High School Counselor Week

Schools are More Segregated than 30 Years Ago. But How Much?
The 74 – May 11, 2024
Racial segregation in classrooms edged upward over the past three decades, according to the work of two prominent sociologists. Across America’s largest school districts, the expansion of school choice and the winding down of court-mandated desegregation decrees have resulted in white students being more racially isolated from their non-white peers, the authors find. Notably, the trend toward isolation has been underway even as Americans of different races and national origins are living in increasingly close proximity to one another.

Zero Tolerance Policies In School ‘Promote Further Misbehavior,’ Study Finds
For – May 15, 2024
Zero tolerance policies in schools actually end up promoting misbehavior, according to a new study. And despite its widespread use, there is little evidence to back up the use of a zero tolerance approach, particularly compared with some other widely-researched strategies, such as the use of restorative justice. In fact, a zero tolerance approach results in a significant increase in suspensions and expulsions, which not only do not improve behavior, but result in either the same or worse behavior when the student returns to school, studies have found.

Florida’s school safety dashboard helps parents and teachers address root causes of bullying, fighting and other misbehavior
The Conversation – May 8, 2024
Florida updated its school safety dashboard in April 2024, and it is now one of the most comprehensive in the nation. F. Chris Curran is an education policy professor at the University of Florida who partnered with Safe Schools for Alex, a nonprofit created by Max Schachter following the murder of his son Alex in the Parkland massacre in 2018, to release the new version of the dashboard. The Conversation asked him how parents and schools can benefit from the dashboard and what other states might learn from it as well.

Making the most of the second/final visit
Post – May 8, 2024
College Advice & Timely Tips with Lee Bierer

Concerned about mental health, NY lawmakers and advocates want fewer school lockdown drills
Chalkbeat – May 14, 2024
Lawmakers, parents, and school safety advocates rallied in Albany, calling for the passage of legislation that would reduce the number of school lockdown drills required under New York state law. It’s the culmination of a multi-year effort by advocates. Proponents of the new bill say the current 4-drill-per-year requirement was arbitrarily chosen and tha conducting so many drills harms student mental health without providing clear safety benefits. The new bill would also mandate that drills are conducted in a ‘trauma-informed, developmentally, and age-appropriate’ manner, with accommodations for students with disabilities, training for educators, and advance notice provided to school staff and parents. As of 2016, lockdown drills occurred in 95% of public schools in the U.S., with at least 40 states requiring them, according tononprofit Everytown for Gun Safety. But the organization has advised against conducting them, pointing to the ‘collateral consequences to school communities’ mental health and wellbeing.’ One bill sponsor noted there was no data to suggest lockdown drills are effective, adding, ‘There is no excuse for us traumatizing and re-traumatizing our kids because we are worried. We have to find a way to solve this problem that doesn’t put the obligation on them.’

One Path to Easing the Rural Counselor Shortage
The Daily Yonder – May 9, 2024
There are roughly 18,000 students working with advisors from the national college-advising nonprofit rootEd Alliance, in almost 200 high schools, and 62% of those surveyed say their advisor was ‘the most helpful person in their life’ as they planned for after high school. The results since the launch of the organization in 2018 are promising: 82% of rootEd students are on track to secure a career that provides a living wage, compared to 41% of working 21 to 24-year-olds currently making a living wage. So far, rootEd has only operated in four states — Tennessee, Kansas, Missouri, and Idaho — but those federal dollars have gone to help them and other advising efforts in 25 states. One surprise? Their work has been surprisingly welcome, Meyer says, ‘‘despite a lot of reporting around the insurality of rural communities.’ The truth is, the help is sorely needed, and the organization is trying to counteract the lack of counselors in rural schools nationwide.

The Online World Is a Double-Edged Sword for Youth Mental Health
MedPage Today – May 14, 2024
In my clinical work with families, I have witnessed both the benefits and drawbacks of digital media for youth well-being. Unfortunately, not all online experiences are positive. But clinicians and parents are well-positioned to help kids make the most out of digital media. The 5 Cs of Media Use from the Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides a helpful framework. These helpful approaches for parents are summarized below:

Your child got less college financial aid than you hoped. You’re not a bad parent if you don’t make up the difference
CNN – May 10, 2024
The good news is your child got into college and is preparing to enroll this fall. The bad news is that you’ve just learned the aid package your child’s school is offering is much smaller than you’d hoped. That means your share of the total cost of college may be larger than what you have at the ready. Here are some suggestions that may help, or at least buy you a little time to figure out how to handle all the education expenses coming due…

‘College for What?’ High School Students Want Answers Before Heading to Campus
EdSurge – May 14, 2024
hat do you want to be when you grow up? That’s a question long faced by high school students. But these days, students have access to far more information than in the past about what, specifically, they could do as a job after they graduate. And that is changing the way students are thinking about whether or not they want to go to college — or when they want to go.

U.S. Colleges With Religious Affiliations: What Students Should Know
U.S. News & World Report – May 8, 2024
Religiously affiliated colleges welcome students of all faiths and beliefs. Some colleges are religious only in their origins, but others have integrated their faith into all parts of campus life. Here are some things students should know about religiously affiliated colleges and universities.

Zombie colleges? These universities are living another life online, and no one can say why
USA Today – May 9, 2024
Stratford University says it will prepare students to ‘Be the Boss.’ But applicants hoping a Stratford education will ensure that future are headed for disappointment: The Virginia school closed two years ago this fall. Instead, Stratford is one of at least nine shuttered colleges whose names have been resurrected on the web. None of these zombie universities are accredited or cleared to receive federal financial aid – hurdles that signal legitimacy. And their motives are cloaked in a mystery no federal oversight agency seems to have tried to solve.

Tuition discounts at private nonprofit colleges reach new highs, study finds
Higher Ed Dive – May 15, 2024
Private nonprofit colleges discounted tuition more in the 2023-24 academic year than ever before, rising to an average rate of 56.1% for first-time, full-time students, according to preliminary estimates from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. However, some higher education experts have criticized how colleges communicate their prices to students.

The juice isn’t worth the squeeze for many college majors, new report reveals: Lifetime earnings simply can’t keep up with the cost of degrees
MSN – May 14, 2024
For many aspiring students, the decision to attend college comes with scary caveats, like years of unaffordable debt. Now there’s another thing to fear: Even if having a degree leads to higher earning potential down the line, a new analysis says about 30% of students won’t earn enough money to offset the price of school.

The botched FAFSA rollout made this year’s college-decision season a headache. What if we got rid of the form?
MarketWatch – May 13, 2024
Scrapping the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is an idea that wonks and practitioners have bandied about for years. Under the current system, students and families must fill out the form if they want to access federal aid like Pell grants and federal student loans and many states, colleges and scholarship organizations use it to hand out their own aid to students. Now the form is under scrutiny after efforts to simplify it created more challenges. In response, states and scholarship providers are finding ways to hand out financial aid without FAFSA. Perhaps it’s time to give this radical proposal serious consideration, some experts say.

As Some Question Higher Ed’s Value, Colleges Work To Fix The ‘Time Trap’
Forbes – May 15, 2024
For many current and prospective learners, school is too expensive. But increasingly it’s not just the money—it’s the daunting years of study that we might call the ‘time trap,’ how the cost of college goes beyond tuition and fees. The price also includes the money you ‘lose’ by being out of the workforce. More schools are looking at ways to accelerate that learning journey. They’re taking creative approaches that include the ‘College in 3’ movement and ‘3+1’ programs that combine bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

What Would It Take to Attract Gen Z to Teaching?
EdSurge – May 13, 2024
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has hit historic lows. Can the trend be reversed? In partnership with researchers at Vanderbilt University, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), a nonprofit that works to improve public education across 16 states in the Southeast, has been examining the next generation’s interest in the teaching profession and published their findings in a report released in April.