| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, MPA |
| Sponsor: | Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium, Austin Community Foundation |
| Project Duration: | March 2014 – September 2014 |
| Description: | High school counselors have the potential to play a critical role in promoting students’ high school completion and college readiness. The Texas Legislature has frequently recognized the importance of counselors in delegating important responsibilities to them, most recently in the case of House Bill 5 in regards to counselors’ assisting students in understanding and choosing curricular pathways, graduation plans, and endorsements. However, the legislative cuts to educational appropriations in 2011 appear to have reduced the supply of counselors in the state, possibly preventing the new curricular mandates in HB5 from being fully implemented. Despite the importance of counselors, limited research exists on factors that affect the supply of counselors and the effects of this supply on student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to analyze trends in the supply of counselors and the demand for their services, understood as trends in the student population, and to estimate the effects of counselors on students’ likelihood of finishing high school and enrolling in college. The study will specifically investigate whether students attending schools and districts that eliminated counseling staff as a result of the 2011 budget cuts fared worse than their peers in contexts where the student-to-counselor ratio was relatively maintained. |
| Reports Available: | Texas School Counselor Study: Exploring the Supply, Demand, and Evolving Roles of School Counselors Authors: Greg Cumpton, Matt Giani Date: December 2014 Publication Type: Report. 48pp.Texas School Counselor Study Executive Summary Authors: Greg Cumpton, Matt Giani Date: December 2014 Publication Type: Executive Summary. 4pp. |
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