The Impact of School Counselor Resources in Elementary and Middle Grades

Prior research indicates that the availability of school counselors—as measured by school counselor-to-student ratios—predicts desired student outcomes in high schools. Less is known about the impact of school counselors in elementary and middle schools, where school counselors take on a broad array of responsibilities related to youth development. Using 6 years of student and school staffing data from North Carolina, we estimated school fixed effect models to assess the associations between school counselor-to-student ratios and student achievement, attendance, and disciplinary outcomes in elementary and middle school grades. We found that when elementary and middle schools have more school counselors, mathematics scores rise and absences decline. We found no conditional association between school counselor ratios and student suspensions. School counselors may be particularly helpful for students experiencing poverty and for students of color.