High School Counselor Week

Higher education’s sea change
Axiox – December 11, 2022
Enrollment is down, longstanding traditions are crumbling and applicant pools are changing dramatically. Higher education in the U.S. is in the midst of a sea change, forcing schools to adapt with the times.

Take A Real Look At College Enrollment Figures
Forbes – December 5, 2022
The higher education community has an unlimited capacity for doomsaying. On enrollment, there is absolutely a shrinking of available college-age people in the United States. That’s math. It’s real. And it’s a trend that is likely to continue, even accelerate in some places, over the next half-dozen years. But as is always the case, the actual numbers tell a different story. If you actually look, it’s easy to see that over the past decade enrollment squeezes are isolated to specific sectors and not nearly as dramatic or drastic as the doomsayers say.

Interpreting the PSAT
Post – December 14, 2022
College Advice & Timely Tips with Lee Bierer

‘Gas’ Is the Latest App to Catch Fire With Kids. What You Need to Know About It
Education Week – December 1, 2022
On the surface, Gas, a new app catching fire with high schoolers, sounds as much like an educator’s dream come true as any social media platform could be. Strangers can’t contact kids. Users can only say nice things to each other, by participating in polls with an ostensibly positive spin, instead of writing their own, possibly hurtful messages. But dig a little deeper and it’s clear that Gas—recently the number one downloaded free social media app in Apple’s app store—has serious flaws, experts said, and the app’s business model seems tailor-made to profit off teenage insecurities.

Republicans agree on youth mental health crisis, but are split on solutions
Chalkbeat – December 9, 2022
In Congress, some Republican lawmakers are working on a bipartisan youth mental health bill and a few voted for a major school safety and mental health act. But the vast majority voted against the act and another recent mental health bill. At the state level, some Republican legislators and governors have quietly supported school mental health services. But others have loudly called for bans on social-emotional learning and new restrictions on school counselors. The party’s ambivalence owes partly to wariness about government spending, but it also reflects how students’ mental health has become embroiled in recent political debates around gun control, pandemic school closures, and parents’ rights. To conservatives who accuse teachers and librarians of imposing liberal views on students, school counselors are suspect too.

A lack of counselors in rural schools leads to a push to train teachers in youth mental health first aid
9 News Colorado – December 21, 2022
In a world where there aren’t enough counselors, supporters want everyone to know how to respond to mental health emergencies.

The pandemic was so bad for kids’ mental health that desperate parents are turning to special education for help
Fortune – December 6, 2022
Schools contending with soaring student mental health needs and other challenges have been struggling to determine just how much the pandemic is to blame. Are the challenges the sign of a disability that will impair a student’s learning long term, or something more temporary?

How Games Can Build Your Child’s Social-Emotional Skills
U.S. News & World Report – December 12, 2022
Role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons encourage cooperation and teamwork.

How Academic Majors Can Impact College Acceptance Rates
Wealth Management.com – December 12, 2022
When teenagers are applying to a college, they often gauge their chances by looking at a university’s overall acceptance rate. That statistic, however, rarely tells the whole story.

How college tuition in the US compares to the rest of the world
Triad City Beat (NC) – December 12, 2022
EDsmart analyzed the most recent data on higher education provided by the OECD to see how college tuition costs for public institutions compare across different countries. England was the only country with an average undergraduate cost higher than the U.S. The other countries were ranked from the most similar price to the least expensive (in U.S. dollars) by comparison.

Most financial aid offers have a fuzzy bottom line
Marketplace – December 9, 2022
There’s a practice in higher education of sending out letters — acceptance letters and rejection letters too. But perhaps the most important one of all is the financial aid letter. This includes all of the grants and scholarships that a student is eligible for, ostensibly providing an idea of what it would cost to attend a particular school. But more than 90% of American colleges either don’t supply the final price in those letters or understate it…