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Editor's note: This post is a submission to Fordham's 2018 Wonkathon. We asked assorted education policy experts whether our graduation requirements need to change, in light of diploma scandals in D.C., Maryland, and elsewhere. Other entries can be found here.
Exactly two years ago, in March 2016, I was in the trenches as a high school special education teacher. I would leap from classroom to classroom, borrowing them from the general education teachers during their prep time. I was trying to balance my job as an expert in mathematics, life science, and physical science with learning the ropes of classroom management and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) creation and implementation. I was exhausted and determined, but in the end, I didn't have what it takes. One day, my graduate school professors realized I was more of a one-track mind, better at working one-on-one than a classroom full of kids. The next day, I left the trenches for good, leaving myself exposed but confident in using my experiences to shape our nation's education policies.

If schools are to raise outcomes for every student, they need to provide more one-on-one counseling interactions that leave them with a set of actionable goals. Students should graduate high school based on them receiving a base-level liberal arts education and achieving a self-created action plan, akin to the IEPs we provide students in special education. Requiring these personal development plans would mean that schools are responsible for providing the resources for everyone's success. I know all too well that as kind-hearted as we are in the education field, often the only thing that compels a school to offer more resources to a student is the menacing legal document of the IEP that's ready to drop a gavel of them.

Graduation scandals where half the students are absent for more than three months cannot happen in places where counselors are actively building relationships with their students. In my work as a college counselor at a smaller secondary school, I am fortunate to have the chance to build detailed and personalized plans that address personal ambitions and tie them to specific academic and career interests. For instance, when students are interested in journalism, their plan might include taking a creative writing course, publishing on Medium, dream journaling, and submitting an entry to the Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest. Entrepreneurially-minded students always pull my mind in different directions. Their plan can include actions as varied as starting a store on Etsy, researching agricultural trends, taking AP Economics, learning computer programming, or investing in cryptocurrencies.

For high school to be as useful and enriching as possible, guidance counseling needs to be put at the forefront of the graduation requirements debate. Research has found a correlation between strong college counseling and academic performance.

According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the average student-to-school-counselor ratio is around 480 to 1, well above the recommended ratio of 250 to 1. The hesitation to add more counselors comes from their misguided lumping with "administrative costs" and the common trope of school counselors being random people who just stumbled onto the job. In the episode "Morty's Mind Blowers" from the television show "Rick and Morty," Morty says, "I'm sure he's qualified to be a guidance counselor. I mean, who isn't?" And to be fair, I'm probably not helping the cause by going into the profession right after my gig as a teacher.

In reality, counselors are experts, and lower student-to-counselor ratio is key to making sure students feel they have a place within their school. An expertly trained person can come up with a plan for anyone. Schools with an action plan requirement will be doing their part to make sure that the "average student" is getting serviced when they are often overlooked in favor of highly talented and high behavioral kids.

In the case of my community, the counselors are a major driver for students to choose the smaller charter school I work at. One eleventh grader said, "The teachers here give you more attention. They prepare you and help you meet your goal. If I have to say the people that affected me the most, it would be [the counselors] Mrs. Chavez and Ms. Brown. I like that I can really talk to them. They would encourage me to go far away for college and to not let the money stop me from going. Now I'm not scared to go to an out-of-state college."

On a policy level, the way the plans would work is that each year, students will be required to create a set of goals (at least one each) in the realms of mental health, wellness, education, and career. These realms are pulled from the American Counseling Association (ACA) governing council's official definition of counseling. The plans created from ninth to eleventh grade would be non-binding, although they would be reviewed together with their high school counselor. That way a student can put in their plan that they want to sign up for the talent show and take first place at the Battle of the Bands and not be afraid to fail. High school graduation would be contingent on passing the liberal arts curriculum and meeting the goals outlined in the twelfth grade action plan.

To ensure transparency and accountability, every senior's plan would be uploaded onto the high school's website with the names blacked out. Community members, taxpayers, and outside agencies would be able to track what students are doing and what directions they tend to head towards. Every graduating senior would also create a resume that's published publicly in a lookbook in PDF format on the schools' website.

It's my hope that as this idea continues to get scrutinized, policymakers realize how realistic and helpful it is. Rather than fearing a nightmare scenario where a girl puts in her plan that she wants to literally be Cinderella, fails, and then sues the district for a million dollars, I would like to have faith in the power of expertise. After a healthy dialogue, I expect there to be guidelines as to what constitutes a goal that is binding for graduation and legal purposes.

And if there was anyone handwringing when reading this piece, I would like to bring us back to why this matters. In this digital age, all too often "personalized learning" has come to mean a software program with an intelligent algorithm. We can't forget the original personalized learning: one-on-one, human-to-human interactions. High school counseling, done by a person, is still important. I have seen with my eyes the power of counseling and creating action plans. It's time that every high school student in America sees it too.
Nancy C. Herrera is a special education instructional assistant and college counseling intern at Aspire Public Schools.

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High school counseling and individualized plans are key to student success

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Editor's note: This post is a submission to Fordham's 2018 Wonkathon. We asked assorted education policy experts whether our graduation requirements need to change, in light of diploma scandals in D.C., Maryland, and elsewhere. Other entries can be found here. Exactly two years ago, in March 2016, I was in the trenches as a high school special education teacher.

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Their role is crucial to helping more students reach higher education.

Wilfredo Lee / AP

Teenagers make bad choices. Honestly, who doesn't? For adolescents, however, who are armed with new responsibilities, opportunities, and bodies they are almost inevitably unprepared to deal with, the wrong decision can have serious, life-altering effects. For low-income adolescents who lack the safety net that comes with privilege, the wrong decisions can be catastrophic.

Students who drop out of high school or never graduate from college are, often without knowing it, setting themselves up to earn half as much as a college graduate does. High schools, however, provide counselors who help guide students through a crucial sequence of choices-about whether and where they will go to college and about how they will pay for it-to stave off disaster. College is a powerful engine for mobility, which is why college advising has the potential to transform both individual lives and society.

Understanding the opportunity and achievement gaps in U.S. universities
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The significance of counseling is under-recognized by the public. A recent national survey asked what, if taxes were raised to improve local public schools, the money should be spent on first. Just over a third of the respondents said teachers; supplies came next, followed by classes and extracurriculars, infrastructure, and new schools. Counselors came last, with just 6 percent of the sample. David Hawkins of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors identifies counseling as the third and most-neglected component of increasing access to college, alongside financial support and equitable access to a challenging school curriculum.

Thankfully, leaders in the education community are increasingly recognizing the pivotal role of the school counselor in the lives of students, particularly low-income and first-generation ones who might not have any other adult in their lives who applied to and attended college.

The problem, as documented in a 2012 report, is that many high-school counselors are overburdened by huge caseloads, especially at schools where a majority of children are first-generation and low-income students. The American School Counselor Association recommends a student-to-student counselor ratio of 250:1. According to the most recent data, only three states meet that recommendation. The national average is 491:1, while in California and Arizona, it's 822:1 and 941:1, respectively. In far too many schools, security officers outnumber school counselors. A recent survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling revealed that while counselors at private schools spend 55 percent of their time on college counseling, public-school counselors can devote only 22 percent of their time to doing so. And then there are the almost 850,000 students who, according to federal data, have no access to a counselor at all, which is why a growing number of nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing access to college are working to provide the advice that wealthier students already receive.

Some of these organizations are distinguishing themselves by using innovative, data-driven, and technologically savvy methods that are backed up by the latest research into college access. Significantly, the work they are doing has the potential to be done at a scale that could have a large impact. But will it be large enough? The benefits of these supplemental-advising measures are indubitable-they take some of the onus for college and career planning off overworked school counselors. But their efficacy derives in part from their not having to tackle the entire range of issues facing school counselors, from mental-health concerns and family crises to course planning and disciplinary issues. For all the good that organizations like College Possible, the College Advising Corps, and Strive for College are doing, their efforts cannot replace the work that school counselors do to transform society-a challenge that even representatives of these organizations acknowledge. Public policy and funding play a crucial role in improving the advising and, consequently, the future of millions of students. As it stands, some states and districts are making a serious commitment to redressing the advising gap, but the majority have demonstrated little sense of urgency on this issue.

Colorado is leading the way among the states with its School Counselor Corps Grant Program, which provided $16 million to 59 schools between 2010 and 2015 to add 220 school counselors, cutting the student-to-counselor ratio down from 363:1 to 216 :1. In three years, dropout rates declined from 5.5 percent to 3.5 percent, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars, according to its 2016 report. Tennessee launched a program to train new school counselors for 30 schools. Some school districts are also placing a new emphasis on counseling. New York City has recently initiated the Single Shepherd program, which will pair 16,000 students in Brooklyn and the South Bronx with individual counselors from sixth through 12th grade.

Ratios are not the only problem, however. Julie Ajinkya, the vice president of research at the Institute of Higher Education Policy, pointed out in conversation that counselors are not just overburdened; they are often under informed because their districts have provided them neither the funding nor the opportunity for professional development. This past year alone has seen the introduction of a new SAT, revisions to the ACT, changes in the federal financial-aid application (FAFSA), and the rise of new application services. Amanda Fitzgerald, the director of public policy at the American School Counselor Association, points out that "counselors are spending their days putting out fires" in students' lives, and yet they are expected to be state of the art on their field as well. In 2011, New York City's Department of Education partnered with the Options Institute at the Goddard Riverside Community Center to create a free six-day program that runs counselors through all the components of the college application and financial-aid processes, and advises them on building a college-going culture at their schools. In its first three years, 80 percent of the city's 544 public schools sent at least one counselor to the training. The Texas legislature passed a bill last year that will increase counselors' access to training

It is looking increasingly unlikely that Washington will provide the level of support required to effect a revolution in counseling for public-school students. According to a White House spokesperson, "The president and First Lady know that well-trained counselors are essential" if the United States is going to increase the proportion of young people with college degrees. Michelle Obama focused on school counselors as part of her Reach Higher Initiative, and, in 2015, began recognizing a school counselor of the year. She also initiated a program to use text messaging to inform and remind student about important aspects and deadlines in the college-application process. The administration's commitment to college access is admirable, but public relations and apps will not be enough to create equity. Students still need in-person school counselors, and that takes funding.

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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed last December to replace No Child Left Behind as the nation's education law, has the potential to allow states and districts greater latitude in supporting school counselors. ESSA contains a major new provision under Title IV that's designed to provide grants for all school districts to cover a broad range of educational supports beyond classroom instruction, including college and career counseling.

The law authorizes $1.65 billion for these so-called Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, but it looks like Congress is not going to provide anything close to the funding authorized by the law. The House of Representatives proposed only $1 billion for the grants, but that looks positively generous in comparison to President Obama's budget request, which allocates only $500 million and calls for the grants to be competitive. Meanwhile, the Senate's budget proposal allocates just $300 million for the grants. No budget will be approved before the 2016 elections, but it looks like the federal government will be leaving college counseling off its agenda. One can only hope it will receive some wise guidance of its own before it makes a bad choice.

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The Neglected Link in the High-School-to-College Pipeline

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Their role is crucial to helping more students reach higher education. Teenagers make bad choices. Honestly, who doesn't? For adolescents, however, who are armed with new responsibilities, opportunities, and bodies they are almost inevitably unprepared to deal with, the wrong decision can have serious, life-altering effects.

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CINCINNATI -- Spring is a busy time for high school guidance counselors.

Unfortunately, they've become something of a rare commodity on high school campuses these days.

In the 2008-09 school year, for example, the average ratio of guidance counselors to students nationwide was 457 to 1. By 2011 - the most recent year for which numbers are available - the ratio had increased to 471 students per single counselor.

It's hardly the "ideal" of 250-1 recommended by some school officials and the American School Counselors Association.

Counselors, educators say, are becoming ever more necessary.

Unlike 10 or so years ago, when counselors primarily helped students apply for college and financial aid, their offices now echo with pleas for help in dealing with a host of teenage woes.

They dispense advice on everything from mental health issues, family problems, bullying, social media pitfalls, peer suicides, grief counseling and drug abuse to more traditional topics like college testing guidance and providing references for students headed to college or the job market.

Former high school counselor Brian Martin has seen firsthand the challenges faced by fading ranks of high school guidance counselors. In every high school, society's future walks into counselor offices, he said, lugging with them a distressing array of modern woes.

"Counselors are even more important today than they have ever been," said Martin, principal at Ross High School in Hamilton, Ohio.

Years of budget slashing is to blame for the drop in their number. They're often first on the chopping block when districts look to cut costs.

Counselors still help the top performers as those students head to college but are increasingly called upon to help lift troubled teens, said Martin and area school counselors.

"The student-to-counselor ratio is higher than it has ever been ... (as) schools are almost being asked to serve as social service agencies," said Martin, whose 950-student enrollment is split among three counselors. "The amount of personnel available to address those issues has been declining."

Belle Allen has worked as a guidance counselor since 1996 in Butler and Warren county high schools. She still shakes her head in disbelief when she thinks about the number of teens she and her peers are expected to serve.

"It's unbelievable and it's unrealistic," said Allen. She is responsible for helping 317 students.

Years ago "we did a lot of scheduling, a lot about colleges, but now there are a lot of mental health issues that students are dealing with," she said.

Some local districts, like Newport Independent Schools, are getting creative to beef up the number of counselors. With the help of grant money, Newport High School this year doubled its number of counselors - to two, both serving the 650 students in grades nine-12.

"They have to be ready for anything," Newport Superintendent Kelly Middleton said. "This year we had a student suicide and our counselors had to organize counseling sessions for many students."

The region's largest school system has also enlisted new partnerships to alleviate the pressure on its smaller pool of counselors.

With 33,000 students, Cincinnati Public Schools has 13 high school counselors, down from 17 a decade ago, and the district has tried to farm out some of their responsibilities.

"Fortunately," spokeswoman Janet Walsh said, "we have several college access partners working in our schools who have been able to support some of the work traditionally performed by counselors."

More than any other school staffers, the dwindling number of counselors handle the brunt of student burdens. And there is no sign of that changing, said Jill Cook, spokeswoman for the Virginia-based American School Counselor Association, which represents 33,000 school counselors nationwide.

"High school counselors ... have shifted from working with a small number of students - perhaps those who are in trouble a great deal or those applying to college. But today, they are working with all students," she said.

Ross High School senior Carolyn Conrad couldn't have imagined her successful high school career with the help of a counselor for both academic and personal issues.

"My counselor has been absolutely amazing through my four years of high school. High school would definitely be a lot different without her," said Conrad, a top academic performer who this month was accepted to Miami University.

Warren County's Mason High School is among the top academic high schools in the region, and officials there credit, in part, their staff of eight counselors.

"They are kind of that front line that identify where kids are struggling ... and they really serve an important role in helping us reach all the kids we can," said Dan Distel, assistant principal at the high school.

Veteran Mason High School counselor Nikeisha Brooks still loves the job, despite the growing pressures.

"I love helping students and seeing them accomplish their dreams and goals," Brooks said. "This is one of the most gratifying things I've done in my life."

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(Contributing: Cliff Peale of The Enquirer)

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As need for school counselors grows, numbers decrease

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CINCINNATI -- Spring is a busy time for high school guidance counselors. Unfortunately, they've become something of a rare commodity on high school campuses these days. In the 2008-09 school year, for example, the average ratio of guidance counselors to students nationwide was 457 to 1.

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Yuridia Nava, a counselor at Riverside Polytechnic High School in Riverside, Calif., has been getting to work at 7 a.m. lately. It's class registration time, so she wants to be available before school for parents and students to come in with questions as they plan for the next year of courses, SAT tests, and college preparation.

Poly - as her school is known - employs six counselors for its 2,700 students, so Nava and her colleagues each work with about 500 teens. That's just above average. According to the most recent data, school counselors across the country manage caseloads of about 482 students each. In California, where Nava works, that average ratio is 760 students per counselor - the second highest in the nation. She says counselors there are just trying to "stay afloat" and get through each day. The American School Counselor Association recommends that counselors work with 250 students each, but just three states follow that advice.

Each time a school shooting occurs, the nation collectively asks: who is responsible for students' safety? Is it teachers? Parents? Lawmakers?

Some suggest that school counselors, who work with students on academic and personal levels, play a part. But those folks are often stretched too thin - and lack resources like money, support, and time.

And time is one thing that counselor Yuridia Nava doesn't have a lot of.

One day earlier this week began with a parent meeting. Nava spent the next three periods with students-reviewing their goals, talking about their interests, and discussing the classes that they need for next year. She'll be meeting with students for registration all month.

After Nava advised students interested in going to the police academy, she visited a teacher who recently lost a loved one. Back at her office, the counselor checked with students involved in a school leadership program, met with two more students about their weekends, and sat down with a family registering their teen at Poly for the first time.

One student, who checks in with Nava daily, dropped by her office. Another came by to tell Nava she'd been feeling unsafe at home. After Poly's thousands of students headed home, Nava sat down for another parent meeting, then met with staff members to go over safety measures at school.

All of that happened before 4 p.m.

But even Nava, a finalist for the American School Counselor Association's School Counselor of the Year award in 2017, says that she and other counselors could do even more.

"Our caseloads put such a hindrance on what we're capable of doing," she says.

School counselors like her work with school nurses, school psychologists, and school social workers to make sure that students struggling in and out of school get the help that they need. But all of these staff work with huge caseloads. According to the National Association of School Psychologists, school psychologists work with about 1,400 students each across the country.

Though the national conversation often turns to mental health after mass shootings, school counselors and other support personnel work with students on their mental health every day. And, for some, the temporary focus on mental health is frustrating when their own roles in schools are so underfunded.

To them, it's especially important to get the facts correct: " There are statistics that show that people who have diagnosed mental illnesses are not more likely to commit these mass shootings. That's factual," says Jill Cook, assistant director of the American School Counselor Association. According to a statement from the National Association of School Psychologists released last week, "To conclude that the presence of an issue like depression predisposes someone to commit this type of violence perpetuates an incorrect stereotype and maintains a stigma that often creates a reluctance to seek treatment."

Nava's role includes helping her students seek this treatment for any mental health concerns. If students need long-term interventions, she'll refer them to outside sources, like therapists or psychologists. School shootings make big headlines - and amplify the attention on student mental health - yet two-thirds of all gun deaths result from suicide.

Spending face-to-face time building relationships with students is key to establishing a healthy school environment, where kids feel comfortable coming to counselors with their worries-whether they're about school safety, happiness, or day-to-day classroom concerns.

That's a challenge for counselors with so many kids to look after - and so much on their schedules each day.

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With Hundreds Of Students, School Counselors Just Try To 'Stay Afloat'

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Yuridia Nava, a counselor at Riverside Polytechnic High School in Riverside, Calif., has been getting to work at 7 a.m. lately. It's class registration time, so she wants to be available before school for parents and students to come in with questions as they plan for the next year of courses, SAT tests, and college preparation.

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In order to combat the mental health crisis among adolescents, schools should hire more counselors to support the students.

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On Monday morning, what may be the most dreaded and feared set of public exams England's teenagers have ever sat began in school assembly halls up and down the country.

It is 30 years since GCSEs (General Certificate for Secondary Education) were first introduced under Margaret Thatcher, replacing O-levels and CSEs. The new exam was designed to cover a broad spectrum of ability rather than dividing pupils between high achievers, who sat O-levels, and lower-ability students, who took CSEs. Now, three decades later, following claims of grade inflation and dumbing down, GCSEs have been revised and re-formed and a brand new set of exams is being rolled out.

Gone are the old-style assessments with their forgiving modules, repeat exams and coursework. In their place are Michael Gove's super-tough, "gold-standard", highly academic qualifications. Gove, secretary of state for education between 2010 and 2014, believed the old GCSEs' reliance on coursework assessment was open to abuse. He argued that the content of the revised examinations should be pitched at a more sophisticated level, claiming: "By making GCSEs more demanding, more fulfilling, and more stretching we can give our young people the broad, deep and balanced education which will equip them to win in the global race."

These students are under more pressure than at any point in living memory

English teacher

Each GCSE has therefore been designed to be more challenging, with increased content, which is tested almost exclusively by end-of-course examinations and measured by grades that run from 9 to 1 (rather than the previous A* to G). The new 9-1 measure sets a 4 as equivalent to a C, while the top grades, A* and A, are split into three grades, 7, 8 and 9, with 9 awarded to those with marks at the top of the old A* grade. As a result, far fewer students will end up achieving the very top grade available, and many who would have been A* students under the old system will wrongly regard a 7 or 8 as a failure.

The 2018 summer exam season kicked off with computer science and religious studies on Monday, followed by French and biology on Tuesday. How pupils fare will not be known until 23 August when GCSE results are published. What has become clear, however, is the distress that these new and untested exams have caused.

A Guardian call-out last week asking for our readers' views about the new GCSEs prompted more than 200 responses, an outpouring that was overwhelmingly - although not exclusively - negative. The more extreme responses included accounts of suicide attempts by two pupils at one school, breakdowns, panic attacks and anxiety levels so intense that one boy soiled himself during a mock exam.

Some of the responses from pupils were alarming. "GCSEs have been a horrible experience," says one 16-year-old. "I have suffered from panic attacks and a high increase in anxiety. It's quite scary how as a student I find it normal to see my peers break down in lessons as they are scared of what's going to happen to them in the future if they fail."

Another writes: "I have seen the mentally toughest people crack and it's painful to watch. People crying over being unable to do a maths question. Is this what we want as a nation, to be put under this mental stress?"

Pressure in classrooms has been intense for the past two years as teachers have grappled with the new specifications, for which they say there are inadequate resources or revision materials. The new exams have been launched at a time when budgets are shrinking, schools are in deficit and parents are increasingly being asked to fill the gaps with everything from monthly cash donations to glitter glue, pens and even toilet paper. Nonetheless, schools are doing their best, with some laying on relaxation sessions, yoga classes and resilience programmes to support worried pupils. "For the first time in 10 years of teaching, I have no idea what to expect come results day," says one bemused history teacher from Worcestershire.

Chances are that the final headline results may not be dramatically different from previously as the exam boards will peg this year's outcomes to previous years so as not to disadvantage the latest cohort. The grade boundaries could prove telling, however. When the new mathematics and English GCSE courses were tested for the first time last summer - ahead of the main wave of re-formed GCSEs - it emerged that scores in one maths exam were so low that the pass mark was set at just 18%. This year, a further 20 new exams are being rolled out, including sciences, modern languages, history and geography, with more to follow next summer.

Phil Beadle, an award-winning teacher and education consultant, says t his year was bound to be stressful but that things will improve. "People are stressed because, with the exception of in English and maths, no one really knows exactly what an 8 or a 9 looks like. Your first run through of a new syllabus is rather less skilled than your fifth."

But this is of little comfort to schools where study leave has been cancelled this summer because staff have been unable to cover the volume of work required by the new qualifications; students are being taught the curriculum to the very last minute. What's more, because assessment is now virtually all exam-based, students may be sitting up to 28 exams in the space of two or three weeks, some of them spending a little short of 40 hours lined up in rows in exam halls, folded over constricted desks.

Secret Teacher: I fear for the wellbeing of students under pressure to perform

"I have 10 different subjects and 28 - yes, 28 exams," says one 16-year-old from Greater Manchester. "They are a minimum of 75 minutes. Maths now has three papers, six science papers for dual award. Oh, and three geography papers. It is ridiculous."

The NSPCC reported this week that the number of referrals by schools in England seeking mental health treatment for pupils has risen by more than a third in the past three years. A Gloucestershire teenager told the Guardian she believes about 50% of her year group are suffering from mental health problems. "I know that everyone struggles with the exams and the importance of them," she says, "however, the new courses have amplified the pressure and surely they shouldn't be causing my fellow students to have suicidal thoughts."

Schools are also coming under pressure to perform well in league tables. A student from Dorset describes the countdown to exams in his school, with posters showing the number of days left and notices warning that if you get grades 1-4 you're likely to end up cleaning or working in a shop, whereas if you get 8s and 9s you'll be off to university to enjoy "a great lifestyle".

"I have seen near enough all my friends cry over our exams, worry (to the point of having a panic attack!) about not having done enough revision and failing," writes one GCSE student who contacted the Guardian, adding: "In fact, I don't think a single one of my friends currently are happy."

I have never, in over 20 years of teaching, seen pupils suffer so much anxiety and other symptoms of poor mental health

English teacher

This may have been true of many teenagers faced with make-or-break exams over the years. But teachers who responded to our call-out told the same unhappy story and expressed alarm at the increase in mental health problems among their students. A 26-year-old English teacher says he has watched his year 11s go through anguish. Like most of his colleagues, he has laid on countless revision sessions during lunchtimes and holidays to try to get his students through. "In one week recently, there were two suicide attempts by students. This is in a high-achieving school in a middle-class area, so I am sure problems must be heightened for already disadvantaged students, too."

His own subject - assessed by four exams over eight hours - has become hugely daunting for students who are no longer allowed copies of their set texts and must rely entirely on memory for quotations from two novels, a Shakespeare play and 15 poems. "This seems both cruel and futile," he says. "The most able students will still come out on top, but those who already struggle will barely be able to access these exams. I can only wish them the best of luck and hope that I have done enough to see them through, because these students are under more pressure than at any point in living memory."

At a school in north London, another English teacher describes a student cohort in apparent meltdown. "They have been assessed on the same texts since year 9," he writes. "They have been forced into after-school and weekend revision sessions that I have been forced to run since September; they have been denied study leave, and now that the exams are looming they are imploding, emotionally, mentally and literally (a boy soiled himself in a recent mock exam he was so nervous).

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Welsh teenagers sit an exam. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

"These young people are angry, and they have every right to be. At 16 years old, the stress, anxiety and pressure in our current educational climate is now manifesting itself in adolescent molten rage."

"The whole thing is a mess," says a school governor in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. "Preparation and implementation rushed, not enough help and support from exam boards, teachers not sure of syllabus until there was little time left to prepare. Grade boundaries not clear, exemplar material limited. Training meetings late or non existent. For students, chaos, stress and loads more exams than before."

"I have never, in over 20 years of teaching, seen pupils suffer with so much anxiety and other symptoms of poor mental health in the run up to exams," says another English teacher.

"The number of students with mental health issues is definitely on the increase," says a Cheshire teacher. "We now have a significant proportion of students who cannot take exams in the exam hall but require smaller rooms and rest breaks to stay calm. Attendance is increasingly affected with students off with anxiety."

This from a psychology teacher from the West Midlands: "It is unfathomably hard. I'm all for raising the bar but it has been risen so very much it is inaccessible to the majority of students."

And from a history teacher in Norfolk: "The new GCSEs have broken my best students, left some with serious stress-induced illnesses, and isolated the majority, leaving them completely apathetic towards their own learning. My lunch times are filled with crying students who feel they are not doing enough, despite doing full days at school and revising until 1am every single day.

"They have heart palpitations and panic attacks and migraines and they are all so, so tired. Worst of all, I feel like a hypocrite, because I'm not even sure I could achieve the grades I am asking them to get.

"I am lying to my students when I smile and say it will be fine, because they have worked so hard. Ultimately, I feel I have failed them."

The school leaving age is 18, in effect. Education goes on from four to 18. So what are you testing people at 16 for?

Lord Kenneth Baker

This year is particularly challenging for all concerned. There has been enormous change over a short space of time, when schools are so cash-strapped that some are unable even to afford the books required for the re-formed exams.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, who still has nightmares about her O-levels, says the new exams are regressive and harmful. "I think it's absolutely tragic," she says. "It's tragic for the pupils concerned and it's tragic for UK PLC. We are not thinking intelligently about the sort of education and assessment that's needed for the modern world."

The Department for Education defends the new GCSEs. Its statement says: "In order for pupils to be successful, rigorous examinations are vital. They are not, however, intended to cause significant anxiety. Good leaders know that positive mental wellbeing helps pupils fulfil their potential and make that part of their overall school ethos. This government has taken steps to reduce examination burdens upon young people. At GCSE level we have removed the incentives for multiple resits that were not helping children's education, giving pupils at least two full years of study before they sit exams.

"We are helping schools to spot mental health problems as early as possible and have allocated £300m of funding to transform mental health services for children and young people. Where staff are struggling with stress we trust headteachers to take action to tackle the causes and have issued guidance that is clear they have a responsibility to take work-life balance into account when managing staff."

No doubt subsequent years will see some of the pressures ease as the new GCSEs are tweaked and teachers and pupils become more familiar with what is expected of them. But a broader question remains about the continuing relevance of the exams.

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Testing times ... Kenneth Baker, education secretary under Margaret Thatcher, 1985-1986. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian

Critics say that English children are among the most tested pupils in the world, starting with the new baseline assessment in the first weeks of school; a phonics screening check in year 1; and standardised national tests (SATS) in years 2 and year 6. With pupils in England now required to stay in school, college or work-based learning until 18, many are starting to question the rationale of high-stakes exams at 16 and then again two years later.

Among those critics is the Conservative peer Kenneth Baker, who was education secretary between 1985 and 1986 when the first GCSEs were being tested. "When I took the equivalent in 1952, it was before O-levels," he told a radio show last year. "Ninety-three per cent got a job at 16 when I took the exam. And so they had to clutch in their hands a certificate showing what they'd achieved and that was very important. But now the school leaving age is 18, in effect. Education goes on from four to 18. So what are you testing people at 16 for?"

Baker has his supporters, none more so perhaps than the tens of thousands of students frantically prepping for their GCSEs this week, with A-levels to look forward to two years down the line. But given the enormous upheaval and expense of these latest reforms, it seems likely to be some time before any major change is attempted again.
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Stress and serious anxiety: how the new GCSE is affecting mental health

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On Monday morning, what may be the most dreaded and feared set of public exams England's teenagers have ever sat began in school assembly halls up and down the country. It is 30 years since GCSEs (General Certificate for Secondary Education) were first introduced under Margaret Thatcher, replacing O-levels and CSEs.

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AASA | American Association of School Administrators

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About one in five children in the United States shows signs of a mental health disorder - anything from ADHD to eating disorders to suicide.

And yet, as we've been reporting this month, many schools aren't prepared to work with these students. Often, there's been too little training in recognizing the problems, the staff who are trained are overworked, and there just isn't enough money.

When there are enough people to handle the job, how should all the different roles fit together?

Many experts point to one model. It's got a bureaucratic name - the "multi-tiered system of supports" - but when you picture it, just imagine an upside-down pyramid, or maybe a funnel. It starts with support for everyone and moves on to more and more specialized help.
The Village
Here, everyone in the school has a part to play. The collective mission is broad: Create a school environment of general well-being, and a climate where mental health isn't stigmatized.

It takes a lot of planning - with big decisions often coming from the top. Just askAmanda Aiken.

She is now the Senior Director of Schools at New Orleans College Prep, a charter school network. But before that she was a principal at one of their schools, Lawrence D. Crocker College Prep.

In that role, she made a point to stand outside her New Orleans school every morning. When the buses drove in, she was at each door. Other staff were stationed at the front and back entrances.

Every student, from preschool to eighth grade, shook at least two hands before they even get inside the building.

Every student, every day?

Sometimes, Aiken conceded, it was a hug rather than a handshake.

"They hear a lot of good-mornings and a lot of how-are-you-doings," says Aiken. "I require that human touch."

Now her successor carries on that tradition.

But Aiken wasn't just being nice. It was strategic.

Many students at Crocker, part of a charter school network, have a higher risk for mental health problems. Most students receive free or reduced-price lunches, and Aiken estimates as many as 70 percent have experienced some form of trauma in the last two years: violence in their neighborhoods, family troubles, the daily stress of living in poverty.

"We need to make sure what we're doing is not retraumatizing," she says. "I see the principal as the leader in setting the tone and the culture of how school will support students and families."

That starts in the morning, but extends far beyond. Crocker is a "trauma-informed" school, which means all staff are trained on how to work with, and identify, students who have gone through trauma.

It also means they have a focus on structure, so students know what to expect. They also have a social-emotional curriculum, yoga after school and a focus on keeping suspension rates low through restorative justice.

"They aren't going to be prepared for college if they're suffering," Aiken says.

As principal, she tried to prevent crises, rather than addressing them as they come up.

"If you have everyone trained and take an 'it takes a village' approach, you can do a lot of preventative measures to reduce the risk significantly," says Aiken.

But, she adds, a healthy school environment isn't enough.

"Teachers are trained to teach. We have all taken a child psychology class, but we're not trained to work with kids with mental health needs," she says.

That's where other professionals come in.
The First Responders
When a student does show signs of trouble, one of the first steps is to talk with them. That conversation will dictate what happens next, but getting students to open up? It's easier said than done.

School social worker Ana Bonilla-Galdamez is a pro at that. Her office at Charles Barrett Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., is a testament to the different strategies she uses to unleash the gift of gab in even the most guarded of students.

There's a lot going on in there. First, there's her bookshelf, with titles like: Growing Good Kids, The Special Education Treatment Planner, Small Group Counseling.

And then there's everything else. She has a lot of board games: Candyland, Operation and her favorite, Uno. She also has art supplies, balls, a dollhouse and a sand box. A Superman doll sits in her chair, because even Superman has a weakness.

These are her tools. They help students open up, and they also help build the skills those kids will need throughout life, like managing emotions.

Although now at an elementary school, Bonilla-Galdamez spent most of her 20-year career at the high school level, working largely in what she describes as "crisis mode."

"We would think, 'Man, if we just had met this kid before,' " she says. A few years ago, a job opened up in the elementary school and she decided to apply.

"I thought, this is my chance to see where this starts," she says.

Early intervention for the child - and education for the parent - is key, she says. That's where the games in her office and the phone calls home come in.

"My job is to dig," she says, "For me to do that, I need to build the trust of the parent and the child."

She tells the story of the time a young mom came in, worried about her kindergarten son. He had been telling her he wanted to die. In her office, Bonilla-Galdamez let the boy choose whatever game he wanted. As he grew comfortable, she asked him about life at home.

"He had witnessed people being killed," she says. "He had witnessed a lot of violence."

What to do next all depends on what that child needs. That kindergartner might have ended up in a small group, working on coping skills or managing his emotions. But, in this case that wasn't the answer: She had also learned that the young boy had run out into traffic when he was upset.

"The threat was imminent, so I referred him to emergency services," says Bonilla-Galdamez. "Our environment isn't suited to clinical interventions."

At that point, Bonilla-Galdamez continued working with the family, but she also helped them connect to more specialized help, and the kindergartner moved on to the third level for more support.
Clinical Care
At this level, a doctor or therapist may get involved for the first time. Often, school plays a vital role in connecting the student to a clinic.

Vital, but not necessarily easy. When school psychologists Monique Leopold and Danielle Palmer refer students to a mental health clinic, they know that a lot of the time, the appointment never happens.

The two women have a handful of high-quality programs that they rely on for referrals near their schools - a network of public charter schools in the nation's capital called DC Prep. Sometimes though, families can't get an appointment for months. And when they do, with so many living in poverty, getting there is one more complication in already chaotic lives.

"It's not that [those families] don't love their kids, it's that they don't have the capacity," says Palmer.

And even when the students do get professional treatment or medication, sometimes prescriptions lapse before the child could be seen again.

"Triggers are brought from the community into school," says Leopold, "They go to school without what they need."

To try and meet those needs, DC Prep started a partnership with Children's National Health System. Now, a psychiatrist visits the schools once or twice each month.

"I told a family this morning, 'Listen, we have a doctor here,' " Leopold says, "and the mom's eyes lit up."

Lisa Cullins, one of those psychiatrists who visits, says school is a logical place for students to get clinical mental health care.

"At school, they're going to be there anyway. It's something they do everyday," she says. The partnership isn't just easy on families. It's also easier on her.

"To know our patients, we have to know their school setting," she says. "When I walk in, I have a comprehensive packet of information on how the child has been doing since the beginning of the year."

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Here's How Schools Can Support Students' Mental Health

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About one in five children in the United States shows signs of a mental health disorder - anything from ADHD to eating disorders to suicide. And yet, as we've been reporting this month, many schools aren't prepared to work with these students.