This examination of guidance and counseling was undertaken as part of CCRC’s National Field Study of 15 community colleges. The results revealed that academic counseling, geared toward helping students determine which courses to take, overshadowed career-oriented counseling. While much counseling offered simple information, assuming that students knew how to use that information wisely, some counselors articulated a notion of “active counseling”—trying to answer the questions students would ask if students knew what to ask. In addition, the study revealed that colleges have developed a number of innovative approaches to counseling, including semester-long courses, learning communities, and innovations in how counselors are assigned to students.
This project was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.