Examining the Role of Counselors in Advanced Placement Course Enrollment

We study guidance counselors by examining how they influence enrollment in Advanced Placement courses. We examine the proportion of students enrolled across different racial and ethnic groups and whether the student-counselor ratio is related to the size of these enrollments. We also consider whether schools with lower ratios have a smaller enrollment gap between White students and students of color. We examine these questions using restricted national data. Our findings show that ease of access to counselors is associated with higher proportions of enrollment for White students and sometimes also for Black students but infrequently for Latino and Asian students. Greater ease of access is also associated with a smaller enrollment gap between White and Black students.