars attribute low-income and first-generation college students' lack of information, or even misinformation, to the intricacies and undue complexities of the U.S. ...
Article
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Over the past few years, our understanding of the diverse identities of Asian American students has increased. Yet, the experiences of Asian American students who identify as coming from low-income backgrounds and as first-generation college students has been underrepresented in the literature. In particular, this study explored how Asian American students experienced the financial aid process, including the ways in which the federal Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy that establishes eligibility criteria for continued student financial aid impacts their experiences in college. Findings suggest student strategies for navigating a complicated process and institutional strategies for reducing confusion and increasing persistence and institutional responsibilitiy.
... It is not hard to figure out why this is the case. Several obstacles ranging from extensive administrative demands to caseloads, far exceeding the recommended ratio of 250 cases, prevent counselors from engaging in academic socialization for college (McDonough 2005;Moyer 2011;Paisley and McMahon 2001). Yet, our study suggests that unlocking the power of parental involvement in academic socialization may be a way of multiplying the impact of counseling. ...
Article
Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a critical factor influencing the college choice process among families. What is not clear, though, is whether this parental driven factor also takes place at the school level along with school related factors. Using a national sample of 9th grade students drawn from about 900 schools, we found that parental involvement also operates at the school context along with a high school’s academic press. Moreover, at both individual- and school-level contexts, parental involvement creates a “college-going” cultural capital in the form of attainment of milestones towards college.
Article
Stratification in selective college admissions persists even as colleges’ criteria for evaluating merit have multiplied in efforts to increase socioeconomic and racial diversity. Middle-class and affluent families increasingly turn to privatized services, such as private college consulting, to navigate what they perceive to be a complicated and opaque application process. How independent educational consultants (IECs) advise students can thus serve as a lens for understanding how the rules of college admissions are interpreted and taught to students. Through 50 in-depth interviews with IECs, I find that IECs encourage students to be authentic by being true to themselves but that demonstrating authenticity requires attention to how one’s authentic self will be perceived. Translating an authentic self into an authentic application also involves class-based and racialized considerations, particularly for Asian American students who are susceptible to being stereotyped as inauthentic. These findings suggest that efforts to improve diversity must be carefully implemented, or they risk reproducing inequality.
Article
Existing research indicates that underrepresented-in-STEM racially minoritized students with similar academic preparation are less likely than their counterparts to persist in STEM, raising the question of factors that may contribute to racial disparities in STEM participation beyond academic preparation. We extend the current literature by first examining race-based differences in what students expect to receive and their actual grades in introductory STEM college courses, a phenomenon termed as overestimation. Then, we assess whether overestimation differentially influences STEM interest and persistence in college. Findings indicate that first-year STEM students tend to overestimate their performance in general, and the extent of overestimation is more pronounced among racially minoritized students. Subsequent analyses indicate that students who overestimate are more likely to switch out of STEM, net of academic preparation. Results from regression models suggest that race-based differences in overestimation can be explained by pre-college academic and contextual factors, most notably the high school a student attended.
Article
Although in-person college access programs can be effective, less is known about whether low-cost and scalable virtual interventions can achieve the same benefits. We evaluate two variants of a virtual college counseling program. Students randomly assigned to the program felt more supported applying to college and applied more broadly to four-year colleges, but were not more likely to be accepted or enroll. We analyze rich and extensive survey data to explore mechanisms and why the program did not improve college enrollment. We conclude that low-intensity programs may work for some students, but many probably need in-person and intensive help. (JEL C93, I23, I24, I28, L31)
Chapter
Career and college readiness interventions have been associated with numerous benefits for students. This chapter presents a case study of a developmental, comprehensive, culturally responsive career and college readiness unit. This chapter aims to demonstrate how one school counselor implemented a college and career readiness intervention through a culturally responsive lens, generating insights that potentially benefit comprehensive school counseling programming. Implications for K–12 school counselors to foster culturally responsive career and college readiness by using data to inform decisions, ensuring students at all grade levels are exposed to career awareness and exploration by using a tiered systems approach and developing a culturally affirming college culture, are discussed.
Article
This study explores how the college-going culture at a no-excuses charter school with high college enrollment rates shaped students’ worldviews and trajectories. Drawing on 7 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I found that the school boosted college enrollment through student compliance to the college accountability policies rather than through the transmission of dominant cultural resources. Alignment between a student’s worldview and the school’s approach mediated their ability to draw on their full range of resources to participate in the college choice process and forge postsecondary trajectories they believed in. These findings foreshadow the potential impacts of “College for All” accountability structures and underscore the importance of cultural congruence in college-going cultures.
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Background Determining the root causes of persistent underrepresentation of different subpopulations in engineering remains a continued challenge. Because place‐based variation of resource distribution is not random and because school and community contexts influence high school outcomes, considering variation across those contexts should be paramount in broadening participation research. Purpose/Hypothesis This study takes a macroscopic systems view of engineering enrollments to understand variation across one state's public high school rates of engineering matriculation. Design/Method This study uses a dataset from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System that includes all students who completed high school from a Virginia public school from 2007 to 2014 (N = 685,429). We explore geographic variation in four‐year undergraduate engineering enrollment as a function of gender, race/ethnicity, and economically disadvantaged status. Additionally, we investigate the relationship between characteristics of the high school and community contexts and undergraduate engineering enrollment across Virginia's high schools using regression analysis. Results Our findings illuminate inequality in enrollment in engineering programs at four‐year institutions across high schools by gender, race, and socioeconomic status (and the intersections among those demographics). Different high schools have different engineering enrollment rates among students who attend four‐year postsecondary institutions. We show strong associations between high schools' engineering enrollment rates and four‐year institution enrollment rates as well as moderate associations for high schools' community socioeconomic status. Conclusions Strong systemic forces need to be overcome to broaden participation in engineering. We demonstrate the insights that state longitudinal data systems can illuminate in engineering education research.
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In today’s digital age, fueled by consumers’ expectations for robust and personalized digital experiences, the adoption and use of electronic services (e-services) by customers and constituents is critical. In higher education there is an immense need for institutions to build service and digital experiences that match what students experience in their broader lives. In parallel, public universities are under tremendous budgetary and performance pressure from the general public and state legislators to increase graduation rates while living up to their goals for improving access to higher education. Central to their efforts is a focus on assisting first-generation college students graduate, as they are less likely to persist after their first year and less likely to graduate, compared to their non-first-generation peers [1–3]. One tool in these efforts is technology that students can use to support their own continued enrollment, and technology for faculty and staff to use to support student success—commonly referred to as student success technology (or student-success-technology). In the context of recent critiques of higher education, including demands to lower costs, deliver a more educational value, and provide an educated workforce to meet economic demands, this work is critically important [4].
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This paper is available from this source: https://www.researchcghe.org/publications/working-paper/higher-education-choice-making-in-the-united-states-freedom-inequality-legitimation It examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States – whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular route -- reproduces and legitimates social inequality. The paper’s central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices – while widely seen as serving individual freedom and producing social well-being – actually builds on and extends societal inequality but in a way that obscures that process of social reproduction to virtually all who participate in that regime. As the paper argues, the provision of many choices produces social inequality. People often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if students are faced with many choices and do not have adequate information. Secondly, the incidence of those suboptimal choices is not random but is socially stratified. It is higher for less advantaged people, and societal factors – such as the unequal distribution of economic resources, unequal provision of good information, and unequal exposure to discrimination -- play a crucial role in producing those socially stratified suboptimal choices. Finally, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality. The more one thinks in terms of choices the more one tends to blame the unfortunate, including oneself, for their circumstances. Seemingly offered many choices in life, both the winners and losers in society come to feel that much of the inequality they experience is due to their own actions and therefore is legitimate. The paper concludes by offering various prescriptions for reducing the socially stratifying consequences and ideological impacts of a high-choice regime. In making these arguments, this paper draws on the research literature in sociology of education, behavioral economics, and social psychology of inequality.
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