Educational Leadership

SPECIAL TOPIC

Why Guidance Counseling Needs to Change

Recent surveys of young adults make a compelling case
for reinventing high school guidance counseling.

Jean Johnson with
Jon Rochkind and Amber Ott The meeting with the high school guidance counselor is expected and routine—a time set aside for students to talk about goals and plans
with an adult trained to offer advice,
options, and assistance. At least, that’s
the goal. Unfortunately, the reality
sometimes falls short. One young man,
now in his early 20s, summed up his
experience: “They’d look at your grades
and then say, ‘Oh, you can get into these
schools.’”
Such meetings are impersonal,
perfunctory, and more common than
you might think, according to a 2009
survey of young adults ages 22–30
conducted by Public Agenda for the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation
(Johnson, Rochkind, Ott, & DuPont,
2009). The findings from this survey,
along with several others we have
conducted in recent years (see, for
example, Johnson, Duffett, & Ott,
2005), offer one clear message: As
education focuses its attention on
bringing today’s high schools into the
21st century, the guidance counseling
system is a prime candidate for innova-
tion and reform.

A Basic Support Structure Some of the results of these recent Public Agenda surveys are heartening. The vast majority of young adults recognize the value of knowledge and know-how in today’s world. They understand the financial benefits of continuing their education beyond high school. Most ( 77 percent) say that their parents actively encouraged them to attend college, and more than 80 percent say that even if they knew there were lots of good jobs for people without degrees, they would still make the decision to go to college because what one learns there is so important.

The results also suggest that educa-
tors are playing an important role in
inspiring young people to go on to
college and continue learning. Solid
majorities of young adults from diverse
ethnic and racial backgrounds ( 75
percent overall) say they had a teacher
or coach who “inspired them and moti-
vated them to do their best.” Most ( 67
percent) report that they had a teacher
who “took an interest in them person-
ally and encouraged them to go to
college.”
Moreover, schools seem to have put a
basic system in place to offer advice and
guidance to young people leaving high
school. Only 3 percent of young adults
who graduated from high school report
that they didn’t have a high school guid-
ance counselor or never met with one to
discuss their postsecondary plans.