New collaboration will expand school counselor access to expert advice, tips, and training in the college search and application process
Arlington, VA (March 24, 2022) – School counselors guiding students through high school and toward postsecondary paths need easy, accessible ways to educate and prepare students and their families for the college search and application process.
According to the State of College Admission report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), public school counselors are stretched thin, reporting spending only 19 percent of their time on college advising.
To help meet this need, especially among counselors in public high schools with high student caseloads, NACAC is collaborating with the College Guidance Network (CGN), whose trademarked tagline is, “Experts For Everyone,” to provide specialized content for counselors to enhance services for students and disseminate expert information on a large scale. A consolidated resource of expertise allows for consistent, reliable knowledge sharing.
With so much information across thousands of sites, it is difficult to discern between trustworthy and misguided advice. Working with national experts and college admission leaders – the individuals working as admissions deans and directors at colleges and universities – CGN produces a curated offering of live programming and on-demand video libraries and other resources full of expert advice on applying to college. CGN is a supporting resource for counselors to refer students and families for general information, freeing up time for more meaningful one-to-one guidance with students.
Much of CGN’s content is available to any school for free. There is also an enhanced premium offering, CGN School.
Starting this spring, CGN and NACAC will team up to deliver a live monthly professional development series for NACAC members. NACAC will be involved in developing future CGN programming, and other benefits of the collaboration are in the planning stages. The two organizations will work together to identify opportunities for scaling the CGN content platform for counselors.
Angel B. Pérez, chief executive officer of NACAC, will join the CGN advisory board.
“Public high school counselors are the chief architects in helping shape student futures as they advise them on post-secondary education pathways," Pérez said. But their plates are full, and they need support. Quality knowledge dissemination is key. Yet providing large-scale access to expert information and resources is a challenge in today’s age of misinformation and overload. This partnership will provide tools counselors need and bring advice from experts to students who don’t have access to personalized college guidance.”
Diane Campbell, head of counseling for Liberty Commons High School in Fort Collins, Colorado and a CGN customer said, “CGN School, for the first time, has provided a trusted information platform where I can direct my students and their parents. I feel confident that families are receiving quality and reliable information from truly the best in our profession. Every topic imaginable regarding college planning is accessible. It also gives us expert FAQ support that frees up scarce time to spend with students. This is a must-have resource for all counselors.”
Benefits of this collaboration:
Specialized professional development for NACAC members.
A centralized, trusted source of information from experts made available to thousands of school counselors and the students they serve.
School counselors get more time to work on advising students by allowing students to access curated content to help with their college search.
CGN gets expert guidance on content development and the training school counselors need for supporting students through the college search and application process.
More details on the collaboration and the resources that will be available to NACAC members will be developed this summer.
“Counselors are in a difficult place with enormous demands on their time, and a college application process only getting more complex,” said Jon Carson, chief executive officer of CGN. “A state-of-the-art digital content platform helps level the playing field and shoulders more of the routine knowledge dissemination work while giving every school access to top national experts.”
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), founded in 1937, is an organization of more than 25,000 professionals from around the world dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. NACAC’s mission is to empower college admission counseling professionals through education, advocacy, and community.
College Guidance Network is a digital content company with a mission of providing access to experts for everyone. The company is focused on supporting school counselors with a state of the art content platform that includes year round live programming, a comprehensive video and podcast library of curated playlists featuring national experts, and counselor support.
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