by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

A new national survey released yesterday by the non-profit research organization Public Agenda, and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, paints a depressing picture of college advising. In their survey of young adults who graduated from college, the researchers explored how helpful the respondents’ school-based counselor was in meeting their college search, application, and financial aid advisory needs. The respondents found little to cheer.

Two-thirds of those surveyed rated their counselor “poor or fair” at “helping you decide what school was right for you,” with 62% indicating a similar rating in the area of financial aid advice. Over 50% gave “poor or fair” evaluations to their counselors for “explaining and helping you with the application process,” while nearly half said that they were made to feel like little more than a “face in the crowd.”

The researchers were quick to note the conditions under which counselors typically work, including excessive caseloads often double or triple the national recommended number of students. In many school districts, college counseling is one aspect of a counselor’s duties that may include academic advising, crisis intervention, and lunchroom duty.

Little in the report came as a surprise, and one might suspect that as executive director of the professional association representing educational consultants working in private practice, we would greet the findings with some degree of pleasure. In fact, I am deeply disturbed by the findings and place the blame where it belongs: NOT on the backs of hard-working, overwhelmed school counselors, but squarely at the feet of school boards who have refused to recognize the importance of good, well-trained counseling staff.

So let me be clear in terms of the solution:

(1) What I believe is simple: every student deserves great college and career advising, not just those in private school or wealthy suburban districts—or those who can afford the services of an educational consultant. Every child.

(2) Counselor caseloads should not exceed the recommended maximum of 250, as set by the American School Counselors Association.

(3) Every counselor doing college placements should take coursework specific to college counseling—few actually have—like online classes offered through UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine.

(4) A member of the counseling team should be specifically trained to advise students with learning differences on their school search and application process, as well as offer advice on the transition to college.

(5) Schools should find the resources to ensure opportunities for professional development. Counselors must know the latest trends and changes to admission policies, financial aid, and more.

(6) School districts must release counselors to visit campuses regularly, to better understand the social, academic, and community aspects of the college and be better able to advise students and families.

These six recommendations would go a long way to improving counseling by supporting the training and professional development of college counselors and recognizing the limits to effective advice when one is over-worked and under-supported.

Because the educational consulting community supports great counseling for every child, we hope that these changes—which Independent Educational Consultant Association members already benefit from—are extended to school counselors, and we stand with our professional colleagues as they seek the resources they need to more effectively serve students in finding great college matches.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

From the LDA Conference in Baltimore, MD

Led by IECA ’s Learning Disabilities Committee, the Independent Educational Consultants Association has launched a new, sustained initiative to educate learning specialists, psychologists, parent advocates and state and regional LDA officials about the role IECA members play in advising on school and college search and selection for students with learning differences.

This week, IECA will maintain an information booth at the national Learning Disabilities Association conference in Baltimore. Staffing the booth are LD Committee Chairs Pam Tedeschi (MD) and Rachel Sobel (PA). Volunteers in the booth so far include associate member Nancy Black (RI), Rebecca Reynolds (MD), Deborah Shawen (MD) and Marcia Simon (MD). The goal is to speak with educators, educational testers, psychologists, learning specialists, and parents about IECA and the role of educational consultants. Early Wednesday there was a steady stream of visitors, many of whom knew of IECA and wanted to welcome us to the conference, as well as some LDA leaders who explored new areas for cooperation. Discussions began on a presentation at next year’s conference that would include several IECA members on the panel.

In preparation for the LDA conference, IECA created new educational and promotional materials. A new brochure, written by the LD Committee, explains how “Independent Educational Consultants Partner with Learning Specialists.”  This brochure underscores how consultants can work as part of a team: helping to advise other professionals on placement alternatives when a local school is not the best provider of the services a student needs; or when a student is preparing to move on to their next level of education: junior high to high school or high school to college, for example. At the same time, the message notes the need of consultants to reach out to educators and professionals to conduct appropriate testing…all to find the best options for the student and the family.

Several months ago, the LD Committee sponsored its own tour of schools that emphasized the learning centers and services provided for students with learning differences. The Committee plans to meet soon to discuss next steps in this sustained outreach to professionals and families.

by Emily Snyder, IECA Member (Virginia) and Chair, IECA College Committee

In “Inside the College Rankings” in Friday’s US News and World Report, Bob Morse (of the Morse Code), cites the recently released “UCLA Freshman Survey: Fall 2009″ as evidence that students are using a variety of factors—not just national rankings—when making a decision about where to go to college.

The survey asked 219,864 incoming freshman at 297 colleges to rate as many as 22 factors that they considered to be “very important” in influencing their decision to attend a particular college.

The survey results show that financial aid (#3) and cost of attendance (#4) are very important considerations—no surprise given the current economic climate. With other factors, such as campus visits (#5); size (#6); social climate (#7); and location (#9) receiving a higher rating than national rankings (#12—down from #11 last year), it is clear that the groundwork that IECA has laid for educating students and families on making a decision that is right for them has taken hold. Hopefully we won’t have to work as hard to dispel the myth that a university’s national ranking determines it worthiness.

In the data driven age of the 21st century, where statistical comparisons are used for making all kinds of decisions, national education rankings will continue to play a role in most families’ decision-making process. For what it’s worth, in my opinion, to assume otherwise would be shortsighted.

However, as the importance of national rankings shifts, so does our responsibility. Do we even need to continue to debate whether rankings are worthwhile? Can we use this survey as a conversation changer in how we counsel families?

When the conversation surfaces, why not say that rankings are out there, that each one represents one source’s results (and in some cases opinion), and that we would all be better served to focus on the factors that are the most important to each particular student’s situation; let’s be the ones to shift the conversation. The fact that US News is giving coverage to a survey that some could construe as “devaluing” the importance of the national rankings speaks for itself—the timing is right.

The results of the UCLA survey prove that students and families are heeding the advice we provide; something we should all be proud of. It also renews my faith in what we do for students—guide them as they utilize available resources to evaluate their options and make decisions that are right for them.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

Based on a request brought by the IECA Special Needs Committee, the Board of Directors met via teleconference last week. Knowing that members overwhelmingly view the TalkList as a valuable benefit (based on the January 2010 member survey), the effort focused on ways to make the TalkList both more valuable but also ensure that several current concerns are addressed.

Concerns focused on just a few specific area: (1) the tendency of some to reveal too much information in  a case study such that client confidentiality could be compromised; (2) the tendency of some to present so little background as to call in to question whether the person making the post is qualified or ‘did their homework’ before asking for assistance; (3) the actions of some in forwarding TalkList postings to individuals outside of IECA (often in schools or programs), a clear violation of the rules that members agree to support.

Board consensus was that the regulations established should be shared with members more frequently. It was felt that often members sign the TalkList agreement but forget expectations, like proper titles. There was discussion about online training that would review what constitutes a good case study posting: one that provides sufficient information but no identifying characteristics, and demonstrates the research done by the consultant prior to the post. It was also felt that members need to be reminded that it is unacceptable to forward postings outside the membership and that doing so is basis for being removed from the TalkList.

There was discussion about the possibility of creating a TalkList mentor group. Their role would be to assist those trying to frame a posting or to contact those who post something considered improper to explain why and provide assistance in changing to a more valuable post.

Many on the Board felt that there were more significant problems of members venturing into advising beyond their expertise. This was judged to be an issue beyond just the TalkList and will be addressed separately.

The Board will continue this work and create a series of proposals. You may share your thoughts in the comments section below this blog, or send your comments to IECA board president Diane Geller at dianegeller@gmail.com or to me at msklarow@iecaonline.com.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

I had a brief e-mail exchange last week with Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Education. He called my attention to the Web site of a consulting firm that was meant to appeal to parents of one ethnic group. Scott was pretty sure that the owner of the site wasn’t an IECA member, and he was certainly correct. To me, everything about that site—and the approach taken by those charlatans—reflected the worst of private consulting.

What they were selling, versus what reputable, ethical consultants—those who are members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA)—provide to families is the difference between student success and parental failure.

The Web site Scott directed me to, and scores of others like it that I have seen in recent years, speak only to the narrow question of HOW TO GET IN. That is, no discussion of how to choose a school, what benefits come with a large vs. small school, public or private, urban or rural, cut throat or supportive, liberal-minded or conservative, diverse or not, close relationships with teaching staff or large lecture halls. None of that—or hundreds of other criteria—is ever mentioned. What is being sold: how to get into to a very exclusive school.

Whenever I explore such a site (knowing the services of a consultant are being offered to students, but with parents as the customer), I fear for the child. For the parent drawn in by such claims is seeking, I think, some level of prestige that they think they get for themselves when their child enrolls (or all too often is rejected from!). They are asking all the wrong questions: How do “we” get in? What do we have to do? What are the secrets?

Here are the questions I’d rather see parents asking:

What’s the best fit?

Where will my child thrive, mature, grow?

What will best suit her/his learning and motivational style?

Where will they be happy?

Where will my child be successful over the long haul?

What often makes this worse—and this was certainly true of the ad I was directed to last week: the admission process at elite schools was portrayed in an almost secretive, sinister light. The consultants promised that they knew the secrets, the language, the keys to use to fool the admission staff into accepting their child. How absurd! In this specific instance parents were warned that discrimination against their child’s ethnic group was rampant and only by using their secrets and their tricks could their child get in.

Once and for all let’s say what is the truth: admission staff members are hard-working, dedicated professionals seeking to create a freshman class reflective of the school’s overall mission and strategy in as fair a way as they can. They accept students who are the strongest candidates within that framework based on what they have achieved and their potential—both personally and what they’ll bring to campus. A good consultant succeeds when s/he understands a college, appreciate its strengths and weaknesses, and can pair this to what a student needs to thrive, succeed, and be happy.

The choice for parents is clear when they explore a consultant’s Web site or interview them by phone in order to determine if they are honest, capable, knowledgeable, and have your child—and your family’s—best interests at heart. What is the central focus of their “pitch”? The success of your child over the next four or five years at a school where he or she will grow and learn and mature—or just getting in? And which is it you really want for your child?

Or to be more stark, parents can ask themselves the following question: “Which is my priority: my child getting in, at all costs even to a school where they may not be happy or well-suited but will bring honor to me?” Or:  “Finding a great match where my child will shine and succeed?” And let’s again note: these firms promising to use smoke and mirrors are full of nonsense: they have no ability to “get your child in,” and despite their claims, no proven track record. Jacques Steinberg of the New York Times looked at the claims made by many of these companies and found them full of lies, distortions, and false claims. That’s why none of them can gain membership to a group like IECA.

I’m proud to represent the organization that has talked about and promoted the importance of the “match” for more than 20 years. We have fought the notion of tricks, gimmicks, and packaging of students. IECA believes that success is measured not by the thickness of the envelope but by the richness of the school experience. I hope you agree.

by Lisa Temkin (Illinois), IECA Member

I just thought some of you might be interested in hearing about a liberal arts presentation that Jill Burstein and I organized as a marketing event for our consulting practices.

We have three admissions people from three different liberal arts schools in the Midwest coming to speak on liberal arts curriculum—the flexibility, opportunities, how it’s different from the traditional university paradigm, what type of student it’s a fit for, etc.

Lake Forest College has generously offered a small auditorium and we’ll provide coffee, snacks and a variety of hand-outs. Just in case you know someone that might be interested the details are:

Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 1:00 p.m.
Lake Forest College, Hotchkiss Hall, Meyer Auditorium
Lake Forest, IL

Speakers are Diane Kanney from Lake Forest College, Tony Bankston from Illinois Wesleyan University, and Mary Karen Villenes from The College of Wooster.

Should be very interesting; they are all dynamic speakers. If you have any questions about how we put this event together e-mail either Jill (collegefinderjb@aol.com) or myself (Lisa@GloEduCon.com).

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

Here we are just six days into the New Year, and I’m already focusing on what the consulting field will look like at the mid-point of the new decade. More specifically, I wonder how consultants’ work will be different, what their challenges will be, and what the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) will be doing to ensure consultants’ success.

This wonder is not mere mental exercise. It is essential that IECA always look forward, peer around the bend, examine what’s off in the distance, if we are committed—as we are—to remaining (1) the most recognized and important association in the field of educational advising and (2) an essential part of every great consultant’s arsenal.

The process for planning for 2015 officially kicks off this week in two key ways. Every IECA member received an invitation to take part in a survey coordinated by the Strategic Planning Committee. This survey comes after nine months of work by the committee has been completed, including a review of the successes and failures of recent years and the creation of a report card on the 2005 Strategic Plan. With more than 700 active members, we hope for a major response to the survey. If you are an IECA member, please get started as soon as possible and share your thoughts, opinions, concerns, and more. We have been blessed in the past with survey responses way beyond what other associations report. We hope for another such response now.

This Sunday, Dodge Johnson (PA), president-elect designee, and I will depart for a training symposium designed to prepare for the next several years and strategically beyond. We will be attending a Symposium for Chief Staff Officers and Chief Volunteer Board Officers, sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives. This intense program will give not only time but also professional training to ensure IECA is well positioned to take on new initiatives and tackle whatever comes along in this new decade. Our goal is stronger leadership to further strengthen a great association.

As we begin turning our attention to what IECA is to become, please e-mail, blog, text, and communicate in other ways to share your thoughts. Complete the survey, in the coming days (check your e-mail for the link), and make a pledge to commit yourself to IECA as a volunteer or active participant.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

I admit to being a person who is rarely satisfied with the way things are. I believe in the need to change and that includes both personal change and actions to ensure that the Independent Educational Consultants Association continues to move forward, developing new approaches, new programs and new initiatives so that we are always meeting member needs. Allow me to illustrate using just one example. Following an IECA Summer Training Institute in Claremont, California, I sat down with Sue DePra and Steve Antonoff to review the participant evaluations. They were off the charts with virtually every attendee giving the Summer Institute nearly perfect scores, and comments from most attendees that it was among the best training sessions they had ever attended. The three of us then spent the next two hours re-writing the curriculum, developing new interactive elements, implementing ‘labs’ and strengthening the program further. The result was taking a great training program and making it remarkable.

Now as I reflect back on 2009, I feel great about the excellent work of staff, Board and committee leadership, and volunteer members who combined to make it a great year. We advanced dramatically in our efforts to use social networking to promote IECA and the profession, and to improve communications. We initiated new program in learning disabilities and adopted our new Standards of Excellence. We implemented significant changes during our conference: from Speed Meetings to Conference Central and from point/counterpoint sessions to master classes. Participation among colleges has never been higher, and despite the economic downturn our membership is up, conference participation is up, and our training workshops were larger than ever.

But as I look ahead, I know what I want to achieve in the coming year for IECA and for my own work as Executive Director: to take IECA from a great organization to a remarkable one. Looking at the success of America’s most lauded associations, I hope we use their example to become an exceptional force for our members. To become ‘remarkable,’ I think Board, staff and volunteers need to meet these expectations:

• Member Service—we exist as an association for one reason: to meet the needs of our membership. That commitment to member service should always be the top priority.

• Align all services, conferences, and activities with IECA’s mission. That mission, unchanged in 30 years, is to help professional consultants to serve the interests of students and families in their educational decision-making.

• Seek feedback and input from members and our related constituencies. In the next several weeks, members will be asked to complete a strategic planning survey and a survey from the Education & Training Committee. These will set our priorities over the next several years. We have now begun to involve schools, colleges, and programs in conference planning and regularly seek their advice on programming.

• Be willing to fail. As we look to be innovative, creative, and dynamic, we must be willing to accept that success require risk-taking and that means we will fail from time to time. Such failure is inevitable and will lead to new successes.

• A nimble, flexible, national office that is able to meet changes in the marketplace and ensure that such changes are quickly and capably brought to our members to help them succeed in their own work.

• Building alliances with not-for-profit and for-profit companies, institutions, and organizations that will help us further our mission and better serve clients and students.

I look forward to hearing ideas from our members, colleagues, and families on how we can best serve each to make 2010 and IECA remarkable in the year ahead. Join us in this effort: volunteer, get involved in committees, affinity groups, or other efforts, and above all, offer your ideas on what IECA should be doing.

by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

I have spoken and written several times regarding the issue of international recruiters or agents. Such agents are used by colleges to find students overseas, paying the agent a per-head fee once the student enrolls. The practice has long been criticized on several fronts. Such agents typically conceal their business relationship from students and families. They pose as consultants, promising students to help them find a good college match and assist with applications. They never tell the family the truth: that they only refer students to one of the handful of colleges that pay them the bounty they demand. Colleges have begun to discover the downside as well: such students arrive on campus often without the skills necessary to succeed. Because the agent is only paid once a student enrolls, there is too much gamesmanship in the process that ensures students are registered, but all too often flunk out.

In a recent blog I noted that paying agents on a per-head basis is so clearly improper that it is actually illegal for colleges to have such a business relationship domestically. The Higher Education Act contains a provision that bars colleges from providing incentive compensation. While the law has not yet kept up internationally, I suspect it is just a matter of time before such actions are illegal everywhere. Even if not illegal, such methods of filling dorm beds have proven to be illusory as students drop out and return home.

Last week, in a historic decision, the University of Phoenix agreed to settle a case in which admission representatives claimed they were paid based on how many students they enrolled, a violation of the Higher Education Act. The settlement of more than $78 million dollars against the university demonstrates yet again that such behavior is simply wrong. While this was a domestic case, it is a reminder that scores of colleges engage in this same practice internationally. IECA believes strongly that colleges will be better served, and root themselves more firmly on ethical ground, by ending the practice of supporting fee-for-student agents.

Luckily, there are a growing number of independent educational consultants throughout the United States and the world. Affiliating with Independent Educational Consultants Association ensures families—and colleges—that these are educated, ethical professionals who do not accept any payment from colleges or schools, and who pledge to always put the students’ interests first.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

Nearly 30 years ago IECA set the standard for the profession of educational consulting by establishing the first Principles of Good Practice. Major revisions several years ago made these ethics guidelines stricter and more demanding, setting limits on the value of gifts, articulating the limits on commercial activities, and places a firm prohibition against activities that heighten student or family anxieties. IECA became one of the first associations in the country that regularly reviewed the marketing materials of applicants to ensure these emphasize a “good fit” over “getting in.”

Now the Independent Educational Consultants Association has again raised the bar substantially by establishing new STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE for the practice of educational consulting. These new competencies (covering 14 pages of information) ensure that those in the field keep up with the ever-changing body of knowledge and practice in a professional and empathic way. The new document covers the major consulting areas of college advising, school advising, advising of students with learning disabilities, and advising students with special needs (emotional and behavioral problems). Within each advising specialty, competencies are articulated in the areas of assessments, working with the family, working with educational institutions, professional ethics, professional office management, and professional development.

Among the competencies:

• Consultants seeks to empower the student to take charge of the application process.

• Educate families and students about college ranking systems and media coverage in order to bring balance to decision-making and put this information in context.

• Recommend only schools that the consultant has visited except in highly unusual situations; make regular visits to campuses (spending up to 20% of one’s professional time doing so).

• Advise on the best alternatives for the child, regardless of parental desire or pressure. Consultants should seek to help parents understand why actions are recommended.

• Use intake procedures that insure the consultant develops an in-depth understanding of the unique characteristics of each student, i.e. unique abilities, academic learning style, personal characteristics, values, attitudes, feelings, interests, personal strengths and weaknesses, work ethic, aspirations, short-term and long-term goals.

• Prepare students and families for issues surrounding the transition from high school to college, i.e. self-advocacy skills.

• Understand the limitations of and appropriate uses of common assessment instruments.

• Be aware of accreditation, licensure and approval status of programs they recommend.

• Maintain knowledge of programs’ safety records, number of students, maintenance, administrative policies, education, therapy and emotional growth components, food service and quality, population description, confidentiality, and more.

• Respect the families’ and parents’ experience, history, values, religion, goals, and financial parameters in order to factor these in to the application and decision-making process.

The complete document, copyrighted by IECA, is available on the Association’s Web site: www.IECAonline.com.