School Counselors' Impact on Underrepresented Students' Thinking About Postsecondary Education: A Nationally Representative Study

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Counseling Psychology Poster Session 2

Abstract

Utilizing the national HSLS:09 data set, the present study examines the role that school counselors play in impacting students’ thinking about post-secondary education from the students’ perspectives (n = 3,239,560) and identifies student and school-level variables that predict students’ identification of their school counselor as the person who had the most influence in their thinking about post-secondary education. Results suggest that Black, first-generation, and private school students are more likely to name their counselor as having had the greatest impact. Though known to counselors anecdotally, the present study provides empirical support of their impact on underrepresented students’ post-secondary plans and school conditions of influence, such as time devoted to college counseling and size of caseload.

Authors

• Blaire Cholewa, University of Virginia

• Christina Koch Burkhardt, Rockbridge County Schools

• Michael Fox Hull, University of Virginia