Student perspectives: learning the barriers and contributing factors to meeting four-year college entrance requirements

Students, of all the educational stakeholders, are the last to have a voice in school reform efforts, yet their voices could hold substantial power in how to improve their success in school. Since school counselors are trained in how to engage students in confidential dialogue, school counselors are in the best position to participate in discussions with students around their perspectives on school reform efforts. The current major school reform effort is the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The main goal of the Common Core State Standards is to help prepare all students for college and career readiness. As recommended by the American School Counselor Association's (ASCA's) National Model, school counselors are encouraged to help students be successful in the three domains of academic, career, and personal/social development. It is utilizing these three domains, the themes, and the framework of the National Model that school counselors can align their programs to the CCSS and help their schools improve in preparing all students for college and career readiness. In order to begin aligning the school counseling program with the goals of the CCSS in the area of preparing students for college at Victoria High School, research was conducted using grounded theory and action research supported by Lewis and Winkelman's (2014) Participatory Inquiry Process (PIP) approach. The research was triangulated through reviewing academic transcripts, conducting student focus groups, and connecting the data to the literature. It was through the student high school transcript review and student focus groups that showed what barriers students were facing and what factors were contributing most to students meeting the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) coursework requirements known as the "A-G requirements."