College Advising Corps, or Counselors for America—De-professionalizing a Critically Important Role in Public Schools
If you think the concept behind Teach for America, diluting the profession with bright, happy-go-lucky, non-professional college grads, many of whom can’t find jobs in their chosen field, is just for teachers, think again.
College Advising Corps could be called Counselors for America. The group might seem different than Teach for America (TFA) because they don’t actually steal counseling jobs, yet. But don’t be misled. In some places they are referred to as a new way to do counseling. HERE. And behind this group is something even more questionable—digital advising. Soon, we may not have any real school guidance counselors left working in schools.
In many ways the College Advising Corps are replacing guidance counselors, because in a lot of places counselors have lost their jobs—like teachers. I wrote about the problems facing counselors before and the critical importance of the services school guidance counselors provide. HERE.
Counselors are swamped. More and more their roles, especially at the high school level, have been revamped into acting primarily as college advisors and test administrators. They can’t serve hundreds of students well—cannot help them with their personal problems—a role the school guidance counselor has always been known for, because of such huge caseloads.
So instead of policymakers improving counseling services, or hiring more real counselors, they are taking the cheap way out. They are producing advising cheerleaders.
The best thing to do would have been to provide incentives for college students to enter actual counselor preparation degree programs in our nation’s universities. Like, instead of just leading everyone into free community colleges for job-prep for corporations, College Advising Corps, or Counselors for America—De-professionalizing a Critically Important Role in Public Schools: