The Ethics of Retention:Career counseling with statistically unsuccessful

students

Introduction

Michael C. Cadaret, M.A. Derek A. McKay, M.A.

Future Directions

Based on the preliminary results of our pilot survey and the feedback from our colleagues we have identified several key areas to creating a more comprehensive survey for greater dissemination among university counselors. First, our results show that there is some uncertainty about the identifying students as those enrolled under conditional status or in remedial programs. This led us to question whether counselors see this issues as relevant to career or academic counseling. Additionally, we plan to assess the level of ethical responsibility university counselors feel in gathering such information, as well as how much ethical responsibility they feel toward educating clients about success rates and probabilities of success in given educational pathways. Finally, we hope to further distinguish the drive for counselors to help retain students for the university versus offering students alternative vocational choices. Specifically we hope to identify this as a question of responsibility, that is, does the university counselor deem their role as supportive for the student, and the role of options and potential for success should instead be left to the academic advisor? Our follow-up survey hopes to gauge university counselor's attitudes toward these domainswith greater clarity.

ReferencesLieszkovsky, I.. (February 3, 2012). Ohio Aims to Cut Back on RemedialCollege Classes. In StateImpact Ohio. Retrieved March 17, 2012, fromhttp://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/02/03/ohio-aims-to-cut-back-on-remedial-college-classes/.

Natitional Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). Fast Facts. InInstitute of Education Sciences. Retrieved March 17, 2012, fromhttp://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/index.asp?faq=FFOption6#faqFFOption6.

U.S. Department of Education. (September 12, 2011). Default rates risefor federal student loans. In ED.gov: U.S. Department of Education.Retrieved March 17, 2012, fromhttp://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/default-rates-rise-federal-student-loans-cut-back-on-remedial-college-classes/.

ImplicationsFor the college counselor, these issues may seem distant as they pertain largely to public-policy makers and administration within the university. Yet they are very present with the number of students seen face-to-face in the counseling and testing office. Students are often referred for academic counseling, time management difficulties, test-anxiety, or performance issues, and disability or intelligence testing. Among these students many are seeking career-related counseling concerning choosing a major and navigating pathways to success in the college environment. The current study sought to gauge counselors attitudes and ideas about career counseling with students who are on academic probation, are provisionally admitted into the university and statistically may not successfully complete a four-year degrees. The current study was designed as apilot study, surveying local university counseling employees to try to reach a greater understanding of the issues surrounding the topic, and to also solicit feedback for improving the questionnaire.

MethodParticipants were emailed the survey and responded anonymously online. The survey took approximately 20 minutes to complete. We analyzed results by looking at frequencies of responses to several relevant questions. We also identified further information needed to assess a fuller understanding of the ethical implications of career counseling with statistically-at-risk students which will be discussed.

Preliminary Results

•67% of the participants held a PhD in Counseling Psychology; 33% responded with “other.”•67% of the participants worked in a college/university setting for over 15 years.•100% of the participants identified as seeing between 11-16 clients per week and seeing some career counseling clients.•67% of the participants responded that they “often” counsel students on academic probation but only 33% stated they “often” engaged in academic counseling. Additionally, this group of respondents noted that they did not feel that their supervision experiences adequately covered issues related to career counseling. •33% of the participants were “unsure” if they saw students coming for academic and career counseling were enrolled in general education or remedial/conditional programs. •67% of the participants stated that they felt it was their role as an employee of the university/college to retain students through counseling.•67% of the participants stated that they felt they should attempt to retain students for the university/college in the role of a counselor. •100% of the participants stated they the were aware of any statistics regarding the success rates of their university's academic probation/general education/conditional students. Additionally, 100% agreed that it was important to be aware of such statistics. Interestingly, however, 33% of the participants were unsure as to whether or not they felt it would be important to share such statistics with these particular students coming in for career or academic counseling.

Early this year, President Obama pushed as part of his education plan, increased access to higher-education and expansion of funding, such as the Pell-grants and Stafford loan programs, to make college more affordable. Many universities have adopted open-enrollment or open-admission policies which allow students to enter the university on a conditional track assuming they complete remedial coursework (also known as developmental education classes) to demonstrate aptitude for college success. In the researcher’s home state of Ohio, a report shows that 41% of high school graduates attending college need to take at least one remedial course, essentially repeating what they should have learned in high school. Additionally, remedial coursework does not count toward college credit, students who take remedial courses take longer to graduate or have a higher dropout rate. The cost to the state (reported by the Board of Regents for Ohio) was 147-million in 2010. While the notion of increasing student access and affordability to higher education is laudable, the long term ethical consequences of telling every high school senior that they can qualify for loans and get a college education are questionable. Consider the reports from the National Center for Educational Statistics which state the number of students who graduated within six-years who enrolled in 2002, was 57%. Compare this with the total number of undergraduate students receiving any financial aid at 65.6% and it is clear that not all students who take out loans to invest in their education ultimately are able to get the pay off of a college degree. The potential to pay off a college education is also becoming increasingly difficult if the rising cost of higher-education is taken into account. From 1980 to 2010 the cost of education has risen 250% (if adjusted for the Consumer Price Index) or 600% by raw data figures. Further reports from the Institute for College Access and Success reports that college graduates in 2010 had “an average of $25,250 in debt” while facing “the highest unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history at 9.1%”. The U.S. Department of Education reported an increase for the financial year 2009 in national student loan cohort default rate, up to 8.8% from 7% in 2008.