High School Counselor Week

Americans’ satisfaction with K-12 education rises from record low
K-12 Dive – September 4, 2024
Americans’ satisfaction with K-12 education rose 7 percentage points to 43%. The metric had dipped to 36% last year — its lowest reported level since Gallup began tracking it in 1999. Still, a 55% majority of the 1,015 adults surveyed in August said they are completely or somewhat dissatisfied with K-12 education.

An Early Look at Diversity Post–Affirmative Action
Inside Higher Ed – September 6, 2024
It’s been 14 months since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cases, and until now college leaders and observers have only been able to guess at the ruling’s impact on their campuses’ racial diversity. That impact is finally becoming clearer. Over the past few weeks, a trickle of highly selective colleges have begun releasing demographic data for the Class of 2028.

As a New School Year Begins, Ensuring All Students Feel a Sense of Belonging
The 74 – September 5, 2024
Research and experience establish that belonging is essential for addressing the most vexing educational challenges, including lagging academic achievement, chronic absenteeism and student mental health.

Rethinking Secondary School Reports
Post – September 11, 2024
Counselors’ Corner with Patrick O’Connor, Ph.D.

Early Application Options
Post – September 11, 2024
College Advice & Timely Tips with Lee Bierer

Why Responding to Student Threats Is So Complicated
Education Week – September 5, 2024
Threat assessment is a formal process through which a team of educators, student support personnel, and school administrators analyze reports of threatening student behavior, determine their severity, and set a plan in place to respond. For example, a student may receive counseling to prevent self-harm. Threats deemed imminent—like those that involve specific details like dates and locations—are referred to law enforcement for immediate response. But, while many schools say they use threat assessment, there is wide variation in whether they follow evidence-based practices, what supports they provide students, and how they identify risks. Dewey Cornell, a professor of education who studies school violence prevention, notes: ‘Often, threat assessment is just seen as one more thing that people have to do, added onto their regular responsibilities. They may attend some training, but we know that after the training, they don’t actually implement what they were trained. It has to be more than a token effort.’

Beyond the Classroom: 5 Ways School Counselors Help with College Planning
PRNewswire – September 10, 2024
Navigating the path to college can feel overwhelming for high school students and their parents. Fortunately, school counselors like Kristin Schumacher-Smith of Grand River Preparatory High School, are here to help guide families through the process. Here’s how Schumacher-Smith and her National Heritage Academies (NHA) colleagues support students on their path to higher education.

Report: Parental ‘Apathy’ Blamed for Rise in Chronic Absenteeism
The 74 – September 9, 2024
A quarter of district leaders in a recent survey said chronic absenteeism has gotten so bad that none of their strategies are working, a problem some attribute to increased parental ‘apathy’ about the importance of school since the pandemic.

Mom of 4 says ‘everyone’s helping their kids too much’
Good Morning America – September 3, 2024
A California mom is encouraging fellow parents to be “lazier,” arguing that it’s beneficial for children to develop into independent and self-sufficient adults. She noticed that about a third of the parents she knows seem to be doing many or a majority of tasks and chores for their kids. ‘The best form of parenting is high attentiveness but low interference,” she notes, adding, ‘My objective was not to be critical of other parents but it was more like, hey, give yourself a break, because actually, it’s good for your kids. You don’t have to feel bad about having them do things on their own. It’s actually great for them. It’ll make them better people in the long run.’

Colleges are using AI in admissions. How can they do it right?
WBUR (MA) – September 4, 2024
Some colleges receive tens of thousands of applications every year. Admissions officers are turning to Artificial Intelligence to help with the screening. What that could mean for who gets into college and how. Higher education professionals and admissions officers join us to discuss.

Common App to expand direct admissions effort
K-12 Dive – September 10, 2024
The Common Application will expand its direct admissions program for the 2024-25 application cycle, offering proactive acceptance letters from 116 colleges to first-generation students and those from low- and middle-income backgrounds. Direct admissions offers prospective students acceptance without first requiring them to apply.

Murder Hornets and Writing a College Application Essay
U.S. News & World Report – September 9, 2024
It’s good before writing the essay to take a big step back and consider what the purpose of the college application is. Because here is what you’re actually doing with the application: You are trying to convince a total stranger that you’d be good to have in the classroom, good to have as a roommate, good to have on a dorm floor, good to have on campus, and that you would succeed.

Should High School Students Do Academic Research?
EdSurge – September 4, 2024
A growing number of high school students are looking for opportunities to do academic research, hoping to add ‘published author’ to their list of achievements when they apply to colleges. But experts say that the trend of high school research, while well-intentioned, has plenty of pitfalls.

How to Pay for College: Cut Costs With 10 Strategies
The Wall Street Journal – September 10, 2024
Affording higher education today can mean looking for funding strategies that go beyond your savings, such as scholarships and tuition reimbursement plans. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to pay for college in 2024.

Can the FAFSA mean…fun?
The Hechinger Report – September 5, 2024
At the end of July, McDowell Technical Community College in Marion, North Carolina, hosted a party for something people don’t typically throw parties for: Applying for financial aid. The FAFSA Fiesta at McDowell was one of four that the College Foundation of North Carolina, a nonprofit based in Raleigh, hosted this summer to try to boost Latino college going across the state in an unusually difficult year.

What the FAFSA Just Happened?
The Chronicle of Higher Education – September 10, 2024
The disastrous rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, has created uncertainty about students’ financial-aid packages — and many of the most vulnerable are having the hardest time.