A Multivariate Analysis of Variance Investigation of Student Outcomes in New York State Based on Student-to-School Counselor Ratios

The authors of this study examined the differences in students’ four-year college enrollment, graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, and standardized test scores (i.e., ELA and Math) based on student-to-school counselor ratios (i.e., < 200 students per counselor; 200-300 students per counselor; > 300 students per counselor) across New York State (NYS) during the 2021-2022 school year. Archival data were collected from accessible data through the NYS Education Department. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) indicated significant differences between groups. Namely, our results revealed that 1.1% – 4.2% of the variance in student outcomes was explained by the student-to-school counselor ratio. We discussed implications for school counseling.