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June 23, 2005

Jeremy Schwab

For years, Boston-area high schoolers have complained that guidance counselors do not give them enough individual attention and too often fail to encourage black and Latino students to consider advanced placement classes and college options.

Two years ago, teens and youth workers from the Boston-area Youth Organizing Project decided to do something about it. The teens conducted a survey of public high school students throughout Boston and at Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School on how to improve guidance counseling services.

The youths and youth workers then incorporated these suggestions into two proposals, which they presented to officials from BPS and Cambridge Rindge & Latin. Last week, officials from BPS and Cambridge Rindge & Latin met with youth in the basement of the United Methodist Church on Columbus Avenue in the South End to sign the agreements.

Carolyn Riley, BPS senior director of unified student services, signed the pact before an enthusiastic audience of over 50 youths calling for the youths to present student perspectives on guidance services at a meeting of all district guidance counselors at the beginning of the coming school year.

Also, the BYOP youths will lead a workshop for guidance counselors focusing on supporting and setting high expectations for students of color. Flyers designed by BYOP informing students in multiple languages about the resources counselors provide will be posted in every school.

Riley also agreed to pass on to her superiors the youths’ suggestion that the district create Maximum Achievement Plans for each student entering high school so the students can name their dreams, set goals and create a plan for attaining those goals.

Cambridge Rindge & Latin Dean Cathy Womnis signed a parallel agreement calling on the school to distribute a brochure explaining the requirements and benefits of advanced placement courses. The school will also ensure that every black and Latino student meets with a guidance counselor to discuss AP and honors courses and create a phone calling system to inform parents about meetings to discuss AP issues. Finally, the school agreed to set up a task force to combat the low participation of black and Latino students in AP classes.

“Sometimes adults say that youth expect a lot,” said BYOP Operations Chair Tiana Williams. “They say we are not responsible. But we at BYOP are here to dictate our futures. We need [counselors] to step up.”

Students at the signing ceremony, which included a skit demonstrating the encouragement youths should receive during a guidance counseling session, gave each other enthusiastic support, shouting encouragement to microphone-shy speakers and cheering those who took the stage to call for better counseling.

The BYOP teens and youth organizers are still hoping to convince school officials to agree to further points, especially hiring more guidance counselors.

“The BPS is going to argue about the money,” predicted BYOP program director José Braulio Morales. “We want to find out how to get more counselors.”

A spokesman for the BPS said that each high school guidance counselor, under collective bargaining contract, has about 300 students in his or her caseload, and that number is not likely to change unless agreed on in collective bargaining, which will take place again in 2006.

“That is something we’ll look at during our next conversation with the union when we negotiate a contract,” said the spokesman, Jonathan Palumbo.

Members of BYOP suggested that the school department take on college students who are studying counseling to work as interns. Students say that guidance counselors often simply do not have enough time to meet with them because their caseloads are huge.

“Some students will stumble around blindly because guidance may not be great,” said Collique Williams, a recent graduate of the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. “It’s not that guidance counselors don’t care. But they may not have enough time for all students.”

Lakeisha Graham, a junior at the O’Bryant, said she scheduled three meetings with her guidance counselor only to be rebuffed each time. The first time she showed up for the meeting and was told he was outside smoking. The second time, he said he had to work on a recommendation for a girl who was going to college.

“The third time, he was like, ‘I have to go right now. I have a parent to go see,’” Graham told the crowd at last week’s meeting. “I felt really hurt because my guidance counselor is supposed to be there to help me go to college. Now, I’m a junior at the O’Bryant and my guidance counselor still doesn’t know me. And what am I supposed to do now?”

Superintendent Thomas Payzant launched a campaign at the start of this past school year to reduce the achievement gap. The BYOP students’ demands for better guidance counseling apparently meshed well with the department’s goals of reducing the gap by giving struggling students more targeted support.

“If we are working in the BPS to close the achievement gap, we need to hear the youth voice,” Riley told the audience as she prepared to sign the agreement with the youths.

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