Supporting Schools

Public high school counseling staff face serious workload challenges. A single guidance counselor in a Maryland high school may work with over three hundred students and provide support for matters ranging from mental health issues and challenges at home, to applying for college and understanding financial aid offers.

That’s why Collegiate Directions developed the School Support Program – to expand the college advising capacity of the dedicated education professionals in Montgomery County Public Schools. The only program of its kind in the DC Metro Area, CDI’s School Support Program utilizes a proprietary rubric which assesses schools’ college advising programs and needs in order to develop a customized plan to improve their capacity to provide impactful college and financial aid guidance.

369:1

The ratio of students to counselors in Maryland schools

100%

Percentage of Montgomery County Public High Schools who received some form of support from the School Support Program in 2024

8,000

The number of upperclassmen in Montgomery County schools CDI impacts through school support

2

The average number of hours a public high school counselor spends per student on college advising – over 4 years.

The School Support Process

CDI works with school partners to develop a diagnostic assessment of their current capacity to provide impactful college and financial aid guidance. This assessment is critical to the overall success of our work, and CDI interviews stakeholders and gathers data to create a baseline from which all future success is measured.
Following the diagnostic assessment, CDI collaborates with counseling staff and school leaders to create clear benchmarks for success using our CDI Counseling Rubric. We developed our Counseling Rubric through years of school-based partnerships, and it serves as a comprehensive guide to the overall health of a college guidance office.
Using the Counseling Rubric as a measurement tool throughout our contract, CDI will then begin to implement the necessary steps for all stakeholders to ensure students have the best chance to access the post-secondary colleges and careers they deserve.