High School Counselor Week

5 ways schools have shifted in 5 years since COVID-19
The Conversation – March 10, 2025
The U.S. educational landscape has been drastically transformed since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered school campuses five years ago. Access to high-quality teachers and curriculum developed by teachers is shrinking, for example. Likewise, there has been a loss of emotional support for students and a decline in the school use of technology and social media. Here are five ways we believe the COVID-19 pandemic – and the rapid shift to remote learning and back – has transformed education:

New Report: How Districts in 7 States Are Helping Chronically Absent Homeless Kids
The 74 – March 10, 2025
Two very troubling trends are converging on U.S. schools. One is the rising number of students experiencing homelessness. That figure reached 1.4 million last year, as the number of families with children living in homeless shelters or visibly unsheltered nationwide grew by 39%. These districts are using data-driven approaches to improve attendance for homeless students. And they’re doing it with compassion and heart.

U.S. Education Department says it is cutting nearly half of all staff
NPR – March 12, 2025
On Tuesday evening, the department released a statement saying it would cut nearly 50% of the department’s workforce. Impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21, according to the announcement. The statement confirms ‘all divisions’ within the agency will be hit by cuts, but also says it will continue to deliver programs protected by law, ‘including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.’

Advice to parents: Let them fail
Los Altos Town Crier (CA) – March 11, 2025
Am I taking enough APs? Should I be participating in sports, or research? Am I taking on enough leadership? Which activity looks best for college applications? If I get a ‘B’ in a class, will it prevent me from getting into a ‘good’ university? If I take the SAT four times, can I improve my score enough? Which major is ‘easier’ to get into? Which major has the best potential for growth and earnings? How big a loan can I take? Those are questions I get almost every day, by students and their parents obsessing over getting into the ‘right’ colleges. I am regularly fielding calls related to students’ (and parents’) anxiety, fears and yes, more often than I’d like, suicide ideation. So, as an experienced independent college admissions advisor with 19+ years of experience, this is my number one piece of advice: Let them fail…

AI Chatbots Can Cushion the High School Counselor Shortage — But Are They Bad for Students?
The 74 – March 6, 2025
During the pandemic, longtime Bay Area college and career counselor Jon Siapno started developing a chatbot that could answer high schoolers’ questions about their future education options. The idea was that students could get basic questions out of the way — at any hour — before meeting with counselors for more targeted conversations. A flood of bots designed to help people navigate their college and career options have surfaced over the last two years, often with human-sounding names like Ava, Kelly, Oli, Ethan and Coco. However, many experts have begun to sound the alarm about the consequences of letting students develop relationships with AI-powered college and career counselors instead of human ones. Julia Freeland Fisher of the Clayton Christensen Institute also notes, ‘We’re creating this army of self-help bots to help students make their way through school and toward jobs, but those very same bots may be eroding the kinds of network-building opportunities that help students break into those jobs eventually.’

Suicide lawsuit filed as teen chatbot raises mental health and privacy alarms
March 6, 2025 – ABC News 4 SC
There have been concerns about Amazon’s souped-up Alexa upgrade, as well as warnings about Character.AI, a controversial new chatbot for teenagers, which some tech experts said leads to depression, anxiety, and now a suicide lawsuit.

AI influence on higher ed is growing, new survey shows
EdScoop – March 11, 2025
Artificial intelligence is exerting a growing influence in higher education, including in the admissions process, according to research published Tuesday by the admissions assessment and analytics company Acuity Insights. A new report follows a survey of 160 admissions leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Just over half of the leaders reported a belief that AI will transform the process of evaluating university applicants.

Concurrent vs Dual Enrollment: A Better Way to Give HS Students College Classes
The 74 – March 6, 2025
The terms dual and concurrent enrollment are often used interchangeably. But in their purest form, they are quite different. Policies that prioritize concurrent enrollment can have a substantial impact on student outcomes and postsecondary access.

How to Write a Strong Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI)
Opus College Prep – March 10, 2025
A Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) is a formal letter sent to a university admissions committee to express your sustained enthusiasm and commitment to attending after being deferred or waitlisted by the college. By crafting a thoughtful and personalized LOCI, you can strengthen your case for admission while showcasing your dedication and enthusiasm for the institution.

How To Find College Scholarships
The College Investor – March 9, 2025
Even though trying to find scholarships can be a pain it’s something you should most definitely do. Yes, many local scholarships have stiff competition and when looking for scholarships online you have to weed through layers of junk to find the legitimate ones to apply for. But you might be surprised. The competition might not really be as tough as you think, and if you systematize your application process, you can apply for a lot of scholarships in a little time. Here’s what you need to know about finding college scholarships.

What happens now to student loans, FAFSA and IEPs?
USA Today – March 12, 2025
A preliminary tally of most of the cuts shows the Federal Student Aid Office, which handles student loan and financial aid disbursement, and the Office for Civil Rights, which protects students and teachers from discrimination, were most affected by the reduction in force announced Tuesday. While Trump has promised to shutter the agency, its functions should remain because laws passed by Congress created them. Experts say although those laws should keep federal financial aid safe, Tuesday’s workforce reduction will make it much harder for the remaining agency staffers to keep up with the workload and meet students’ needs.

What Will Happen to Financial Aid if Trump Closes the Education Department?
Money – March 7, 2025
More than 17 million students fill out the FAFSA each year as the first step to accessing federal grants and loans, state scholarships and institutional aid. The application has to be processed by staff at the Education Department, and then the information is sent to their college. The college then determines a student’s financial aid package for its specific school. If one agency no longer absorbed all of the financial aid functions, hypothetically, students could have to go to one place to get help completing their FAFSA, a different place to complete the master promissory note that’s required to take out student loans, and then a third place when they have to start repaying their student loans.

How the SAT Became a Darling of the Anti-DEI Crowd
Inside Higher Ed – March 11, 2025
In the Education Department’s sweeping Dear Colleague letter last month, acting assistant secretary for civil rights Craig Trainor wrote that colleges must eliminate all race-conscious programs and policies, from scholarships and admissions practices to campus cultural groups and DEI training. One surprising mention: standardized testing policies. Trainor wrote that test-optional policies could be ‘proxies for race’ to help colleges ‘give preference’ to certain groups.

The Upstart ‘Classic Learning Test’ Gets a Testy Welcome From the SAT
RealClear Education – March 12, 2025
The battle over the CLT reflects the profound forces transforming K-12 education. As growing numbers of Americans seek alternatives to traditional public education, an infrastructure of charter, private, and home schools has expanded to support them. The CLT, which grew out of the classical education movement, is a recent addition to that infrastructure, a bridge between high school and college. The College Board denies that its criticism of the CLT is based on a desire to protect its market share, instead claiming ‘new external research…’ shows the CLT is not predictive of college performance or success. The CLT asserts that statement is false, and that there is no completed research that addresses predictiveness: it remains a question to be answered.