These recent posts on levers and dashboards have been fun in that they have drawn a slew of responses, additional insights, and quite a bit of empathy from similar situations. It is always great to engage with others on these sorts of things away from a conference… 

In light of this, I wanted to share this relatively quick, short post in response to a couple questions and comments. 

I received a few messages surrounding indicators, mostly around the differences between the leading and trailing (or lagging) varieties. So, first from a position of definition, leading indicators are measurable metrics that anticipate/predict a change or type of outcome. For example, hours spent studying might be a leading indicator predicting performance on a test. On the other hand, trailing (or lagging) indicators are those that are really outcome based. For instance, in the previous example, the score on the test would be a trailing indicator. From the perspective that this series of posts is advocating, the “dashboard” would be a host of different metrics, some leading and some lagging, providing a robust, multifaceted perspective on a college counseling program. 

It is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to take some time to reflect on what metrics you champion either in your own college counseling practice or when you are evaluating another. What stands out to you? Why? Are they leading or lagging? 

Many of the conversations after my last post point to a particular dynamic endemic within college counseling: that the lagging indicator of college matriculation list (and it’s proxy of highly “ranked” universities) is the only metric that decision-makers (administrators, boards, parents, etc) concern themselves with and not the many, various, process-oriented leading indicators existent within college counseling programming. I need to reflect more on this claim, but it certainly feels right in supporting the on-going work of college counselors in deemphasizing rankings and championing fit. 

In light of this, several other indicators and perspectives were shared, and I hope to examine some of them in upcoming posts! More soon! But please continue to pass your thoughts along!