Houston ISD is one of four out of the nation's ten largest school districts analyzed in this article which employs more police officers and security personnel than counselors. HISD has 1.16 cops per 1,000 students, compared to .78 counselors per 1,000 students. Even when you add in the number of social workers to the counselor total, security staff outnumber them.
"In Houston, that means there’s only one counselor for every 1,288 students." In fact, "Not one of the top 10 districts, where counselors may be particularly beneficial for low-income students, meets the American School Counselor Association’s recommendation of one counselor for every 250 students — most weren’t even close."
Sorry, I see any recommended staffing level from a group like that as self-serving propaganda, more interested in making sure that there are jobs for their members (or potential members) than in realistically assessing how many people are actually needed.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously haven't worked in the education system. Propaganda ? NOT AT ALL!
DeleteAppalling! I worked in Houston ISD for over 20 years and believe me when I say that students need counsellors and they aren't available. In elementary school, where problems first manifest themselves, there are none. So regrettable.
ReplyDeletePiggy backing on Gloria's comments: "In elementary schools, where problems first manifest themselves, there are none, (Counselors)," I'm of the opinion that there may be a solution that we have been overlooked. Thanks, Gloria!
ReplyDelete"Book 'em, Danno." --- HAWAII FIVE-0
ReplyDeleteSchool districts often seem to have plenty of money for state of the art football stadiums and overpaid upper level paper pushers (AKA administrators), but when it comes to adequate staffing and salaries for those who actually deal with real students with real problems on a daily basis, some of whom are suffering horrific physical and sexual abuse, these same administrators respond by pulling their pants pockets inside out, raising their arms halfway up and saying, "If only we had the resources".
ReplyDeleteSeems like a meaningless comparison, since number of police officers necessary is driven by factors other than student count, while counselor numbers are driven by student count. I won't argue that there are enough counselors at HISD< just that comparing their numbers to police numbers is a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:35
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on! And so are you Soronel Haetir!
Back in the early '50s, I taught high risk students, mostly thugs, for three years at South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas. I got the most out of those students who could barely read and write and had few dropouts. I don't recall our school having a counselor. I believe my police background helped me establish rapport with those thugs which was the key to keep them in my classes and hence in school.
Many teachers today are ill prepared to deal with at risk students.
Anyone familiar with HISD will recognize that the number of school cops there may not actually be enough.
I thought that teachers and counselors worked in schools while security and police worked in prisons. A school should look like a school and a prison should look like a prison.
ReplyDeleteAre we putting the peanut butter in with the jelly because it will be used on the same sandwich anyway?
Lee, yes, in a perfect world teachers and counselors should work in schools while security and police should work in prison. But this is the real world where in some urban schools, students are very much like the inmates of a penal institution.
ReplyDeleteCops are needed in those schools to protect students, teachers, counselors and administrators from getting stabbed, shot or otherwise physically attacked by "at risk kids," and to arrest the thugs who have committed such crimes and others at school.
I'd hate to see what things would be like at HISD and other school districts in the Houston-Galveston area without those cops.
BarkGrowlBite,
ReplyDeleteI've long learned that advocating for more counselors in schools is a losing proposition. The War on Thugs is much more productive. We can continue to import our brainpower from overseas while the school-to-prison pipeline runs uninterrupted.