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Guidance counselors are invaluable assets to school districts, operating at the elementary, middle and high school levels. A school guidance counselor usually has a Master’s degree, and most states require counselors to be licensed.

Guidance counselors have to balance multiple roles when relating to students. They are a primary advocate for students, in both the students personal and academic lives.

Preparing students for the future:

It’s important for counselors to be able to make regular assessments of each student’s academic progress, so that they can be familiar with individual needs and goals. Advising a student on which classes to take and how to prepare for their academic and career futures is a cornerstone of a guidance counselor’s function. Giving out assessment tests, consulting with students regarding career goals and reminding them about scholarship and application deadlines are all regular duties for high school guidance counselors in particular.

Helping students with the present:

One of the hardest and most rewarding aspects of being a guidance counselor is helping students today. Whether it’s giving them the confidence they need to sign up for a particular class, or helping them through a troubled period in their lives, guidance counselors are important. Children coping with family issues, such as divorce, or social issues, such as peer pressure or bullying, often turn to their guidance counselor for advice. Even more importantly, a guidance counselor should be attuned enough to their students that they notice shifts in behavior or attitude even before the student brings it up!

But for somebody who is interested in helping others, who can really listen and wants to help guide children and young adults – for that person, a career as a guidance counselor can be a wonderful and rewarding occupation.

High school students are looking for more assistance with college planning. According to a recent survey by Grand Canyon University, many students now rely less on parents and teachers. They are turning to guidance counselors for help with one of the biggest decisions of their lives.

The GCU study, conducted via forums and electronic surveys of area public high school guidance counselors, showed some surprising results. A record number of students are seeking help to decide what to do after high school.

While colleges and universities are investing heavily to recruit students, the demands on high school students are escalating as well. Students are pressured to decide on an area of study before even entering college. A majority of counselors said that less than half of their students had decided on a major or direction of study for college.

Couple that pressure with the stress to select a college or university. As a result, students are increasingly seeking out guidance counselors to help with the critical decision-making process. Students are coming to counselors for assistance with college applications, financial aid and scholarship information.

Many of the counselors also reported that they need better training to assist students with the application process.

Sidebar:
Among the guidance counselors surveyed by Grand Canyon University, most responded that students had also sought assistance for something other than college planning. The most frequent reasons students asked for help were:

• Grief and bereavement – 76% of counselors
• Suicide issues – 68% of counselors
• Drug and alcohol issues – 65% of counselors

High school can be a difficult time for both teens and parents. Students are changing both emotionally and physically as they become young adults. As a parent, keep in mind that counselors can be a valuable resource for you and your son or daughter.

Counselors are readily available to advise students throughout the school year. Learn about a few of the areas that a high school guidance counselor can help.
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As a senior in high school or freshman in college, you may not have even heard of helicopter parents but you have almost certainly felt the wind from their rotating wings. A helicopter parent, as defined recently by the media, is a parent who hovers too closely over a child, mapping out their activities, decisions and lives from birth into adulthood. You probably have a friend whose mother picked out her daughter

As Amy Shaunette and Cooper Gango contemplated college, they considered an issue beyond the SAT and GPAs: their love life. The pair started dating as juniors at Lake Oswego High in Oregon. As college loomed, they weren’t sure whether

For the last few years, high school guidance counselors have been asked to address the self-abusing practice of cutting. Mostly believed to be a behavior displayed in disturbed or troubled teens, many colleges and universities are now reporting a culture of cutting on their campuses.

Cnn.com reports that, “nearly 1 in 5 students at two Ivy League schools say they have purposely injured themselves by cutting, burning or other methods, a disturbing phenomenon that psychologists say they are hearing about more often.”

Guidance counselors have been reporting increased numbers of cutting in colleges, high schools and middle schools across the nation.
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Counselor Companion has sought opportunities to create dialogue among high school guidance counselors about the many issues, concerns and challenges facing today’s high school students as they prepare for college and life beyond high school. For a growing number of students, 30 percent of high school students to be exact, a life beyond high school is marred by the lack of a high school diploma. Time magazine tackles the issue of the rising high school dropout rate and what it means for America.

In today’s data-happy era of accountability, testing and No Child Left Behind, here is the most astonishing statistic in the whole field of education: an increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won’t graduate, not just in Shelbyville but around the nation.

For Latinos and African-Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50 percent. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem.

There is a small but hardy band of researchers who insist the dropout rates don’t quite approach those levels. They point to their pet surveys that suggest a rate of only 15 percent to 20 percent.

The dispute is difficult to referee, particularly in the wake of decades of lax accounting by states and schools. But the majority of analysts and lawmakers have come to this consensus: the numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30 percent through two decades of intense educational reform, and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully, ignored.
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The numbers of male college students has been on a steady decline for more than a decade. Liberal arts schools noticed the change a while ago. Now, big state schools are starting to experience the trend.

“Colleges and universities throughout the country are grappling with the case of the mysteriously vanishing male. Where men once dominated, they now make up no more than 43 percent of students at American institutions of higher learning, according to 2003 statistics, and this downward trend shows every sign of continuing unabated.” (Taken from “Colleges, universities seek a few good men,” by Michael Gurian, Special to the Washington Post.)
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It is common knowledge that drug use has been prevalent among teens for decades. But according to a new study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the types of drugs used are changing.

Gone are the days when marijuana was the drug of choice for America’s teens. Its users declined to 37 percent from 42 percent just six years earlier. Also down 3 percent is the use of ecstasy and methamphetamine usage is down 4 percent. So what are teens using to get high these days?
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High school counselors fill many roles in the lives of their students. They face difficult, stressful issues everyday. When the time comes, high school counselors are called on to provide grief counseling to students, to help cope with violence, death and grief, weapons at school, abuse, accidents, suicide threats, natural disasters and a number of other life-altering disasters.
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