(Name-mce) ListServ Race and Family Income of Students Influence Guidance Counselors' Advice, Study Finds

[Howe, William]

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Race and Family Income of Students Influence Guidance Counselors'
Advice, Study Finds 

By ERIC HOOVER <mailto:eric.hoover at chronicle.com> 
The race and family income of prospective college applicants influence
the advice that high-school guidance counselors give them, according to
a study released on Monday. 

Counselors were more likely to recommend community colleges to
middle-class black students with sub-par academic records than to
middle-class white students with similar records, the study found. Among
wealthier students with poor academic records, however, counselors were
more likely to urge white students than black students to attend
community colleges. 

The study also found that counselors were more likely to recommend
community colleges to middle-class students than to wealthier ones, and
they recommended four-year colleges more strongly to upper-class
students than to middle-class students. 

The findings are based on the results of a three-year study sponsored by
the National Commission for Cooperative Education, which sent surveys to
20,000 high-school counselors throughout the nation. Respondents
received one of 16 profiles of fictional students specifying race,
gender, family income, and academic performance. The counselors were
asked to indicate how strongly they would recommend that the student
seek more information about, visit, and apply to a four-year college and
a community college. The results were based on a sample of approximately
1,700 responses. 

The study, "High School Guidance Counselors: Facilitators or Pre-Emptors
of Social Stratification in Education," was conducted by Frank Linnehan,
an associate professor of management at Drexel University; Christy Weer,
a Ph.D. candidate at Drexel; and Paul J. Stonely, the commission's
president. The researchers plan to present their findings at a meeting
of the Academy of Management in August. 

 

William A. Howe, Ed.D.
Education Consultant for Multicultural Education & Gender Equity
Connecticut State Department of Education - Bureau of Educational Equity
165 Capitol Ave. Rm 312, Hartford, CT 06106 
Telephone: 860-713-6542 * Fax: 860-713-7496
email: william.howe at ct.gov
website: http://www.state.ct.us/sde

11th Annual Connecticut Conference on Multicultural Education, Marriott
Hotel, Farmington, CT -Oct. 16, 2006,
<http://www.state.ct.us/sde/calendar/index.htm>  

Multicultural Educators to South Africa 2006 <http://www.billhowe.org/> 

 

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