Beyond College For All: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half

Chapter 4. Gatekeeping in an Era of More Open Gates: High School Counselors’ Views of Their Influence on Students’ College Plans

88 Chapter 4 Gatekeeping in an Era of More Open Gates: High School Counselors’ Views of Their Influence on Students’ College Plans S ociological research has provided a clear picture of the ways in which counselors channel students’ educational destinies.1 Focusing on the ways in which counselors influence which students attend college (Cicourel and Kitsuse 1963; Schafer and Olexa 1971; Rosenbaum 1976), studies have given sociology the model of counselors as active “social selectors” for colleges, a role in which they screen out those students who they feel are poorly prepared, often exhibiting biases against low socioeconomic status, minorities, and (sometimes) women (Heyns 1974; Erickson 1975). However, much of this research is based on fieldwork from the 1960s and early 1970s. Three major changes since the early 1970s may have radically changed counselors’ job. First, sociological studies of counselors and tracking have raised public awareness of these issues. Aaron Cicourel and John Kitsuse’s (1963) work was extensively reprinted in counseling textbooks, and its influence spread beyond educators. Some documentary movies, such as High School (Frederick Wiseman) and Growing up in Webster Grove, which depicted the heavy-handed efforts of counselors to steer students’ futures, were widely seen and reviewed in national media. Greater public awareness may have increased parent resistance to counselors’ steering and may have dissuaded counselors from engaging in it. It is possible that a version of Heisenberg’s principle took hold, that sociology’s measures (and reports) of the phenomenon of counseling changed the way counselors act. Gatekeeping in an Era of More Open Gates 89 Second, the growth of community colleges has dramatically increased opportunities to go to college, and many more students attend some form of college now. In 1960, about the time when Cicourel and Kitsuse (1963) were gathering their data, 45.1 percent of high school graduates attended some postsecondary institution. By 1993 over 63 percent did. The change is particularly dramatic for two-year colleges. While enrollment at four-year colleges roughly doubled between 1960 and 1990, public community college enrollment increased fivefold, from less than 200,000 in 1960 to over 1,000,000 in 1990 (NCES 1992, table 169). Therefore, as more students have attended college, counselors have needed to dissuade fewer students from planning on it. Third, the open-admissions policies of community colleges have greatly reduced the need for high school counselors to advise students that they are unsuited for college. In the past, college admission standards compelled counselors to confront students’ unrealistic college plans. Now, however, admission standards are practically nonexistent . In Illinois, for example, high school graduates can attend a community college regardless of grades or course enrollments (and nongraduates can attend if they are older than twenty-one). Sociologists have noted that community colleges have taken on the “coolingout ” function (Clark 1960), but less noted has been the consequences for high schools. To the extent that counselors’ jobs have traditionally included making students face up to college entrance requirements, open-admissions colleges may have removed this burden. In light of these dramatic changes, this chapter investigates how counselors view their influence in guiding students’ college plans and the strategies they employ in advising students as they make choices. Although caution is required in accepting counselors’ views, we note some aspects of their reports that suggest their validity. Sociological research from before 1972 found that counselors had a powerful influence on students’ future destinies; we present evidence indicating that their influence, how they see their job, and the strategies they use for counseling students are now quite different from this widely held view. These results raise questions about the role of counselors, not just for helping students enter college but also for helping them complete it successfully. These concerns are particularly great for lowincome students. Previous Research Historically, the job definition of a school counselor has shifted with the times. By the early 1960s, an earlier emphasis on vocational coun- 90 Beyond College for All seling had been displaced by college counseling as the major activity of these professionals, followed by a growing trend toward more personal (therapeutic) counseling (Armor 1971, 115). Although counselors have long espoused the “contest mobility norm”—that is, the norm that opportunity always remains open (Turner 1960)—counselors of the 1960s were not reluctant to close off some students’ college opportunities and were clear about their responsibilities in selecting students for higher education. Counselors reported many ways...