Job Description
Job Description
College Access Counselor Vision
The High School College Access Counselor provides academic and college advising to scholars, supporting all aspects of the college search and application process. Using proactive, data-driven advising, the counselor anticipates and addresses barriers to high school graduation and college entry. Responsibilities include monitoring cohort performance, creating action plans, and managing a caseload of approximately 120 students to ensure progress toward high school completion and college access
Key Responsibilities
- College & Career Counseling
- Maintain a caseload of approximately 120 Juniors & Seniors.
- Counsel each student through a combination of individual and small group meetings around academics, school attendance, behavior, post-secondary, and workforce opportunities.
- Work with admin & College/Career team to identify personalized postsecondary plan for each student to achieve best "fit" acceptances
- Work with team to coordinate college/university trips & partnerships.
- Identify & partner with college-readiness/college-access programs for scholars.
- Assist students with the financial aid process to secure financial aid packages that make college success achievable
- Write recommendation letters on behalf of scholars
- Send out applications, transcripts and recommendations to schools and agencies.
- Manage Naviance database to ensure accurate and timely recording keeping of all standard program components
- Stay current on the latest trends in college access and success
- 4-Year Graduation Monitoring & Support
- Tracks the progress of individual and subpopulations of students as they progress toward graduation.
- Create and maintain the academic programs (Students Schedules) for the students in their cohorts in full compliance with New York State graduation requirements and that are aligned with the student's interests and learning profile. This includes the updating of student records each semester.
- Ensure school adheres to the Academic Policy guidelines at all times and routinely audits students' grades, credits, and programs.
- Scholar Academic Success
- Uses all relevant data to identify student who are at-risk of falling behind or dropping out of high school. Meet with at-risk scholars and create individualized success plans (Quarterly).
- Monitors students' grades and attendance weekly through student information system and reports data to advisors and parents. Constantly assessing student progress (Attendance, Behavior, Grades and communicating results to your manager, families, and students.
- Implements appropriate preventative measures and interventions for students and families to ensure student success.
- Communicate regularly with Advisors and grade teams as needed to meet the needs of the students in their grade.
- Create lists of students for standardized testing (number of students who need to re-take Regents, etc.) in a timely manner and disseminate results to families as needed
- In consult with Special Education and AIS staff, facilitate the placement of academically struggling students in academic support programs
- Oversee weekend SAT prep classes as needed
- Family Engagement
- Assist in coordinating the High School parent teacher (student- led) conferences.
- Ensure progress reports are updated and mailed/ electronically sent to all families.
- Communicate regularly with parent(s)/guardian(s), to discuss academic progress, programs, obstacles and needed efforts by students and parents; should include face-to-face contact, phone, email, semester newsletter, and other as needed communication opportunities.
- Hold monthly parent workshops
* This position requires occasional weekend & evening hours as needed to support with college & career planning and support initiatives.
The College Access Counselor Qualities:
- Be relentless and a barrier-remover.
- Be data-driven with a laser focus on sub-populations.
- Be relentlessly committed to the mission of preparing every scholar for college and post-secondary success.
- Be a culture carrier and work well with parents and teacher advisors.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in School Counseling, or related pathway, from an accredited college or university.
- Minimum of 3 years experience working in a post-secondary role as a college advisor, in college admissions, and/or extensive experience in high school college & career counseling (3-5 years minimum) required.
- Experience with college-access & scholarship programs for NYC students required.
- Experience working with low-income student populations preferred.
- Bilingual (Spanish) speaker highly preferred.
Starting Salary Range: $90,000 - $$100,000, commensurate with experience.
Full-Time Teacher Pay Range$80,000—$100,000 USD