with a practical approact-i, school counselors can make great...
TRANSCRIPT
With a practical approact-I, school counselors can
make great strides on the journey to creating
college-going
BY K R l S H A R V E Y
cultures in their schools.
We've all seen them - the lcids who
would experience great success i1; col-
lege but have never even considered
applying. Perhaps their parents aren't
college-educated and are convinced a
college degree isn't necessary. Pel-haps
there are financial issues involved, and
they don't thinlc there's any way they
could, afford it so they don't even con-
sider it. 01- perhaps their self-esteem is
low, and they thinlc they'd I'ail a t college.
,Helpingthese students realize that,
yes, they can attend college should be
a schoolwide effort, one the school
counselor is uniquely positioned t o
lead. O n e of'the best ways to accoln- '
p l ~ s l ~ this is by creating a ~ o l l e ~ e - ~ o i n g
culture in you r school.
The term "college-going culture" is
ubiquitous in today's school environ-
ment literature. What isn't as common
is a definition of exactly what this term
means, why it's important and ho\v
schools can achieve ~ t . \JJitliout this
inrormation, schools struggling t o get
students to perf'orm a t grade level are
unlilcely to discover how raising expec-
tations can actually Ilelp, not hurt,
their students' perfor~nance.
With some basic infor~nation and a
practical, step-by-step approach,
school counselors can help t rans lb~*~n
their schools' cultures in ways thal will
significantly improve students' lives.
WHAT IS A COLLEGE-GOING CULTURE?
There are mally dirrerent definitions,
but one of the most common is the
one used by the College Baal-d in
" ~ o l l e g e ~ d @ : Creating a College-
Going .Culture." Theye, a college-
going culture is c1el;ncd as a n
environment "that Lpilds the expecta-
tion of postsecondary education for all
students - not just the Lcst students.
It inspires the best in e\rel3; st-uclent."
A school with a college-going culture
is one where the goal for students is
not s i~nply to p a d u a t e I.'rorn high
I W W W S C H O O L C O U N S E L O R O R G
school but to obtain a college clegree.
It means creating an atmosphere
where all st~idents are engaged in a
~-igorous c ~ ~ r r i c ~ ~ l u m that adequately
prepares them (01. the academic
clemancls oC' postseconclary education.
WHY DON'T SCHOOLS HAVE A
COLLEGE-GOING CULTURE? Many
schools don't have college-going C L I I - tures because faculty and aclministra-
tors there believe college advocacy ~.
and planning should be done at home.
The problem with this approach is
that, unfortunately, many st~rdents.
who have the potential to succeecl at
college don't receive this type of
encouragement and support at home.
Research has repeatedly shown that a
Family's income and experience with
collcge are better predictors oFa stu-
dent's enrollment in college than the
student's academic pei.formance. I n
these situations, creating a college-
going cultu~.e can go a long way
toward reducing the achievement gap
between rich and poor students.
Some schools don't have college-
going cul~ures because many ol' their
students.aren't performing wcll in
less-ch;~llenging courses, and they [ear
increasing the rigol will only r e s ~ ~ l t in more Failing sluclenls. Jus l the oppo-
site OCCLII .~ . According to the -
Education T ~ L I s ~ , scl~ools that raise
acadenlic standards find student per-
formance irnp~.oves.
Other schools don't develop a col-
lege-going culture b e c a ~ ~ s e they are too
Focused on other priorities they believe
are more important, S L I C ~ as testing or
addressing drop-out rates. What these'
schools fail to realize is that these
things are not n ~ ~ ~ t u a l l y exclusive. On
the contrary, having a college-going
ci~lture can actually help schools
achieve many of their other objectives.
HOW DOES A COLLEGE-GOING
CULTURE HELP SCHOOLS MEET
THEIR GOALS? Simple. By emphasiz-
ing the many lifelong benefits of a
college degree, schools can shirt stu-
dents' t'ocus From the short term to
the long term. Ln doing so, schools
help students see the value O F their
in middle and high
school and why it's in their best inter-
est to do well ancl work hard.
St~~clents who believe a college
degree will increase their standard of - living in life and see the connection
between doing well i n school an.cl get-
ting into colle'ge are 16uch rnbre Iilcely
to care about their perForniance on
state and national tests. 'They're also
more Iilcely to improve their atten-
dance and grade-point averages:A
college-bound student sees the value
of staying in school, instead oFdrop-
ping out, and is interested in a more
rigorous cur~.ic~~lurn.
Assess Your Culture 'I'o get an accurate picture ol' its
existing cultu~.e, a school should eval-
uate itsell'both quantitatively and
,qualitatively.
A quanlitative measurement O F a sec-
ondary school's college-going culture
14 A S C A S C H O O L C O U N S E L O R / N O V . D E C 2 0 0 7
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One way to obtain this type O F information &om students is to simply
aslc them for it. Schools s h o ~ ~ l d con-
tinually r e q ~ ~ e s t this inFor~nation not
only L'ro~n the s t~~clcnts themselves but
also Lorn parents. Include ~-eq~lrs ts in
newsletters, 011 the school's Web site
; ~ n d at parent conferences. Often, stu-
dents and parents have never provid-
ed this info'rmation because they
didn't tliinlc schools were interested in
it. A school that sets goals to improve
its college-going cultu~-e and assigns
someone, often a school counselor, to
own this inFor~nation sends a message
to the school c o m m ~ ~ n i t y th. '11 - ' ~t cares
about these types of things.
The third step is to establish strate-
gies ,and tactics For meeting the
school's goals. One great way to taclc-
le this project is to separate the big
strategies from the small ones.
Small strategies are definecl as
things the school can accomplish with
little effort or money and include
activities such as:
Hanging college posters and
pennants i n the hallways.
Having L'aculty wear college
sweatshirts every F~.ida~y.
Starting a college newsletter.
Anno~~nc ing collcge c~itrance exam
clates.
Sctting the del'ault screen on scliool
computers to college Web sites.
Oufcring compi~tcr time to uamilies
to complete tjnancial aid and
college applications.
Inviting recent college gracluatcs to
spealc at assemblics or in cI;~ssrooms.
Inviting admissions oftjcers to
spealc at assemblies or in
cI;~ssrooms.
Hosting a college [air and/or a
1;nancial aid information session.
Instituting a "college O F the week"
pl.ofile.
Organizing or sponsoring campus
visits.
Creating a college corner in the scl~ool.
Starting an a l ~ ~ m n i directory.
Celebrating students' acceptances
Big strategies involvc a much larger
commitment of time and resources.
Usually, they tnlce longer and are
morc expensive to implement t h , ~ n
smaller strategies. Some examples O F big strategies to consider are:
Offering an advanced, r igo ro~~s
cul-I-iculu~n available to all students.
Establishing the curriculum
required for aclmission to local f o ~ ~ r -
year colleges as the curriculuni
reqi~ired for high school g~.acluation.
Offering free SAT and/or ACT
preparatio~i classes.
Provicling the PSAT or PLAN free
to all 10th-gracle students. Providing professional clevelopment
in college counseling.
-1ntegr.ating college topics into the
curriculum. For exalnple, students
in pre-algebra could be given the
following r.atio/proportion problem:
"If two-thirds of the stuclents at U O F I are in the School of
A S C A S C H O O L C O U N S E L O R I N O V . D E C 2 0 0 7
Engineering and 1J of I 11as 35,000 students, how many students a re . engineering major-s?" English language arts st-udents coulcl be
nslted to WI-it-e a college admission essay. I~n~ lcmen t ing a college-aw~arencss
and planning curl-iculu~n such as the College Board's CollegeEd program, which is a classroo~n-
based cu~.riculu~n for stuclcnts in
grades 7- I 2. Pal-tnering with national, fcde~-:ill~
funded programs PI-emoting college readiness for low-income and first- generation college students. Two
such progralns are TR10 and Gain Early Awareness and Reacliness for
Undergraduate I'rograms
(GEARUP). Both programs serve students in grades 7-12. Implementing a college-preparation
program such as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). A11 elective for undel-perrorming
students, AVID promotes rigorous
C O U ~ S ~ W O I - k and provides tutoring
for students in gl-acles 4-12. r 7 I he fourth step in creating a col-
Icge-going cu1tur:e is measu~.ing the school's progress and cont-inually revising and improving its strategies. Using the methods outlined in earlier
steps, schools sl~oulcl, 011 a regular basis (annually, a1 least) monitor their progress toward their goals. A thor-
ough review or a school's p~-ogl-ess should include answering the follow-
ing questions: Which goals has the school met-? Which goals has it not met? \4Thich strategies andlor- t-act-ics
\vcre most effective in helping the school meet its goals? Wh.y?,
Which strategies andlor tactics were least effective? W h y ? After the school has answered these
cl-iticnl questions, it can begin to set
new goals and establish more effective strategies for the rollowing school year.
The firth, and final, step is to com-
municate the school's I-esult-s.
Unfol-tunately, m a n y schools forget
this critical step. ]/.'a school p~.evious- 1y com~nunicated to faculty, students and parents its college-going goals, those ltey st-alteholder-s will be expect- ing to Ileal. From the school o n the sta- tus of these goals. Schools s h o ~ l d ~ l ' t disappoint then^ by failing to Iteep,
them dated or, worse, send the message that the school no longer
considers having a college-going cul- ture a high priority. Instead, the school should talte evely opportunity
to report on its prog.1-ess, even i f it didn't meet all goals. An honest and open report is more liltely to result in
a more successl'ul year next year. Creating a college-going cult~irc in
a school is not easy, but its rewards
are worth the effort. Scllools having d i f l ' i c~~ l t~ meeting goals such as improving standardizeel test scores
and decreasing drop-out rates have
found that creating a college-going .
culture can help. Alany schools are
also deciding that creating a college-
going C L I I I L I ~ C can help 1.et1ucc [he
~~chier,emc.nt gap bctrveen rich anJ St l l Jen[ j, School c o L l n j c l o r s c;,n,
ancl should, play a Icey role in estab-
lishing S L I C ~ n CII~(LII .C. AS a n aclvocate
For s t~~clents , they a r e ol'ten in thc
best position to scl-ve as a change
agent in school.
i1ei)ic~iteO to i~i~:t.e~~~titig the /1i,.1116er (?/:fi~.~~t-
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