EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - A majority of Indiana’s high school counselors say the growing list of non-counseling duties they must perform is leaving them with less time to help prepare students for college and postsecondary training, a new report concludes.
More than 400 Indiana counselors, 73 percent of them from high schools, were surveyed for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s report. Fifty-eight percent of the counselors said a quarter or less of their time is spent on college and career readiness activities, the Evansville Courier & Press reported (https://bit.ly/1ktzmWC ).
The amount of time counselors are asked to devote to non-counseling duties - such as hall monitor, administering state mandated assessments and lunch room duty - has more than doubled since 2010, the report said. That list pulls counselors away from their primary function, said Derek Redelman, Indiana Chamber vice president of education and workforce development.
“And that needs to be addressed. Being unable to more frequently do their essential job is the number one thing we heard about from counselors,” Redelman said in statement.
Marcia Staser, who oversees the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp.’s 49 counselors, said non-counseling duties are hampering counselors’ ability to make sure students are successful after high school.
She said counselors are “frustrated about not being able to spend enough time” on college prep and postsecondary training due to their host of other duties, including scheduling classes and making sure students are on track to graduate.
Staser said counselors sometimes try to multitask, such as talking to students during lunch room duty. But she said that’s difficult because counselors can’t devote their full attention.
“Pretty much everything that other people don’t have time to do is given to the counselor,” Staser said.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce Foundation wanted to see if the counseling world had changed any in the last two decades, when a 1994 statewide study noted differences in the way counselors provided college and career readiness.
Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said “unfortunately little has progressed in 20 years” even though counseling is a vital tool for middle and high school students.
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. Superintendent David Smith said many testing and state requirements fall into the laps of counselors.
“Our counselors do an incredible job, but there’s only 24 hours in a day,” he said.
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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, https://www.courierpress.com
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