Mediators of Opportunity: High School Counselors in the 21st Century

Over the second half of the 20th century sociologists of education and inequality variously criticized high school counselors (seeing them as stratifying gatekeepers) or downplayed their significance (seeing them as impartial but ineffective). Today, sociologists of education might predict that counselors have little ability to shape students' long- run educational or occupational trajectories. This essay outlines two models that have led to this prediction: the concerted gate-keeping and the impartial cultivator models. It then identifies a set of trends that suggest that high school counselors - whether by serving students in one-on-one interactions or serving them more collectively - should be viewed as intermediaries, occupying a place in the broader population of intermediaries in our society. Specifically, like other intermediaries, school counselors have the organizational capacity and the professional mandate to take responsibility for their clients' wellbeing and mobility and are structurally positioned to do so.