The CPA Journal

High School Guidance Counselors’ Perceptions of the Profession

By Kathy S. Pollock, Janet C. Papiernik, and Michael D. Slaubaugh

What are high school counselors’ attitudes toward the accounting profession? What perceptions do they have regarding the profession? Can they distinguish between public and private accountants? These are questions of concern for the accounting profession. The recent research in this area consists of two well-known recent works: “Student & Academic Research Study: Final Quantitative Report” (The Taylor Report), by the Taylor Research & Consulting Group (2000), and Accounting Education: Charting the Course through a Perilous Future, by Albrecht and Sack (2000).

The Taylor Report, sponsored by the AICPA, states that the percentage of high school students choosing to major in accounting has decreased from 4% in 1990 to a mere 1% in 2000; the percentage of college students majoring in accounting has also declined, from 4% in 1990 to 2% in 2000. What is the reason behind this substantial decline?

Albrecht and Sack identify several reasons for the declining interest in accounting. Specifically, their study (sponsored by the AICPA, AAA, IMA, and Big Five) suggests that enrollments are down because salaries in public and private accounting have not kept up with those in the finance, computer, and consulting professions. They also found that students are drawn to more attractive career alternatives and are more willing to pursue riskier business opportunities (see also “The Perilous Future of Accounting Education” in the March 2001 CPA Journal). Furthermore, both studies report a lack of information about accounting as a career and a major.

The Taylor Report found that approximately two-thirds of college students had considered their college major prior to attending college. In light of this, the authors chose to evaluate the effect of high school guidance counselors (HSGCs) on the career choices of high school students, specifically counselors’ perceptions of various professional careers and their knowledge of the educational requirements for CPAs.

The Survey

Background. The literature overwhelmingly indicates that parents play the largest role in career and college decisions (Hossier et al., 1999; Ramsden, 1994). Nevertheless, other family members, peers, teachers, and guidance counselors also play important parts (Knisely, 1992; Ramsden, 1994).
Although HSGCs are not the primary source of reference for high school student decisions, they do play a major role, particularly in the absence of parental support. HSGCs are a source of broad-based college and career information. Thus, their knowledge and perceptions of accounting as a career can affect the number of students considering the profession.

Methodology. HSGCs in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were surveyed for our study. These states were selected for their proximity to each other, the availability of mailing lists from the respective state boards of education, and variation in CPA requirements. Indiana and Ohio implemented the 150-hour rule in 2000, whereas in Pennsylvania adherence to the rule is optional until 2006.

Three hundred HSGCs were randomly selected from each state’s board of education list and sent a questionnaire; of these, 142 usable surveys were returned.

Results

The information gathered from the first part of the survey indicates that, on average, respondents regularly worked with approximately 350 students per year and spent 26% of their time on career counseling. Overall, 59% of their students enrolled in college upon graduation.

Respondents rated themselves as being relatively familiar with career opportunities in accounting, a mean ranking of 2.17 (on a 5-point scale where 1 = very familiar and 5 = very unfamiliar). Approximately 92% of the institutions offered bookkeeping or accounting courses and 55% invited professionals to speak to their students about career opportunities in accounting.

Despite indicating familiarity with the profession, HSGCs were not knowledgeable about the number of credit hours required for public accounting certification in their state, as reported in Exhibit 1. Both Indiana and Ohio had similar results: only one-third of the counselors correctly knew about the 150-hour requirement. Approximately half of the counselors admitted that they did not know the number of credit hours required to become CPAs in their state. Clearly, state educational requirements should be better communicated to HSGCs.

Given that the 150-hour rule is currently optional in Pennsylvania, it is not surprising that an even higher percentage (58%) of HSGCs did not know the requirement for certification. The answers indicate that counselors had read about the 150-hour rule but did not realize that it was still only optional in Pennsylvania.

The second part of the survey asked HSGCs to rank 15 different professions from first to last on several job attributes: long-term earnings potential, “interesting daily job tasks,” “prestige, recognition, and respect,” “stress-free work environment,” and “time available for family and leisure.”

The authors ranked the professions in descending order from most to least desirable based on both the sum of the ordinal ranks and the sum of the mean rank. Under both measures, architect was the highest-rated profession; neither public nor private accounting placed in the top ten. There was also significant variation across the attributes: Doctor was the top-ranked profession for three of the attributes but the lowest-ranked on the remaining two attributes.

As seen in Exhibit 2, HSGCs view the accounting profession as being uninteresting (rank of 12 for public, 14 for private), stressful (10 public, 8 private), time-consuming (9 public, 8 private), and not that rewarding financially, particularly for public accountants (9 public, 6 private). Considering this degree of negative perception, it is possible that counselors would not strongly encourage students that expressed an interest in the accounting profession.

Within the accounting profession, the counselors ranked private accounting slightly higher overall than public accounting under both measures. Respondents’ views on the two professions were significantly different (p < .05) on two of the attributes: They felt that public accounting had more interesting daily job tasks, but private accounting had higher long-term earnings potential. Counselors might be presenting a misleading view of public and private accounting to their students by presenting a perceived trade-off between earnings potential and interesting job tasks in the accounting professions. These inaccurate perceptions are consistent with the findings of both the Taylor Report and Albrecht and Sack.

Improving Perceptions

The results of this survey indicate that HSGCs’ perceptions of the accounting profession are inaccurate and not very positive. Given the influence that counselors have on students’ career choices, this conclusion calls for action on the part of the profession.

Several states are implementing or have implemented initiatives to change the image of the accounting profession. These initiatives typically include the involvement of students, parents, and accounting teachers. It would be natural to include HSGCs in these programs as well. For example, HSGCs could be invited to career fairs or career days at a local university, where they could learn more about the profession. HSGCs could easily be included in the AICPA pilot program for high school teachers, such as the one currently run by the Indiana CPA Society. In this program, two high school teachers, one in math and the other in English, participated in a paid three-week summer internship program in an accounting field. Through their personal experience with a Big Five firm and the IRS, these teachers took back to the classroom their knowledge of accounting as a career (Kelcher, 2001).

There are other ways of improving counselors’ perceptions of the profession. HSGCs could be included in mentoring programs conducted by state CPA societies and accounting departments of local universities. Presentations, workshops, seminars, and mailings could be directed specifically at HSGCs. Web sites containing information pertinent to HSGCs advising potential accounting majors could be created. Several states have begun these types of initiatives for students and teachers, including Pennsylvania, Indiana, California, Texas, and Oklahoma (Kelcher, 2001), but these programs should encompass counselors as well.

If the current decline in accounting majors is to be reversed, the profession must establish a strategic plan for student education and recruitment. The results of this study show the specific need to include high school guidance counselors in this important effort.