Tag Archives: dropout prevention

Creating a Pervasive Culture of Educational Success

Today all young people need to be “college-bound.”  This could include a union apprenticeship, 2 or 4 year college degree, certificate, or anything that will improve marketability.   With so many affordable education options, financial aid, and support services, there’s no good financial excuse why every young person shouldn’t be able to do it.

Over the course of a lifetime, a 4 year college degree earns almost $1 million more than just a high school degree.  Yet only 44% of Indiana 9th graders enter college, and only 22% complete a degree within 6 years.   Our own MCCSC graduation rate is only Continue reading →

Glaciers and Guidance Counselors

I recently had occasion to vacation in Glacier National Park.  Did you know that according to recent predictions, the glaciers in the park will be completely melted by 2020?  Rangers (darkly) joked with us that they’ll need a new name for the park.

But did you also know that a similar change is happening to guidance departments in public schools?  A new report just released by the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center includes a startling look at what guidance counselors actually do – and don’t do – in today’s schools.  As it turns out, their traditional role has melted away just as surely and inexorably as have those pearly caps on our American Alps.  So much so, in fact, the title “guidance counselor” may no longer be appropriate.

Bigger Mountains = Smaller Glaciers

Let’s start with the core issue: Guidance counselors are completely overloaded.  According to the report, the national average ratio of counselors to students is 467 to 1.  This is actually down from a ratio of 506 to 1 in 1997.

Things are worse in Indiana, which ranks 44th with a ratio of 543 to 1.  The recommended ratio is 250 to 1, but only four states (Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming) actually meet this guideline.    But impossible caseload ratios only tell part of the story.

From Icebergs to Sno Cones Continue reading →

10 Reasons to Use Evidence-Based Programs

Many youth service providers feel they need to invent their own unique program.  Not so.  Plenty of proven, off-the-shelf models and programs are out there just waiting for the right application.  Odds are, some of them are designed to produce the exact outcomes you are looking for.

Here are 10 reasons to check them out and find one that works for your clientele.

  1. They Work. ‘Evidence-Based’ means it’s based on research.  In addition, there has usually been some kind of quasi-experimentation involving pre- and post-testing and comparisons with control groups.
  2. They’re Fundable. Over the past ten years, funding agencies, especially federal funders, have increasingly called for evidence based programs.  Sometimes they even provide a shopping list of programs that they are willing to fund.
  3. Just Add Water. There’s no need to spend time developing procedures, creating forms, and designing programs.  All these have already been developed, probably by someone who knows more about what works than you do.
  4. Instructions. The manual is already written, usually in step-by-step format. Continue reading →