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This chapter provided vital insight to how college might provide a level of success for students that come from Latino and African American families. Yet at the same time shows that expectations of college and career readiness is nurtured at home. When a school counselor at both high school and elementary level provides the discussion for students to consider their options.
Many students do not consider going into the trades where there is large numbers of journey men are retiring and many of these positions are not being filled because students do not have insight into these careers. The question I have is why have these options not being introduced in middle school?

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All of this information is good because it allows us to know what we're still missing. However, after working in a low-income BIPOC high school for 3 years now, I've learned that my students are still struggling with the same thing I struggled with 14 years ago, no exposure to what's out there and having little to no excitement about post-secondary options. Just like when I was in high school, I took a million personality test, career interest test, flipped through the 700 page jobs book, and felt nothing. My students are choosing their majors like I choose mine, people said "That's interesting, you'd be good at that." How can I get ahead of this with my students? We're checking the boxes for college readiness, but there are no boxes for being completely lost.

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One things I’ve always somewhat struggled with thinking about is the differences between the types of students.  Some students may be incredibly driven to further themselves academically and know exactly what they want to do, while others may know exactly what they want to do but may not be as motivated to make strides in school.  And then there are also students who just don’t have those motivations at all and are just there because they have to.

I’m wondering how we, as school counselors and educators, approach each of these students? College/career readiness is such a broad concept and may be hard to apply to various situations. Are there specific points that it is best to deviate from the “norm” or should it be specifically tailored each time to each student?

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Something that surprised me that was mentioned in Chapter 1 was the statistics about students not being fully prepared for their education after high school or their careers. One thing I am curious about is if there is a way educators can help students fully engage in a community job that could help them better understand a job position or career they are considering? I feel that I was never shown the wide variety of careers out in the world and although the Parson test and The Theory of Vocational Choice tests are great ways to make a logical career choice, is there a way to help students actively engage in their possible field? Is there a way to engage middle school students as well?

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According to Bronfenbrenners Bioecological Theory, there is a direct connection of a child's success in their education stemming from the individual to their microsystem, exosystem, and Macrosystem. The example the book gave was based on a wealthier suburb where it seems most systems in place are working strongly together to create a strong educational system. What I wonder is how to counteract if there is a break in any of the systems in place since they all seem to be strongly connected to each other. Example being, how do we overcome the deficit if the students individual family isn't an advocate to help shape the rules and systems in place at the school board level? This in turn will affect the laws that govern the educational community. Whose responsibility is it in that particular educational system to help the individual child thrive?

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From my own experience in high school, I always heard the "college readiness" term and never really heard much of "career readiness". From what I recall, we were being prepared for our college path but reality is not everyone has that specific path in mind and often times these students are put to the side since they are not college bound. I think the term career readiness is something to be explored, it places emphasis on not college itself but on the future after high school as a whole, on what the plans may look like for soon to be high school graduates. The chapter itself explores both these terms in detail by explaining how they overlap and at the same time are different. I understand this is a very broad question... but how can we as school counselors work on implementing career readiness in high schools just as much as college readiness already is in order to also insure those "non-college bound" students also feel supported and heard in terms of their future plans after high school?

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This whole chapter focused on "college and career readiness". Career readiness seems like a term open to interpretation. In some senses, it seems to be in tangent with college readiness, as in one phrase "college and career readiness" - meaning, when preparing for college, a student would also be aware college is helping them prepare for a career. However, at other times, "career readiness" seems to be its own entity, preparing a student who may not want to go to college to understand career paths they may take, and all the necessary steps to succeed. However, what about a student who may be focusing on "career readiness" because they don't seem to have the financial means to go to college, but wants to go to college? What steps can the counselor take to assist them?

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One of the things that stood out to me was how ACT results and college readiness do not necessary go together. It reminded me about the time I was in high school and some peers who were always at the top of the class did not do good in the ACT and how some peers who did not do good in class even got a 32 in the ACT. I have read that these standardized tests mostly test testing ability and no college readiness. This also got me thinking about how focusing only on academics is not an effective way to prepare one for college or pos high school. We focus so much on the academic aspect. I have also  known many peers who did so well in high school (4.0 GPA, president of a club, etc) but eventually drop out of college because of the stress. These have me questioning how we can prepare students not only in an academic level, but also in a social emotional level and other life skills?
It's a broad question, but I believe still essential. Where do we start?

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I was shocked by the data around readiness for the ACT and college. 2 in 10 eighth graders are ready for high school... I'm curious if the country's push for "standardized schooling" (ie: tests, etc) has changed our student's readiness for what's at hand. Is there data around the progress standardized schooling has made?

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In reading chapter 1 I found the subject of the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) very interesting because it gives a clear explanation behind the purpose of the ACT and the most salient points. Of course, closing the achievement gap is very important and increasing accountability in respect to math and reading in minority communities is a crucial first step at achieving the goal set. But my wondering is how is this progressed monitored. What measures the overall success of the NCLB and how do we course correct if the achievement gap isn't shortening?

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The section under "National Math and Science Initiative" speaks of how the US is trailing behind other countries across the globe in math, science, and reading. It also mentions that racial mismatch between students and teachers, for instance White teachers and Black students, yields lower student achievement outcomes, while racial matching (such as Black instructors with Black students) increased achievement by 30-40%.
We know that representation matters-- there's data to back that up. I'm wondering how, as a White woman in a predominantly White, cisgender field of work, I can continue to advocate for equitable representation in the work force? Especially when we know that having someone who looks like you and potentially has similar life and/or cultural experiences can increase the likelihood of you succeeding in school? Lots to ponder, lots to learn, lots to act upon.

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This chapter addressed the statistics of students unable to complete college in 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, etc. In my high school experience, there seemed to be an unspoken expectation that students will 1) attend 4-year colleges and universities and 2) graduate from those colleges in 4 years. There was a stigma surrounding students who passed that 4-year mark. As counselors, how do we appropriately counter this narrative and support students' decisions to attend 4-year colleges but complete school on their own timeline?

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What stands out to me is that students are not adequately prepared for college by their high schools. In my own experience, students are only prepared to take the ACTs, or the SATs. We are only given test preparation and not any sort of conversation on what we want to do in college or if we even want to go. My question is, What can we do to make sure all of the students feel heard, and not just the ones going to college?

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From my experience with classmates I graduated high school with, and after reading the chapter on the different theories and obstacles students may have. The question I have is, how do we help students who are burnt out from having to pick what they should do after high school?

The book gave some great suggestions but I have always felt that these students who have a hard time picking a path are the ones that fall through the crack, and years later do not feel successful in their choices. I'm curious if there is a way to prevent that.

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One of the most interesting data that stood out to me the most is the graduation rate of students graduating high schools. Specifically when we think about the many factors that can possibly be impacting a student. What can we possibly do to help put student obtain a high school degree, most often many of these students are unaware of what they wanna do after high school or have greater responsibilities to be taken care of.
How can we better equip our students to have the tools necessary for whats to come after high school? most importantly how can we as educators help our families support their children in this important part of a student's life?

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Throughout the program I saw the importance of collaboration between school counselors, teachers, administrators, social workers and school psychologists. The book also mentions that teachers and administrators play a really important role in college and career readiness. However, I wonder how can the school counselor still be effective regarding college and career readiness using the help of the teachers without them thinking they have to do more work?

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Having a background in recruitment and staffing, I appreciated that this chapter included employability in the skills under which school counselors can support their students with. This chapter also highlighted job trends and using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which I thought was a great tool to use in the future. Lastly, I appreciated how they connected Community partners as another instrument to assist school counselors with insights on local workforce needs, career mentorship, and guest speakers.

Last quarter, I had the opportunity to work with Foreman high school. Through interviews with one of their school counselors and data from a Needs Assessment, we learned that the students wanted more employment support, including resume writing, interview preparation, and job programs. After reading this chapter, I'm wondering, as a future school counselor, how I can build a relationship between my school and possible community partners to construct a viable career readiness program that doesn't just check off a box but really provides the information my students are looking for. I understand that developing a program is an extensive task, but I would love to learn about the most crucial building blocks to consider.

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Some of the statistics in this chapter are very troubling to read. The fact that college acceptance rates are going up [ a 39% increase from 1999 to 2009] yet the number of U.S citizens who achieve their 4 year degree [29.9%] is definitely shocking to read. The book says that a large percentage of college students are ill-prepared to combat college courses, and that there are other factors at play. It does make me wonder how early we should start college prep so we can be pro-active. Even if it just slowly weening the students at first.

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"...college instructors estimate that up to 42 percent of college students are not adequately prepared by their high schools to meet college course expectations," and "...only two out of 10 eighth-grade students are actually on track to take the courses in high school that will prepare them for college," (Curry and Milsom, 2017, p. 6).

These quotes stood out to me, because they reminded me of a conversation we had last quarter with Prof. Walsh-Rock about finding out why folks are (figuratively) "falling in the river" in the first place, versus "pulling people out of the river over and over again." In other words, it made me think about the root causes of so many of the troubling statistics highlighted in this chapter.

I'm wondering...what does advocacy look like on both the micro and macro levels in terms of creating systemic change and building college preparedness in elementary and high school? The theories explored in chapter one touch on this to a degree, and the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders is clear. Still, I need more information and experience in order to develop realistic expectations for what I can do as a school counselor - in the context of a comprehensive school counseling program - to create real and lasting change.

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The three theories discussed in this chapter bring up some questions about individuals and populations whose environments are starved, ecosystems misaligned, and social capital non-existent.

We know the long-term benefits of college and career planning, but how can we find an equitable balance between long-term planning and addressing the immediate needs of our students?

I ask this because, in my experience working with low-income communities of color, I have seen long-term goals thwarted by immediate needs. In other words, students put off their college and career plans because they have to work full-time to help put food on the table.

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One of the most fascinating aspects to college and career readiness is how the different ecosystems affect a young person’s entire career path from the moment they are born. Every person’s social and cultural capital is different and, like the reading said, some have to go more out of their way than others to gain capital while others inherit it. My question is: how can we be the social capital of those who need (since they may all have different needs), if we have larger than the recommended caseloads and the entire school has high needs?

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How do we provide effective college and career counseling when there is only one school counselor serving the school?

Reading the chapter was smooth, and I appreciate that it has a focus on distinguishing the different in serving different populations It's relevant to our current generations.

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I was really curious about the framing of a “waning work ethic” and “increased job entitlement” alongside the stats of increasing wage gaps between the highest earners and lowest earners. Is it a decreased work ethic or an increase in a demand for a better quality of life by the working class? That’s something that I think Millenials and Gen-Z have been calling more attention to of late.

Regardless, those points have me thinking a lot about the macrosystem(s) our students are facing both currently and within the next 10 to 20 years and it’s highlighting the importance of advocacy for me in our work as school counselors.

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Thinking about a potential career path can be very difficult for high schoolers: it can seem abstract, it can seem daunting, etc.

In what ways can we get students excited about potential career paths beyond aptitude tests? What Parsons taught over 100 years ago still seems to matter today: self awareness and passion matter.

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The two prongs of college readiness vs career readiness is something to be explored.  More often than not I feel that we push students only to the point of being able to get into or start college and none of what comes after that.  In my experience your academic advisor in college isn't a career advisor or even really an academic, they just make sure you are on track to graduate which leaves young students lost.  Remember, we are asking 18-22 year olds to choose a career for the rest of their life in a brand new environment. How can we expect them to be able to make that decision?

How do we incorporate SEL into college and career readiness? To encourage passion, and to make sure they have emotional and relational preparedness for their new chapter beyond just academics?