{"id":4081,"date":"2020-02-06T11:38:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=4081"},"modified":"2020-02-06T11:38:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:38:01","slug":"op-ed-the-necessity-of-college-counseling-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/02\/06\/op-ed-the-necessity-of-college-counseling-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: The Necessity of College Counseling Training"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was in over my head. I was a new school counselor for a high school\u2019s inaugural senior class. From my first day, I was inundated with questions from my seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis school is asking for my non-custodial parent info, but my mom and I haven\u2019t spoken to my dad since we came to the US years ago \u2014 does this mean I can\u2019t apply?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite school won\u2019t accept the fee waiver you told me about \u2014 why not?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents want me to start at the community college, but I really want to start at U of I \u2014 what should I do?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

And most often, something to the tune of, \u201cMy parents didn\u2019t go to college\u00a0\u2014<\/strong> how do I do all this?!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We made it through that first year, but not without a lot of questions and mistakes along the way. That crash course in college counseling was something I will never forget, but it didn\u2019t have to be so difficult.<\/p>\n

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To those outside of the school counseling profession, it may be surprising to know that a majority of school counseling programs do not require, or even offer, a course related to college counseling. In 2016, it was reported<\/a> that only 42 of the 270 school counseling master\u2019s programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs (CACREP) offered coursework on college readiness or admission counseling. Of those, many provided the college counseling content as part of an already existing course, like career counseling. This is better than nothing, but a topic that is so crucial to a school counselor\u2019s everyday job deserves at least a course of its own.<\/p>\n

Most school counselors learn through on-the-job experiences or professional development opportunities after<\/em> they begin work as a school counselor. However, not all schools have the resources to support further training, and perhaps more importantly, school counselors sometimes don\u2019t know what they are missing\u2014making it imperative that school counseling master\u2019s programs include college counseling training.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there is a lot that school counselors-in-training need to learn. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) designates three domains that guide the work of school counselors: academic, career, and social\/emotional development. ASCA also has 35 college- and career-readiness standards<\/a>. But this list describes standards for students, not for how school counselors might promote these standards. In addition, there is a wide array of ways school counselors aim to meet these standards, which makes it difficult to know how to train school counselors in this area. However, I believe a course in college counseling could include aspects of all three domains:<\/p>\n