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Health & Fitness

College Admissions Advice Minimal In California Public Schools - New Trend In Accessing Services Impacts Education Gap

Guidance counselors are being cut back on in California public schools, while many students seek private college admissions counselors. Such circumstances will contribute to the education gap.

After working in public education for over 10 years, the current state of California public education is truly concerning.  It is in a dire state and our students are suffering.  The budgetary reductions in California public school districts have been extreme and one area of severe impact is counseling.  It is often a neglected area.  Counselors are the step children of schools and priority is placed on the academics, state standards and teachers.  What about the underlying issues and often the root of obstacles to academic success for students that guidance counselors address?   The average high school counselor to student ratio in California is 490:1.  Guidance counselors are being cut back on in schools and the few counselors that are available to students are overwhelmed and can't make themselves available to their entire case load.

According to a US Department of Education Guidance School survey, school guidance counselors are only providing an average of 38 minutes of college admissions advice per US high school student.  Under such circumstances many students are turning to alternate forms of academic guidance support.  Private education consultants and college admissions counselors are at a rise, however this alternative support source can be costly.  Students from affluent families are using private educational services more and more, however what about those students who can't afford such services?  Many equally capable and intelligent students are lacking that college counseling aspect that other students are accessing due to economic circumstances.  It is unfortunate that a student of the same caliber may miss out on the advantage of individual college admissions advice that another student will get because of financial circumstances.  Such circumstances will continue to contribute to the education gap. 

A few of the private college admissions consultants are offering pro bono services,
but it is limited.  My organization is offering free education guidance and college admissions counseling to low income students and this is not limited to high school students, it is available to middle school students as well because it is never too early for college guidance and motivation.  It seems that it would be beneficial for the school districts to seek out the private agencies that are offering free services and invite them to the campuses.  School guidance counselors could at least identify the student's who are in the category of free and reduced lunch that would benefit the most from thorough college admissions counseling and offer the option to the students to acquire these free services.  Just as many other community organizations provide outreach services to the local schools, educational guidance and college admissions counseling may become such.

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