June 12, 2020
Black Student Access to Counselors in Pennsylvania
Policy Brief
School Counselors are certified and/or licensed individuals who assist students in many areas, including academics, personal development, mental health, and post high school plans. Recent research confirms prior studies about the influence of counselors—specifically, counselors are associated with increases in student achievement, graduation rates, college readiness, and college attendance. Moreover, this is particularly true for students living in poverty and students of Color. Most recently, Mulhern (2019) found that counselors have a causal effect on these outcomes, meaning counselors positively influence these outcomes apart from the influence of other factors that influence such outcomes.
School counselors are particularly important for Black students who are more likely to seek out and benefit from counselors. This is especially true given that Black students in Pennsylvania are far more likely to have been personally impacted by the effects of Covid-19 given the disproportionate effects Covid-19 had had on the Black community and are also more likely to have been personally affected by the recent protests against police violence.
Despite this greater importance, we document below that Black students in Pennsylvania have less access to school counselors than their white peers and most Black students are enrolled in schools without a single Black counselor. Given existing research, this inequitable access to counselors likely has a negative impact on the schooling outcomes and post-secondary trajectories of Black students in Pennsylvania.