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Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 4:46 PM
Thursday Morning News
I just read through the Consortium’s new report, I am a counselor at a CPS high school which will remain unnamed. There are a few things I disagree with in the Potholes report and there are things that were obviously correct that Consortium researchers more or less proved.
I know that getting low income seniors to fill out the FASA form is a problem, but I really feel that the Consortium report overly places the blame for this on those of us who are senior counselors. Let me relate a very typical story, I work with a senior who has an 18 ACT but strong grade and good recommendations. We work on the applications, transcripts, even application fee waivers in some cases. But when we get to the FASA we need the family's last IRS filing, many families not just undocumented ones will not produce the records. One reason for this I suspect is that some are not filing any returns at all because they are in the cash economy. I honestly do not believe that I or other counselors can be blamed for that.
I would really also like to know how could the Consortium can produce a report like this without giving the public the CPS high school counselor to student ratio. I could not find it anywhere in the report, moreover please do not use the theoretical case load based on our contract, but the real one that includes the reality that some schools have counselors on medical leave and have not filled the slots.
Moreover, please great minds at U of C please explain to me how I can devote more attention to the college bound students than to those kids in danger of not graduating at all who take up significant amounts of time. Do the wise professors recommend that I abandon these kids in favor of servicing the higher achieving college bound kids exclusively?
Now I want to turn to one of the case studies in the report that upset me, in fact I almost would say I had this particular senior last year. This is the case study of a senior called Maribel. The long and the short of her story is that the Consortium feels that her GPA was strong enough to overcome a composite ACT score of only 15 and to attend a four year college, instead of Wright City College. My assessment is different than the Consortium, I believe at best Maribel could have been provisionally admitted to Chicago State or Northeastern IL. As counselor I would have advised her to not go to either of these two schools with her relatively weak ACT score. Both of these colleges are overwhelmed with kids struggling and their capacity to provide additional supports for a student like Maribel are in my opinion less than at Wright. I think she in fact made a rational choice.
I was disturbed that CPS counselors were not surveyed for this report. On pages 82 and 83 of the report we CPS high school counselors are effectively trashed by the Consortium. The title of this section is: Counselor Guidance Help or Hindrance. Then on page 83 we CPS counselors are found largely to be a hindrance or at best less than useful. The Consortium admits it relied for all of its data on student surveys, it admits by omission its researchers never sat through any counselor student pre-College application conference in any CPS high school.
What the Consortium is doing is preparing the way for privatization of college counseling. This service can be sold off to friendly companies, non-union by the way, or can be handed off to wonderful not for profits in cahoots with the Mayor and Duncan.
I will not deny there are CPS counselors who do damn little for students, but there are also plenty who fight for their kids endlessly.
I also have to agree with part of the report and that deals with money. The fact that many CPS students simply can not afford to go to a four year college is a reality. The Consortium report played down students concerns about taking out student loans in my opinion. I do not, I warn my students up front that if they do not make it in a four year college and drop out they still owe this money. This debt is unlike any other you can not escape it. So I warn low income kids that going to Northwestern, Univ of Wisconsin, U of C, or Michigan is wonderful, but if you are not getting big money scholarships and are putting up a lot in loans make another choice. There is great risk in taking on big debt. I feel obligated to tell this to even higher achieving low income students.
I know that getting low income seniors to fill out the FASA form is a problem, but I really feel that the Consortium report overly places the blame for this on those of us who are senior counselors. Let me relate a very typical story, I work with a senior who has an 18 ACT but strong grade and good recommendations. We work on the applications, transcripts, even application fee waivers in some cases. But when we get to the FASA we need the family's last IRS filing, many families not just undocumented ones will not produce the records. One reason for this I suspect is that some are not filing any returns at all because they are in the cash economy. I honestly do not believe that I or other counselors can be blamed for that.
I would really also like to know how could the Consortium can produce a report like this without giving the public the CPS high school counselor to student ratio. I could not find it anywhere in the report, moreover please do not use the theoretical case load based on our contract, but the real one that includes the reality that some schools have counselors on medical leave and have not filled the slots.
Moreover, please great minds at U of C please explain to me how I can devote more attention to the college bound students than to those kids in danger of not graduating at all who take up significant amounts of time. Do the wise professors recommend that I abandon these kids in favor of servicing the higher achieving college bound kids exclusively?
Now I want to turn to one of the case studies in the report that upset me, in fact I almost would say I had this particular senior last year. This is the case study of a senior called Maribel. The long and the short of her story is that the Consortium feels that her GPA was strong enough to overcome a composite ACT score of only 15 and to attend a four year college, instead of Wright City College. My assessment is different than the Consortium, I believe at best Maribel could have been provisionally admitted to Chicago State or Northeastern IL. As counselor I would have advised her to not go to either of these two schools with her relatively weak ACT score. Both of these colleges are overwhelmed with kids struggling and their capacity to provide additional supports for a student like Maribel are in my opinion less than at Wright. I think she in fact made a rational choice.
I was disturbed that CPS counselors were not surveyed for this report. On pages 82 and 83 of the report we CPS high school counselors are effectively trashed by the Consortium. The title of this section is: Counselor Guidance Help or Hindrance. Then on page 83 we CPS counselors are found largely to be a hindrance or at best less than useful. The Consortium admits it relied for all of its data on student surveys, it admits by omission its researchers never sat through any counselor student pre-College application conference in any CPS high school.
What the Consortium is doing is preparing the way for privatization of college counseling. This service can be sold off to friendly companies, non-union by the way, or can be handed off to wonderful not for profits in cahoots with the Mayor and Duncan.
I will not deny there are CPS counselors who do damn little for students, but there are also plenty who fight for their kids endlessly.
I also have to agree with part of the report and that deals with money. The fact that many CPS students simply can not afford to go to a four year college is a reality. The Consortium report played down students concerns about taking out student loans in my opinion. I do not, I warn my students up front that if they do not make it in a four year college and drop out they still owe this money. This debt is unlike any other you can not escape it. So I warn low income kids that going to Northwestern, Univ of Wisconsin, U of C, or Michigan is wonderful, but if you are not getting big money scholarships and are putting up a lot in loans make another choice. There is great risk in taking on big debt. I feel obligated to tell this to even higher achieving low income students.
