The heavy caseloads of school counselors haven鈥檛 gotten much lighter in the past decade, even as schools are under pressure to deliver quality advice and guidance on a growing range of issues.
A shows that the national average student-counselor ratio was 482 to 1 in 2014-15, the most recent year for which data are available. In 2004-05, the average ratio was 479 to 1.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling and the American School Counselor Association conducted the study, drawing from information that states submit to the National Center for Education Statistics.
鈥淥ur intention in producing this data is to shed light on the often unmanageable caseloads public school counselors must serve,鈥� their report says.
The most recent numbers represented an improvement over the previous year: In 2013-14, there were 491 students for every counselor, the highest ratio in the 10-year period that鈥檚 the focus of the report.
The two organizations pointed to research showing that counseling can influence students鈥� postsecondary aspirations and improve the chances that they鈥檒l go to college.
A , for instance, calculated that adding one counselor to a high school鈥檚 staff predicted a 10-percentage-point increase in its four-year-college enrollment. A separate triples students鈥� chances of going to college and increases by sevenfold the likelihood that they鈥檒l apply for federal financial aid.
But to produce results like that, the report says, counselors must 鈥渙perate in an environment free of overwhelmingly large student caseloads.鈥�
The study calls for stepped-up state and federal funding to support hiring more counselors. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of no more than 250 students for each counselor, but only three states鈥擭ew Hampshire, Vermont, and Wyoming鈥攔eported that level of staffing in the new study.
The report lands at a time of rising pressure to provide students with good career and college advising. Many counselors struggle to get enough time to do that in addition to their other duties, such as scheduling, helping students with course planning, and providing social and emotional support. Their administrators also often deploy them on tasks unrelated to their training, such as lunchroom duty or test proctoring.
鈥淭he fact that the student-to-school-counselor ratio has effectively not budged on the national level suggests the need to invest in these professionals, particularly when they are being asked to cover such a wide swath of student experiences and outcomes,鈥� David Hawkins, NACAC鈥檚 executive director for educational content and policy, said in an email.
Elementary schools are an important part of the picture of high student-counselor ratios, said Amanda Fitzgerald, ASCA鈥檚 director of public policy. Only half the states require schools to have counselors in elementary schools, she said, so counselor-to-student ratios are much higher in those states. An Education Week analysis of federal data in 2016 showed that nearly 3 in 10 pre-K-12 schools have no counselor.
Activists who push for counselors at that level often face a steeper climb, Fitzgerald said.
鈥淢ost people see the relevance of a high school counselor, for college admission, scheduling, and other things. It鈥檚 those elementary services that are really falling behind,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut those are our prevention services. That ounce of prevention in the elementary years could really ward off some of the issues older adolescents face.鈥�
Some states have launched big initiatives to expand counseling support in schools. began at the high school level, but expanded downward into middle schools, and is now making its way into some elementary schools, Fitzgerald said.
A report on that program found that schools with additional counselors saw higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, and increased college enrollment. Another .
That program has a limited reach, however. Colorado鈥檚 student-counselor ratio showed a 30 percent decline in the ten-year period that鈥檚 the focus of the new study. Some other states saw big drops, too: The ratio in the District of Columbia dropped 53 percent, and in New Jersey, it declined 37 percent.
Other states saw big gains: Louisiana鈥檚 student-to-counselor ratio went up 114 percent in the last decade. Idaho and New York each saw improvements of more than 40 percent. The report didn鈥檛 include details of what drove those changes, however.
Fitzgerald said she is hopeful that the Every Student Succeeds Act will encourage schools to beef up their counselor ranks. She noted that many states are using college and career readiness as their required 鈥渇ifth indicator鈥� for accountability, and others are factoring social and emotional learning into their accountability metrics. Counselors can play key roles in improving schools鈥� performance in those areas, Fitzgerald said.
For more stories on school counseling, see:
States Beef Up School Counseling Corps
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