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Posts by Paul Costello1

The Kids Are Not OK, But Education Innovations Provide Hope

February 3, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Carol Graham

AFT logo (reads AFT: Education, Healthcare, Public Services)




We have an increasingly divided country, polity, and society. While this strains our family dinners and creates anxiety on the left and right, one of the most notable results is the stark decline in the well-being and mental health of our youth. They are facing deep uncertainties about the future of jobs and labor markets, being able to afford college and the consequences of not having a degree, worsening climate change, declining communities, and toxic civic discourse.1 The youth mental health crisis in large part reflects a decline in hope that has resulted from these trends.

The deterioration in youth mental health first became evident in 2011.2 Today, our young adults ages 18 to 25 are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in many countries worldwide.3 The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints (such as caring for both their children and their aging parents), while both the young and the old exhibit higher life satisfaction and lower stress, anxiety, and depression.4 But now, youth in the United States are faring worse than their stressed-out parents.

Our young are also unhappy compared to the young in many other countries, including those that are far less wealthy than the United States. These include Bulgaria, Ecuador, and Honduras.5 In 2024, US youth ranked 62nd in the world happiness rankings. Even more concerning, they also are experiencing an increase in anxiety, depression, and suicide.6

There is no magic solution for this crisis. Most suggested policies focus on better regulation of social media and increased access to mental health care. While both of these things are important, they will not address the deeper economic, climate, and civil discourse challenges that precipitated the well-being crisis. Social media and misinformation surely exacerbate the trends, but the root causes are deeper and broader.

The costs of not solving this crisis are high, not only for the youth who are suffering during what should be a very happy time in life, but also in terms of future earnings and productivity and our society’s health and life expectancy. In 2021, life expectancy for college-educated adults in the United States (who make up just one-third of our population) was eight and a half years longer than for adults without a bachelor’s degree—more than triple the gap in 1992.7 And today, many of the jobs available to those without a bachelor’s do not offer health insurance.

In addition, we have a more general crisis of “deaths of despair,”8 primarily driven by premature deaths due to suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol and other poisonings. Initially, these deaths were concentrated among middle-aged, blue-collar white people in communities suffering from declines in manufacturing, mining, and related industries; these industries typically anchored their communities, often serving as the main source of employment and supporting related civic organizations and local resources such as grocery stores, restaurants, and newspapers. Now, these deaths are spreading to a wider range of races and age groups, including Black people—who have long displayed resilience in the face of injustice and hardship— and teenagers. This crisis is of such magnitude that it has steadily driven down our national average life expectancy since 2015, with overdose deaths alone surpassing 100,000 per year in 2021 and 2022.9 The increasing participation of the young in these patterns suggests that our crisis of despair is becoming an intergenerational one.

The prospect of intergenerational transmission is disturbing, and there are signs of it throughout research my colleagues and I have conducted in low-income communities. For example, a survey of white youth in Missouri found that they have finished or want to finish high school and, at most, perhaps an additional year of technical education—but their parents do not support them in achieving higher levels of education. This reflects, among other things, a decline in the American narrative of individual effort being the key to success for the white working class.10 There is no longer a stable work-life narrative for those who do not acquire higher education or technical skills. This is especially concerning because the factors that underpin despair can make people more susceptible to extremist ideologies and create entire geographies that are prone to radicalization and violence. Poverty, unemployment, income inequality, and low education levels are all relevant factors in radicalization, extremism, and mass shootings.11

Restoring Hope

An important and underreported solution to the crisis lies in restoring hope. While hope resembles optimism—as individuals believe things will get better—an equally important part of hope (and not optimism) is that individuals can do things that improve their lives and thereby demonstrate agency over their futures. Helping the young form a vision of what their futures can look like will help them have hope and aspirations. This is crucial because, as my research has found, there are strong linkages between hope and long-term outcomes in education, health, and mental well-being, with hope more important to the outcomes of youth with limited access to education and mentorship.12

Psychiatrists often cite restoring hope as the first step to recovering from mental illness but offer very few prescriptions for doing so.13 A classic definition of hope—which entails aspirations, agency, and pathways to achieve goals—provides a good frame for thinking about how to restore hope, but lacks examples relevant to today’s youth.14 Yet today an increasing number of new programs aim to provide students with the agency and pathways to acquire the education they need to lead healthy and productive futures. One potential policy innovation that most people can agree on and that will help restore hope among the young is the development of new models of education that focus on the mix of technological and social-emotional skills students need to succeed in tomorrow’s labor force.

Education Innovations

Educational innovations are taking root across the country that focus on middle and high school students and on helping students who want a college education to achieve it. Community colleges and career and technical education (CTE) programs stand out, as they often bridge the gaps between the skills kids learn in high school and those that are needed to succeed in college and the workplace. CTE in particular provides a productive longer-term track for those who do not want or cannot afford to pursue a college education.

Starting as early as middle school, some programs focus on the social-emotional skills that students will need to succeed in rapidly changing labor markets, such as creativity, adaptability, and self-esteem, in addition to traditional technical skills. The #BeeWell program in Greater Manchester, a large county in the deindustrialized northeast of England, introduces these skills as an integral part of its student engagement process in over 160 schools.15 It includes strategies to combat loneliness, which is increasing among the young in both the United States and the United Kingdom and is often a precursor to depression.16 The program relies on the cooperation of families and communities and uses inputs from large-scale surveys of students. Surveys over three years showed modest improvements in student well-being, and demand for the program is increasing in and beyond Greater Manchester.17

Youthful Savings is a high school program founded in the United States that targets low-income students. The curriculum addresses basic economic principles, financial literacy, ethical entrepreneurship practices, and protecting mental well-being. Students who participate in the program tend to go on to a vocational school or four-year college. A key feature of the program, according to the four program leaders and participants I interviewed in June of 2024, is the active mentorship that the program leadership provides—that mentorship was a critical factor in the students’ decisions to go on to some form of post–high school education.18

Across the country, CTE programs are playing an increasingly important role in helping youth develop pathways to good jobs—and therefore restoring hope. In Massachusetts, for example, supporting CTE is a statewide initiative based on creating pathways to successful careers by fostering STEM skills for students of all income levels and backgrounds. Some of the programs are based in high schools and require that students spend part of their training time in local organizations, such as local engineering and building firms, among others. The state has also implemented higher reimbursement rates for high school building projects incorporating CTE programs. These efforts are aimed at modernizing and enhancing vocational and technical education opportunities for students throughout the state.19 And an innovative CTE program in Cleveland has high school students taking classes and engaged in workplace learning in a hospital as they explore healthcare careers—they can even graduate high school with state-tested nurse aide credentials.20 Similar high school–hospital partnerships are now expanding thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies.21

Community colleges are also playing a critical role in helping low-income youth find fulfilling education and work opportunities. Macomb Community College (MCC), outside Detroit, has pioneered a model that allows students to take courses from participating state universities and complete four-year degrees while remaining on the community college campus. This avoids the expenses and time constraints introduced by moving and/or long commutes and is particularly important for older students who often must balance work and family obligations. Each student who comes to MCC is partnered with a mentor who advises them on their academic progress and steers them to mental health resources when needed. Approximately 65 percent of students who attend MCC complete four-year degrees, either on the campus or at state schools.22

Another aspect of the MCC model is the James Jacobs Legacy Series, which sponsors civic engagement activities and periodic lectures for the students and the community. Macomb County is diverse, with retired auto workers, a longstanding but traditionally discriminated against African American community, and new immigrants. The Legacy Series aims to increase civic engagement across the three populations and to expose students to new connections and networks that enhance their chances of living and working in Macomb post-graduation.

A related initiative inspired in part by the MCC model is underway at Lorain County Community College in Ohio. The college collaborates with employers and other regional partners to provide targeted curricula and paid internships, with the objective of setting up every student for success. Some programs at Lorain, such as one in microelectromechanical systems, have a 100 percent success rate in placing graduates in full-time jobs. This is because internships in local firms are a mandatory part of its curriculum, and that curriculum is frequently updated with employer input. The internships provide students with both hands-on experience and focused mentorship.23

On the demand side of the story, efforts to renovate regional economies and communities in the parts of the country that have suffered the most from the decline of manufacturing industries and employment largely hinge on having local colleges and universities. Higher education institutions provide not only relevant training for the labor force, but also the threshold of knowledge and civic engagement that is necessary for communities and small cities to attract and retain new industries and their workforces.24

Mentors and Mental Health

As noted above, a critical part of the success of efforts to restore hope and give youth new opportunities is the provision of mentorship. Mentors not only guide young adults in their goals of skill acquisition but also provide advice on how to deal with mental health and other issues that often arise during the transition from youth to adulthood. While stress and anxiety are not new for high school– and college-age youth, as the rising number of serious incidents shows, they have been severely exacerbated by the above-noted uncertainties about the future of job openings, education, climate change, political divisions, community declines, and even the nature of information itself. While these trends affect many of us, they are particularly challenging for young people trying to make decisions about how to aspire to and invest in better futures.

Insufficient access to mental health care is also a central issue, especially in the roughly 80 percent of rural counties that do not have a single psychiatrist.25 The role of peers and mentors is invaluable to encourage those who need it to seek necessary treatment. Peers can also help available—and new—providers identify vulnerable people and populations, as does the Visible Hands Collaborative in the environs of Pittsburgh and beyond.26 This is particularly important for young men; while they often are more reluctant than young women to seek out mental health care because of the continued stigma attached to it, they are showing increasing signs of distress, such as low college completion rates and high levels of labor force dropout.27

Given that most mental health conditions emerge during school years, efforts to expand detection and early intervention in schools are promising. Efforts in Massachusetts and Texas that focused on urgent access have shown potential for rapid scaling.28 And several organizations are collaborating to establish a new “theory of change” in this area by involving trusted community members—ranging from hairdressers to school teachers—to assess the risk of mental health disorders in communities.29 It is worth a note of caution, though, that projects that seek scale and widespread coverage at low cost are more effective at treating the average case than dealing with complex or more serious mental health issues. That said, given that mental health is increasingly considered a societal challenge on a much larger scale than in the past (and certainly than before the COVID-19 pandemic), it is worth exploring strategies that can reach more people—particularly those who previously have not had access—in new ways. This could help catch the problem in its early stages rather than wait until more extensive and medically intense treatment is necessary.

Providing youth with the skills and support they need to navigate the uncertainties in the economic, social, and other facets of their lives is an important step forward in addressing the crisis of youth mental health. By helping young people facing decisive junctures in their lives gain agency, skills, and connections through education, the initiatives described above show that restoring hope and taking on mental health issues during these very uncertain times is indeed possible.

Even though these programs—and others nationwide—are gaining momentum, we must generate a broad base of public support for them so that they do not operate in silos or only in “supportive” states and counties. This will require broad consensus and the cooperation of both public and private sectors. Without it, we are unlikely to make progress on solving the crisis that threatens the future of our country’s young and their ability to even conceive of pursuing the American dream. Especially now, in the early days of understanding how our political, economic, and social divisions are impacting our youth, we must have hope. Our shared concerns for our children and our country give us common ground—that alone gives me hope that we can resolve our differences enough to reimagine the opportunities we offer our youth.


https://www.aft.org/ae/winter2024-2025/graham

Carol Graham is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at Brookings, a College Park Professor at the University of Maryland, and a senior scientist at Gallup. She received Pioneer Awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017 and 2021 and a Lifetime Distinguished Scholar award from the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies in 2018. The author of numerous articles and books, her most recent book is The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair.

Endnotes

1. C. Graham, “Our Twin Crises of Despair and Misinformation,” Brookings, July 22, 2024, brookings.edu/articles/our-twin-crises-of-despair-and-misinformation; and C. Graham, A. Liu, and I. O’Malley, “The Local Ingredients That Fuel Misinformation,” Bloomberg CityLab, April 15, 2024, bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-15/why-some-us-counties-are-more-vulnerable-to-misinformation-despair.

2. D. Blanchflower, A. Bryson, and X. Xu, “The Declining Mental Health of the Young and the Global Disappearance of the Hump Shape in Age in Unhappiness,” NBER Working Paper No. 32337, National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2024, nber.org/papers/w32337.

3. C. Graham, “The Kids Are Not OK—What Can We Do About It?,” Brookings, August 15, 2024, brookings.edu/articles/the-kids-are-not-ok-what-can-we-do-about-it.

4. D. Blanchflower and C. Graham, “The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: A Critique,” Social Indicators Research 161 (October 2022): 287–344.

5. J. Helliwell et al., World Happiness Report 2024 (Oxford, UK: Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, 2024), worldhappiness.report/ed/2024.

6. D. Stone, K. Mack, and J. Qualters, “Notes from the Field: Recent Changes in Suicide Rates, by Race and Ethnicity and Age Group—United States, 2021,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 72, no. 6 (February 10, 2023): 160–62); and A. Xiang et al., “Depression and Anxiety Among US Children and Young Adults,” JAMA Network Open 7, no. 10 (2024): e2436906.

7. A. Case and A. Deaton, “Accounting for the Widening Mortality Gap Between American Adults With and Without a BA,” Brookings, September 27, 2023, brookings.edu/articles/accounting-for-the-widening-mortality-gap-between-american-adults-with-and-without-a-ba.

8. A. Case and A. Deaton, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020).

9. S. Woolf, “Increasing Mortality Rates in the US, but Not from COVID-19,” JAMA 332, no. 12 (2024): 959–60; and National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures,” August 2024, nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig1.

10. C. Graham, The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023).

11. J. Piazza, “The Determinants of Domestic Right-Wing Terrorism in the USA: Economic Grievance, Societal Change and Political Resentment,” Conflict Management and Peace Science 34, no. 1 (2017): 52–80; and R. Medina et al., “Geographies of Organized Hate in America: A Regional Analysis,” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 108, no. 4 (2018).

12. Graham, The Power of Hope; and C. Graham, “Hope and Despair: Implications for Life Outcomes and Policy,” Behavioral Science and Policy 9, no. 2 (January 10, 2024): 47–52.

13. B. Schrank et al., “Hope in Psychiatry,” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 17, no. 3 (2011): 227–35.

14. C. Snyder, ed., The Handbook of Hope: Theory, Measures, and Applications (North Holland: Elsevier Science and Technology, 2000).

15. #BeeWell, “What Is #BeeWell?,” beewellprogramme.org.

16. V. Murthy, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023), hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf.

17. #BeeWell, #BeeWell Greater Manchester Headline Findings: Autumn 2023 Survey Results (Manchester, UK: March 2024), beewellprogramme.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BeeWell-GM-Headline-Findings-202324.pdf; and #BeeWell, #BeeWell Evaluation & Learning Report (Manchester, UK: October 2024), beewellprogramme.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/BeeWell-Final-Evaluation-Report-251024.docx.

18. Youthful Savings, “Making Change Through Socioeconomic Empowerment,” youthfulsavings.com.

19. M. Sousa, “The Shaping of CTE in Massachusetts and Beyond,” American Educator 48, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 31–36.

20. P. Hummer, “Creating a Healthy Community: How a High School in a Hospital Launches Careers and Enhances Well-Being,” American Educator 48, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 26–30.

21. R. Weingarten, “Where We Stand: Transforming Education,” American Educator 48, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 1; and V. Myers, “Public-Private Partnership Fuels New Career Academy,” AFT, June 11, 2024, aft.org/news/public-private-partnership-fuels-new-career-academy.

22. Community College Research Center, Building Transfer Student Success at Macomb Community College: A Report on Transfer and Degree Completion (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, October 2017), ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/building-transfer-student-success-macomb-community-college-report-transfer-degree-completion.pdf.

23. I. Wilhelm, “Multimedia Case Study: From College to Career,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 31, 2024, chronicle.com/featured/student-success/multimedia-case-study-from-college-to-career.

24. R. Maxim and M. Muro, “Supporting Distressed Communities by Strengthening Regional Public Universities: A Federal Policy Proposal,” Brookings,July 29, 2021; and R. Florida, Cities and the Creative Class (New York: Routledge, 2005).

25. J. Resneck, “Lack of Access to Evidence-Based Mental Health Care Poses Grave Threat,” American Medical Association, November 3, 2022, ama-assn.org/about/leadership/lack-access-evidence-based-mental-health-care-poses-grave-threat.

26. Visible Hands Collaborative, “Community Heals,” visiblehandscollaborative.org; and PublicSource, “3 Pittsburgh Organizations Working to Increase Access to Mental Health Services,” NEXTpittsburgh, July 8, 2021, nextpittsburgh.com/features/3-pittsburgh-organizations-working-to-increase-access-to-mental-health-services.

27. C. Graham and S. Pinto, “The Geography of Desperation in America: Labor Force Participation, Mobility, Place, and Well-Being,” Social Science and Medicine 270 (2021): 113612.

28. R. Kessler et al., “Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication,” Archives of General Psychiatry 62, no. 6 (2005): 593–602; Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Mental and Behavioral Health Roadmap and Toolkit for Schools (Dallas: November 1, 2018), mmhpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RoadmapAndToolkitForSchools.pdf; D. Mauch and E. Ressa, Report on Pediatric Behavioral Health Urgent Care (Boston: Children’s Mental Health Campaign, January 2019), childrensmentalhealthcampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/Pediatric-Behavioral-Health-Urgent-Care-2nd-Ed._0.pdf; and Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, “Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT),” University of Texas System, tcmhcc.utsystem.edu/tchatt.

29. To learn more, see Well Being Trust, “Native American Mental Health Resources,” wellbeingtrust.org.

[Illustrations by Taylor Callery]American Educator, Winter 2024-2025

Hopeful students are more successful in school, and educators can employ strategies to boost hopefulness in their students.

February 3, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Making hope happen in the classroom 

By Shane J. Lopez | Oct 1, 2013 | Feature Article  Education HealthCare Public Services 

Making hope happen in the classroom 

My son and I do lots of nexting on our morning walks to his elementary school. We talk about his next big project at school, his next basketball game, the next movie we’ll watch. Nexting thinking and talking about a desired future comes naturally to kids. I have never met a child who couldn’t do it. 

If all children are capable of nexting, which requires thinking about the future in a fairly complex way, then why are only half of American children hopeful, according to the Gallup Student Poll? Why does only one of every two children believe their future will be better than their present and believe that they have the power to make that future a reality? 

We can answer these questions by focusing on the harsh realities of our modern world that we can do little about. Or, we can exercise our own hope as educators to teach children how to hope. That starts with a common understanding of what hope is and is not, why it is important, and how it works.  

Hopeful thinking combines future thinking with a sense of agency or efficacy. 

Three myths about future thinking 

Hopeful thinking combines future thinking with a sense of agency or efficacy. While most teachers know the value of building personal efficacy, future thinking’s role in student learning and development is not well understood. This may be due to our assumptions about daydreaming, motivation, and hope itself.  

Daydreaming is bad for students.

Thinking about the future is something children do naturally. When their minds wander they might reflect on the past or examine the present, but most of the time they’re daydreaming about the future. 

While teachers may interpret students’ dreamy gazes as off-task behavior, they may be considering something inspired by the teacher, a peer’s comment about a lesson, or a deep thought about how what they just learned in class relates to some other knowledge.  

Daydreaming gives a child a chance to take a future for a test drive. It is where imagination sparks creativity and where plans and designs for the future are developed. 

All goals are created equal.

Through daydreaming, students entertain aims beyond school. With the help of others, students begin to sort through the images of the future, or goals, and decide where they want to devote their time and energy.  

Not all goals are created equal. The most motivating student goals are the ones they own and find personally meaningful. What’s salient to young people are the same goals that captivate most adults. Specifically, they want a good job. The image of having a good job pulls people through the years required to finish high school and undergraduate education. And they want that good job to provide security for the second outcome they’re pursuing: a happy family. Although ideas about what a happy family looks like differ vastly from person to person, all covet an image of a group of people coexisting and helping one another in daily life. These goals — the good job and happy family — help young people overcome the rigors of high school and college. These expectations, the foundations of a good life, are what draw students forward. Their goals motivate them. 

Wishing is the same as hoping.

Future thinking that is rich with imagery is a core ingredient of both hoping and wishing. If a child is thinking about a desirable outcome, she may be hopeful. Then again, she may be just wishing.  

Both future visions are immediately self-reinforcing — priming the pleasure pump with thoughts about accomplishment and celebration. Both can also help individuals relax and buffer themselves against stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions.  

The difference is that hopes are sustainable; wishes are not. Wishes are mental fast food. They are mind candy that satisfies for the moment, but do nothing to nourish us for the long haul. Distinguishing a wish from a hope is not always easy. The telltale sign of a wish is that its benefits are fleeting. Wishing is future thinking that sparks no action. Only hope starts an individual thinking about ways to make life better and gets them moving.  

Why hope is important

More than 50 studies have examined the role of hope in predicting the performance of elementary, middle school, high school, and college students. In each, hope predicted test scores and term GPA. In many studies, hope was a significant predictor of student success even when controlling for previous grades, intelligence, and other psychological variables (like engagement, optimism, and self-efficacy). The takeaway from all the studies is that, other conditions being equal, hope leads to a 12% bump in school outcomes. 

While a great deal of research has been done with K-12 students, the most compelling evidence for the added value of hope comes from four longitudinal studies of college students. These long-term studies give us the opportunity to assess how the passage of time influences the link between hope and academic success. 


https://kappanonline.org/making-hope-happen-classroom-lopez/

The power of Hope

February 3, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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THE POWER OF HOPE | Dare To Believe - Inspirational & Motivational Video - YouTube
Making hope happen in the classroom 

By Shane J. Lopez | Oct 1, 2013 | Feature Article
  Education HealthCare Public Services 

Having hope leads to a 12% bump in school outcomes. 

For the longitudinal studies, researchers recruited first-semester college students to complete a standardized measure of hope along with other scales, and requested access to their personal school records for some years to come. Researchers then unobtrusively followed the students by examining academic records each term or so. Statistical models were used to determine the relationship between hope and outcomes such as GPA, ongoing enrollment, and graduation. Each study controlled for the other determinants of school success, such as GPA at previous academic levels and entrance exam scores. The main finding is clear: How students think about the future predicts benchmarks of academic progress and success, including how many courses they enroll in, how many credits they earn, their GPA across those courses, their cumulative GPA, and the likelihood that they’ll graduate. Of note, one study showed that low-hope students are three times more likely to be dismissed from school for poor grades. Another study, which pitted hope against ACT scores, found that hope is a better predictor of ongoing enrollment and graduation than this standardized entrance exam.  

Three things hopeful students do differently 

Drawing upon my research and findings from studies around the world, I found that hopeful students have at least three characteristics that make them more successful than other students. 

Hopeful students are excited about the future. 

Children need something to hope for. They need to be excited about one thing in the future . . . then another, then another. That one thing can be big or small, novel or run-of-the-mill, close at hand or far in the future — as long as it teaches them to look forward with positive expectation. The content hardly matters (a weekly visit to the park, a family trip, a sporting event, a school dance) as long as thoughts about it are energizing to the young person.  

Hopeful students create and sustain enthusiasm about their future lives. They talk with excitement about their future selves. With vivid descriptions of the goals they want to accomplish as they grow older, they become better at marshaling and aiming their resources so they can make progress. They become more animated and this display of positive emotions attracts attention and support from people who can help them along the way. 

Hopeful students go to school.

Absenteeism is one of the biggest problems facing American schools. Researchers refer to missing lots of school as a canary in the coal mine, an early indicator that students will struggle academically and possibly drop out. The data show that by 3rd grade, children who missed too much of kindergarten and 1st grade are falling behind in reading. By 6th grade, chronic absence increases the likelihood that students will drop out of high school.  

Unexcused absences spike when students enter high school, have more freedom, and start to make up their own minds about the value of school in general and of certain subjects in particular. Mike Wortman, the longtime principal of Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Neb., confirmed that missing school in the freshman year is one of his best predictors that a student will drop out. That’s why my Gallup colleagues and I took a close look at the school-going behavior of a large group of Principal Wortman’s freshmen. We measured the hope of students as they entered 9th grade then we followed them, collecting attendance data periodically. Students with high hope missed only two days of school during their first school term; low-hope students missed more than twice as many.  

Hopeful students are engaged at school.

When students are engaged at school, they are psychologically invested in what is happening around them. They are active participants in the learning process, eager to gain and apply new knowledge and skills. 

Most hopeful students are engaged at school. According to the Gallup Student Poll, nearly three of four students who are hopeful about the future are also involved in and enthusiastic about school. These two student states, hope and engagement, seem to work together to help students achieve daily and long-term goals. 

How hope works 

Hope is not simply an attitude or belief that benefits us in some mysterious way. Hope can lift our spirits, buoy our energy, and make life seem worth living. But it also changes our day-to-day behavior. How we think about the future has a direct influence on what we do today. This is nicely illustrated in a psychology experiment designed by two educational researchers, Mesmin Destin and Daphna Oyserman, who examined the link between students’ future thinking and their behavioral choices.  

To prime two groups of 7th-grade science students in Detroit — 295 students in all — to think about the future, the researchers sent a counselor (actually a research assistant pretending to be an academic recruiter) from the University of Michigan to the middle school to talk about college and careers. He spoke to two groups (to which classes of students were assigned randomly) and presented a slide show about the university, the campus, and college majors. The second part of the talk featured real-world data about adult earnings. One group saw a graph describing the step-wise increase in salary by level of education in Michigan. The second group saw a graph summarizing the earnings of actors, athletes, and musicians on the 2008 Forbes Celebrity 100 list.  

Once the classroom presentations were over, the science teachers (who had not attended and hence were considered “blind” to the experiment) gave students an extra-credit homework assignment related to information covered in their regular science class.  

The students in the first group, who were shown an explicit link between education and income, were nearly eight times more likely than the second group to complete and turn in the optional assignment the next day. Eight times. It’s as if they suddenly saw education as a real path to the good future they wanted. Knowing the way to a solid job that paid $50,000 a year gave these 12- and 13-year-olds more energy and guidance for current effort than all the fantasy fortunes of Jay-Z, LeBron James, and other icons they followed on TV.  

When students see a direct connection between the future they want and their attitudes and behaviors today, their commitment and effort soar. 

Talking with Destin helped me realize that there is a distinction between thinking that you’re college-bound (an idea that we now drum into kids) and realizing that your success in life depends on how well you do in school today. When students see a direct connection between the future they want and their attitudes and behaviors today, their commitment and effort soar. They psychologically invest in the future, and it pays off today. That is the how of hope. 

Three ways to make hope happen 

In Making Hope Happen, I describe dozens of strategies designed to enhance hope. Here are three practical ways to help students discover and shape their future selves. 

Ask students to work on goals that really matter to them. 

Have you ever washed a rental car? Most people say that they have never done so and would never do so. Why? They don’t own the car, so they don’t feel responsible for it. 

Most students don’t give their all on assignments they don’t own or find meaningful. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since we, the adults, don’t like it when someone assigns us a task, either. No middle school student wakes up squealing with glee, “I get to raise the school district’s reading scores today!” No college student in America jumps out of bed and says, “Today, I will do my part to raise the graduation rate at my school!” They don’t care about institutional goals. They’re excited about personal goals that create a promising future for themselves. Educators’ work is to do all they can to make sure that the present prepares them for it.  

Goals that are clearly linked to one day having a good job or a happy family inspire students to do their best. Knowing students well enough to know their visions of their future selves is required to sufficiently motivate them. 

Teach students “where there’s a way, there’s will.” 

Students generally are confident and think “I can do anything!” According to a 2003 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American kids are No. 1 in the world in confidence. For the most part, students have adequate will and say they are determined to put in the hard work to pursue a future they’re excited about.  

The big problem is that they lack the ways or necessary strategies to reach the big goals such as graduation and employment. According to the Gallup Student Poll, more than 90% strongly believe they would graduate from high school, but only 60% of them strongly believe they could come up with many ways to get good grades. Nearly half of American students strongly believe they would find a good job after graduation, but only a third of them strongly believe they could find ways around any problem that might arise in life.  

My all-time favorite way to teach the ways of hope is to do it on the sly before people realize I’m working hard to get them to think more strategically about the future. I use the Hope Camera Project, which was originally developed for use in a children’s hospital and then adapted for use in a school-based hope program. A description of a recent application of the Hope Camera Project illustrates how a project-based assignment can teach ways of hope. 

School counselor Jennifer Magnuson-Stessman gave her 5th and 6th graders, 36 in all, disposable cameras and a week to document hope in their lives. She enticed them into action by promising to display their work at a community art show for their friends, family, educators, and other community members.  

Magnuson-Stessman kicked off the project by laying out the steps that would lead the students to a fun and rewarding night at the art opening. First, each student captured images of hope in their daily lives in 28 photos. In consultation with Magnuson-Stessman, they picked one photo that best represented hope to them. Next, they wrote a brief essay, to be edited and reedited with her to tell their story. Finally, the students printed the photos, cropped them, matted and framed them, hung them along with their essay, then rehearsed for the art show. 

Magnuson-Stessman walked each student through each step. She nudged them to think about multiple ways to make the progress they wanted. Then one night in April 2011, hope was on display during the art show in the school gym. My wife, Alli, and I attended the unveiling with about 100 school officials, students, and family members who sampled apple juice in wine glasses with fresh strawberries and cubed cheese. As Alli and I viewed the photos, read the essays, and chatted with students, we realized that some of them had considered their project to be a harbinger of hope over the course of the past winter and spring. Family strife struck most, academic struggles slowed down many, and health problems plagued several students or their siblings. No matter what students were grappling with, they had “the project.” We were impressed by their ability to figure out how to get things done and experienced a palpable sense of hope that night — a feeling that I remember fondly today. 

The Hope Camera Project is just one way we can teach people how to match their will with their ways. Once students learn how to think flexibly and create alternative strategies to reach their goals, they can use this skill for a lifetime. 

Show students how to set action triggers.

A when/where plan uses the power of cues to prompt us to work on the long-term projects that matter most to us. A good when/where plan keeps us on track, guards us against our tendency to procrastinate, and prevents us from getting overwhelmed by competing demands.  

New York University psychology professor Peter Gollwitzer has developed this strategy through a series of research studies, most notably through two I’ll call the Christmas Studies. In Christmas Study #1, college students were asked before Christmas break to name two projects, one easy and one hard, that they intended to complete during their time off. Typical goals included writing papers, mending relationships with friends, and exercising. About two-thirds of them, with no encouragement, formed plans about when and where to get started on the project. Upon returning from Christmas vacation, participants were asked about project completion. Most of the easy projects were completed regardless of whether the student had made a when/where plan. But hard projects were a different story. Only 25% of students who did not develop when/where plans in advance completed their hard projects.  

In Christmas Study #2, all participants were given the same project: They were to write a report on how they spent Christmas Eve and submit it within two days of returning from the holiday. Individuals were then randomly assigned to two groups. One group was asked to create when/where plans for writing the essay; the other was not. Seventy-five percent of the group who had visited the future to specify the time and place for writing the report submitted it on time; only 33% of those without a plan completed the project. 

Making a when/where plan is a straightforward process. Each time, give a student an assignment or set a goal, help them choose the day and time they’ll start working on it, and the place where they’ll work.  

Spreading hope to students 

Most students can go from nexting to hope with a little help from teachers and other caregivers. Not only can we teach them how to hope, but we also can inspire it in them. That’s because hope is contagious. It can be spread from one person to another. In a classroom setting, all that is required to create a contagion is a teacher being at the height of hope. 

Citation: Lopez, S.J. (2013). Making hope happen in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (2), 19-22. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shane J. Lopez

SHANE J. LOPEZ is a senior scientist at Gallup, Omaha, Neb. Portions of this article were adapted from his new book, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others . Learn more at makinghopehappenow.com. 

February 26, 2024

Making hope happen in the classroom 

Maryland students make limited progress on ‘Nation’s Report Card’

January 30, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Baltimore City students showed significant gains, though scores remain low

Maryland public schools remain stubbornly middle-of-the-pack on a national test, even as achievement inches upward.

The state’s fourth graders performed better than two years ago on reading and math, according to scores released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress,a test required by Congress to be given every two years to a random sample of students in every state. There were also some hopeful signs in Baltimore, which saw significant gains in fourth grade math.

Maryland’s national ranking on the test rose in fourth grade reading from 40th to 20th, a highlight of the otherwise modest changes in the rankings, according to state school board president Josh Michael, who is also executive director of the Sherman Family Foundation, a financial supporter of The Banner.

“Where we have focused the most, we have seen the most progress in state rankings,” he said, adding that elementary students are making greater gains than eighth graders. “The investments in public education through the Blueprint are beginning to pay off.”

Despite that progress, the state’s scores mirror national trends showing student achievement declining in the past decade, wiping away the educational gains that were made in the early 2000s. The declines began in about 2015 and 2017, long before the pandemic.

Across the nation, “the news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the test, called the Nation’s Report Card. “We’re not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic, and where we are seeing signs of recovery, they’re mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students.

The most discouraging news for Maryland came in the state’s eighth grade scores. Only a quarter of the state’s eighth graders can pass the math test, and Maryland’s scores were lower than 27 other states.

In fourth grade, on the other hand, the state saw improvement. Thirty-seven percent passed the math test, up six percentage points. Maryland officials on Tuesday unveiled a plan to overhaul how the subject is taught in hopes of boosting achievement.

Hidden in the data, Carr said, is that the lowest-performing students in the country appear to be losing ground in reading. That does not appear to be the case in Maryland where the percentage of lowest-performing students remains constant.

The reasons for the stagnation are unclear, but Carr noted that surveys of students taken at the time of the tests show that they are not spending as much time reading for pleasure, that more reading is migrating to screens rather than paper, and that the lowest-performing students are those who are missing the most school. Her advice to parents: Send your children to school.

During the pandemic, chronic absences increased dramatically, although those numbers have been coming back to more normal levels, particularly in Baltimore.

City students nearly matched the statewide gains. Baltimore fourth graders’ scores rose by five percentage points to 12%, though the math scores are still some of the lowest in the country. City students performed better in eighth grade math than those in Detroit and about the same as those in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, but behind dozens of other cities.

City schools officials said their investments in improving the curriculum and teaching materials have played a role in increasing scores, but so has training for teachers, and the addition of school-based coaches for math teachers. The city also held evenings when families could learn how to teach math to their children.

The city’s scores showed particularly large increases for economically disadvantaged students, who increased their fourth grade math scores by 10 percentage points, and African American students, who increased scores by 8 percentage points.

Maryland embarked on a goal of turning around scores on the national test as it launched its major investment in education spending several years ago. The state is expected to spend about $4 billion more per year on education by 2029. State education leaders said they wanted to return the state to being known as having the best public schools in the nation.

The scores released Wednesday show only modest increases in math.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/maryland-students-increase-scores-slightly-on-national-test-but-state-remains-in-middle-of-the-pack-CVNYL3PEENC63C42IES37KD2O4/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=760555cbb8-NL_EDHB_20250130_1145&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fed75856d2-760555cbb8-592168624&mc_cid=760555cbb8&mc_eid=fe12c291d2

US children fall further behind in reading, make little improvement in math on national exam

January 29, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card.

The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have upended education, from pandemic school closures to a youth mental health crisis and high rates of chronic absenteeism. The national exam results also show growing inequality: While the highest-performing students have started to regain lost ground, lower-performing students are falling further behind.

Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. The most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading.

“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”

Among the few bright spots was an improvement in fourth grade math, where the average score ticked up 2 points on a scale of 500. It’s still 3 points lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic average, yet some states and districts made significant strides, including in Washington, D.C., where the average score increased 10 points.

For the most part, however, American schools have not yet begun to make progress.

Growing numbers of students lack basic reading skills

The average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell 2 points at both grade levels. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment.

Students are considered below basic if they are missing fundamental skills. For example, eighth grade students who scored below basic in reading were typically unable to make a simple inference about a character’s motivation after reading a short story, and some were unable to identify that the word “industrious” means “to be hard working.”

Especially alarming to officials was the divide between higher- and lower-performing students, which has grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed their peers from two years ago, making up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower, falling further behind.

It was most pronounced in eighth grade math: While the top 10% of students saw their scores increased by 3 points, the lowest 10% decreased by 6 points.

“We are deeply concerned about our low-performing students,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the exam. “For a decade, these students have been on the decline. They need our urgent attention and our best effort.”

The drop in scores continues a post-pandemic slide

The latest setbacks follow a historic backslide in 2022. In that year’s exam, student achievement fell across both subjects and grade levels, in some cases by unprecedented levels.

This round of testing again featured students whose lives were disrupted by the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2020, the fourth graders were in kindergarten, and the eighth graders were in fourth grade.

But Carr said poor results can no longer be blamed solely on the pandemic, warning that the nation’s education system faces “complex challenges.”

A survey done alongside the exam found in 2022 that fewer young students were reading for enjoyment, which is linked to lower reading scores. And new survey results found that students who are often absent from class — a persistent problem nationwide — are struggling the most.

“The data are clear,” Carr said. “Students who don’t come to school are not improving.”

The results provide fresh fuel for a national debate over the impact of pandemic school closures, though they’re unlikely to add clarity. Some studies have found that longer closures led to bigger academic setbacks. Those slower to reopen were often in urban and Democratic-led areas, while more rural and Republican-led areas were quicker.

The new results don’t show a “direct link” on the topic, Carr said, though she said students clearly do better when they’re in school.

Among the states that saw reading scores fall in 2024 are Florida and Arizona, which were among the first to return to the classroom during the pandemic. Meanwhile, some big school systems that had longer closures made strides in fourth grade math, including Los Angeles and New York City.

The success of big urban districts — 14 of which saw notable improvement in fourth-grade math when the nation as a whole saw only minor gains — can be credited to academic recovery efforts funded by federal pandemic relief, said Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. Investing in efforts like intensive tutoring programs and curriculum updates is “really proving to make a difference,” he said.

Republican lawmakers cast blame on Biden administration

The U.S. Education Department said the results are “heartbreaking” and reflect an education system that is failing students despite billions of dollars in annual funding and more than $190 billion in federal pandemic relief.

“The Trump Administration is committed to reorienting our education system to fully empower states, to prioritize meaningful learning, and provide universal access to high-quality instruction,” the department said in a statement. “Change must happen, and it must happen now.”

Republicans in Congress were quick to cast blame on former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the decline is “clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow.”

“I’m thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course,” he said in a reference to President Donald Trump.

Compared with 2019 results, eighth grade reading scores are now down 8 points. Reading scores are down 5 points in both grades. And in fourth grade math, scores are down 3 points.

Yet officials say there’s reason to be optimistic. Carr highlighted improvement in Louisiana, where fourth grade reading is now back above pre-pandemic levels, and in Alabama, which accomplished that feat in fourth grade math.

Carr was especially laudatory of Louisiana, where a campaign to improve reading proficiency resulted in both higher- and lower-performing students exceeding 2019 scores.

She drew attention to the state’s focus on the science of reading — a research-backed approach that focuses on teaching phonics, or the building blocks of words, as children build toward literacy. The concept has been embraced by a growing number of blue and red states and has been credited for gains in some states.

“I would not say that hope is lost, and I would not say that we cannot turn this around,” Carr said. “It’s been demonstrated that we can.”

Annie Ma contributed reporting from Washington, and Sharon Lurye contributed from New Orleans.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-children-fall-further-behind-050231543.html

___

Wellbeing

January 29, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Wellbeing Resources – JCSP Libraries

In the zeitgeist of the twenty-first century, “wellbeing” occupies a special place. It is an ideal of personal and communal living, as well as a concept to help us move beyond the tired old categories of progress — such as money, fame, and the gross national product.

But despite the noble sentiment around redefining our perception of wellbeing, what exactly it is and how we should measure it remains elusive, and certainly not for lack of effort. The last thirty years have seen a huge rise of investigations into wellbeing in the social sciences and humanities. This academic work has been institutionalized, with new journals, professional societies, and research centers. It is now making successful inroads into the worlds of public policy, commercial self-help, and HR management.

But has this latest wave of effort been a success?

A new research paper on The Science of Wellbeing, co-authored by philosopher Anna Alexandrova and public policy scholar Mark Fabian, dives deep into this question. Alexandrova and Fabian first discuss the state of wellbeing research across key disciplines before turning to look at current and emerging trends – including measurement, impact of wellbeing public policy, and integration of wellbeing theories and perspectives. 

The State of Wellbeing Research

The paper begins by discussing how we characterize the term “wellbeing” and then presents major achievements across research in philosophy, economics, and psychology. Wellbeing is a capacious umbrella term that gets filled in differently in different disciplines and even in different projects within the same discipline. Such vagueness and diversity is to be expected and no existing attempts to standardize its usage have so far succeeded. In any case, defining wellbeing requires making a value judgment about what is “good for” somebody, and variations in discipline or context can alter what counts as good. All this results in radically different operationalizations of wellbeing and arguably even in different concepts.

Part II of the paper turns to examine the various ways in which integration between schools of wellbeing research is possible and desirable. Alexandrova and Fabian begin Part II by identifying three applications of wellbeing research to explore: policy, measurement, and integrations. 

Public Policy

At the level of a nation, what measure would capture the quality of life of its people? That it should include more than the traditional economic indicators is slowly becoming the mainstream view. In 2009 three eminent economists Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean Paul Fitoussi, produced a report commissioned by French President Nicolas Sarkozi outlining a multidimensional measure of national wellbeing that includes subjective indicators (Stiglitz et al 2009). Since then, national and state governments have been busy developing their own indices of wellbeing. 

Two requirements seem to be crucial to a notion of national wellbeing. First, such a measure needs to capture the values and priorities of the people whose wellbeing it is supposed to represent. Second, a measure of national well-being needs to represent a certain level of consensus, not a mere sum of individual wellbeings.

Measurement

There are many different ways in which researchers define wellbeing, and these differences enable them to produce theories and claims at different levels of analysis and from different perspectives. What does this say about measurability of wellbeing in general?

If we could summarize the state of the art with one sentence it would be as follows: wellbeing is measurable, but it depends on what you mean by measurement. We have already seen that the field as a whole does not operate with a single definition of wellbeing and this matters for measurability because some definitions are far more amenable than others. To measure a phenomenon is to assign numerical values that represent meaningful variations. Beyond this minimal definition, scholarly literature and scientific practice allow for different ways of assigning these values and justifying them.

Integration of Theories and Perspectives

The history of wellbeing research has been characterized by disagreements and ever more subtle differentiations. More recently, there has been a countervailing push to adopt more integrative attitudes to this field of study. Philosophers have always been somewhat aggrieved by psychologists’ reluctance to engage with the evaluative dimensions of well-being. Wellbeing, they argue, is what is “good for” somebody. This cannot be defined without making value judgments as to what the “good” is. But equally, no normative theory can possibly succeed without fitting human psychology and human sociality.

Ultimately, Alexandrova and Fabian conclude that decades of scholarly investment into the subject have borne many fruits, especially in ongoing research in clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and behavioral economics. 

Still Curious?

Read the full research review on the Science of Wellbeing by Anna Alexandrova and Mark Fabian.

Explore our other research reviews on topics such as:

https://www.templeton.org/discoveries/science-of-wellbeing?utm_source=Receive+News+from+the+John+Templeton+Foundation&utm_campaign=6ae982e261-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_wellbeing_20250129&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5bc9c58bd6-089c13fcee-97319042

Can Gen-Z Even Achieve The American Dream?

January 27, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Reinventing the American Dream - Allstate - The Atlantic Sponsor Content


Jade ManningAugust 22, 2024 Teens in Print

Growing up my idea of the “American dream” was getting your first car at 16, going to college (or moving out) at 18, one day being able to buy a house, getting to go someplace beautiful at least once a year, and still having money for at least two weeks worth of groceries. But in recent years, as I grew up, what that idea means has completely changed. 

Investopedia defines “‘The American dream’ as the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone.” I think that captures the raw meaning in such a beautiful way and also captures the American spirit.

However, the American dream, by that definition, is continuously being affected daily by inflation, everything from food to clothes to houses — the rise and demand for everything is at an all-time high. At the same time, job hunting and acceptance rates are at an all-time low. Before the election in 2020, the inflation rate was at a stable increase of 3.9% percent each year; a study in March of 2024 showed food prices have gone up to almost 26%, not including taxes. 

People are one medical bill away from homelessness. The average nuclear family is living on one income because one or both providers have lost a job or can’t even find one. U.S. bankreports “At the end of June 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 8.2 million job openings in the U.S., compared to 7.2 million unemployed persons.” That means there are more jobs than unemployed people but that doesn’t tell the full story as many people have been sharing their stories online of how they are perfectly or overqualified but still can’t get hired. 

A content creator by the name of Lohanny tells her story of how she graduated college with two degrees and the ability to speak three languages. She recounts how she applied for minimum wage jobs but was still turned down, and about how the jobs she applied to didn’t even look at her resume before turning her away. 

In an opinion article by Penny Redlin, she states “thoughtfully evaluating every penny spent and how the loss of that money today will impact other wants and needs in the future is critical. Our behaviors can be holding us back and keeping us from realizing the new American Dream.” But I believe that everyone should live comfortably and have the luxury of being able to buy something at least once a day (within reason) and not have to contemplate or be anxious about each purchase.

The Pew Research Center did a study on who still believes in the American Dream and who used to believe in it. “Today, about half of Americans (53%) say that dream is still possible. Another 41% say the American dream was once possible for people to achieve – but is not anymore. And 6% say it was never possible.” I personally never believed in the possibility of the American dream. The only reason why it was feasible, or seemingly so, is because of how the government-controlled public perception. Technology was new, but just even more recently social media platforms have lifted the veil between the government and society to be used as a way to spread information far and wide. When there was no easy or fast way to communicate, no phones, no way to see or hear information outside of the confines of local news, or what the government chose to put out, the American dream was marketed to the masses as an attainable lifestyle. 

Today, I see and hear countless stories of applicants never hearing back from job interviews. I personally have been turned down and ignored for jobs countless times. It is not unreasonable to note that everyone is not always qualified for everything, but I’ve applied to jobs from fast food to convenience stores. One could assume that as a high school student, I am not under nor am I overqualified to work in a McDonald’s drive-through. This is a growing issue that affects not only my generation but some if not most of the ones before me. 

While reversing the effects of inflation may seem impossible, we need to at least shine a light on the issue to save our generation and protect the next. Perceptions and unrealistic expectations about life in relation to the economy today are also holding the younger generations back. People need to know that it is okay to not get a car at 16, or a job at 18, we push these ideals that rush and put stress on kids and use the past as justification. That’s not okay. If we let people take their time, and help them to achieve then maybe the original dream with the white house picket fence won’t be revived but a new dream will be put in its place. One where people can achieve their dream, whatever that looks like in their own eyes.

Can Gen-Z Even Achieve The American Dream?

Americans are split over the state of the American dream

January 27, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Gabriel Borelli  Pew Research Center

“The American dream” is a century-old phrase used to describe the idea that anyone can achieve success in the United States through hard work and determination. Today, about half of Americans (53%) say that dream is still possible.  How we did this

A pie chart showing that Americans are split over whether ‘the American dream’ is possible to achieve.

Another 41% say the American dream was once possible for people to achieve – but is not anymore. And 6% say it was never possible, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of 8,709 U.S. adults.

While this is the first time the Center has asked about the American dream in this way, other surveys have long found that sizable shares of Americans are skeptical about the future of the American dream.

Who believes the American dream is still possible?

There are relatively modest differences in views of the American dream by race and ethnicity, partisanship, and education. But there are wider divides by age and income.

Age
A horizontal stacked bar chart showing that older and wealthier adults are more likely to say achieving the American dream is still possible.

Americans ages 50 and older are more likely than younger adults to say the American dream is still possible. About two-thirds of adults ages 65 and older (68%) say this, as do 61% of those 50 to 64.

By comparison, only about four-in-ten adults under 50 (42%) say it’s still possible for people to achieve the American dream.

Income

Higher-income Americans are also more likely than others to say the American dream is still achievable.

While 64% of upper-income Americans say the American dream still exists, 39% of lower-income Americans say the same – a gap of 25 percentage points.

Middle-income Americans fall in between, with a 56% majority saying the American dream is still possible.

Race and ethnicity

Roughly half of Americans in each racial and ethnic group say the American dream remains possible. And while relatively few Americans – just 6% overall – say that the American dream was never possible, Black Americans are about twice as likely as those in other groups to say this (11%).

Partisanship

While 56% of Republicans and Republican leaners say the American dream is still possible to achieve, 50% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say the same.

Education

A 57% majority of adults with a bachelor’s degree or more education say the American dream remains possible, compared with 50% of those with less education.

Age and income differences within both parties

A dot plot showing that, in both parties, lower-income, younger adults are less likely to say the American dream is still possible.

Age and income differences in views of the American dream persist within each political party.

Age

Clear majorities of both Republicans (64%) and Democrats (67%) ages 50 and older say achieving the American dream is still possible.

In contrast, just 38% of Democrats under 50 and 48% of Republicans under 50 view the American dream as still possible.

Income

In both parties, upper-income Americans are about 25 points more likely than lower-income Americans to say it is still possible for people to achieve the American dream.

Do people think they can achieve the American dream?

Americans are also divided over whether they think they personally can achieve the American dream. About three-in-ten (31%) say they’ve achieved it, while a slightly larger share (36%) say they are on their way to achieving it. Another 30% say it’s out of reach for them. These views are nearly identical to when the Center last asked this question in 2022.

A horizontal stacked bar chart showing that a majority of Americans say they’re on their way to achieving the American dream or have already achieved it.
Race and ethnicity

White adults (39%) are more likely than Black (15%) and Hispanic adults (19%), and about as likely as Asian adults (34%), to say they have already achieved the American dream.

Black (48%), Hispanic (47%) and Asian adults (46%) are more likely than White adults (29%) to say they are on their way to achieving it.

Party

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they have achieved the American dream (38% vs. 28%). But Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to say they’re on the way to achieving it (38% vs. 34%). Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to view the American dream as personally out of reach.

Income and age

Older and higher-income Americans are more likely than younger and less wealthy Americans to say they have achieved or are within reach of the American dream. These patterns are similar to those for views about the American dream more generally.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/02/americans-are-split-over-the-state-of-the-american-dream/

The American Dream is losing it’s dreamers.

January 27, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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The American Dream Is Real for My Family - WSJ

As the United States prepares to turn 250 years old in 2026, the largest youth generation yet is crossing the threshold into adult citizenship. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s founders, setting the agenda for America’s future. 

But warning bells are ringing. Amid polarization, eroded trust, and threats to well-being, young adults belief in democracy is waning:

  • Only 39% of 18-29 year-olds think the “American Dream” is still possible. 
  • 81% think “the system is rigged.”
  • 72% say America used to be a good example of democracy, but isn’t anymore.
  • More than half say it’s a good thing for citizens to give up democratic powers so the government can function more effectively.

For the last 5 years, Made By Us has developed activities and content with hundreds of historic sites and history museums to inform and inspire young adults’ civic participation, bringing credible context to bear against apathy, misinformation and “hot takes.” By meeting young people where they are, working within the constraints of institutions, they operate like an iterative “test kitchen” to discover what interventions work best. Programs like 60-Second History, Democracy Vibe Check podcast, partnerships with Airbnb and Teen Vogue, or Civic Season (Juneteenth to July 4th) have invited millions of young adults ages 18-30 to play a role in civic life.

Now, Made By Us has launched Youth250, to ensure youth input into how the nation marks this moment, for the future thriving of our democracy, communities and institutions. The national Youth250 Bureau offers real-time Gen Z advice to organizations and institutions planning for this moment.

Join us on Wednesday, February 12th from 3-4pm ET to learn how and why they built this engine, what young people want and need in a democracy, what works when it comes to authentic and sustained engagement and key signals for the future of democracy.

Register for the webinar

What connecting to your future self can mean to your present

January 8, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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You in Charge of Yourself: Part IV Present Self vs. Future Self, Edition 25

By Katherine Ellison Washington Post January 5th 2025

When asked why he didn’t begin writing novels until his 30s, the celebrated Czech author Milan Kundera said he didn’t have the requisite experience when he was younger. “This jerk that I was, I wouldn’t like to see him,” he added.Y

Many of us look back at our former selves and wince at our immaturity. We vary quite a lot in the degree to which we feel friendly toward, and connected to, both our former and our future selves. Psychologists call this trait self-continuity and suggest that it carries enormous weight in determining our long-term well-being.

In recent years, research has shown that a sense of coherence between our past and present selves can bolster mental health and, particularly, emotional resilience. Our connection to our future selves, on the other hand, can sway choices with long-term impact on our future welfare, from watching our diets to saving for retirement.

Self-continuity gives us “an understanding of where we came from and where we’re going,” says Cornell University gerontologist Corinna Löckenhoff, who researches the trait. “It gives us direction and purpose and identity.”

Perched in the present

The 19th-century psychologist William James compared human experience to being perched on a saddle “from which we look in two directions into time.” But modern researchers have found that the ability — or willingness — to look meaningfully in either direction varies from person to person.🧘

“Some people feel a great degree of overlap and continuity with their future selves, and some people don’t even think about that self, and it feels almost like a stranger,” says psychologist Hal Hershfield of UCLA.

Most studies of self-continuity look to the future, not the past. Researchers typically measure future self-continuity by asking people how similar they feel to an imagined future self. In a 2009 study of 164 people, for example, Hershfield and his team employed Venn diagrams, with two circles overlapping to various degrees. Participants were asked to pick the circle pair that best described how alike and connected they felt to themselves 10 years in the future. People’s responses ranged from almost no overlap to almost complete overlap.

The differences between people depend on a hodgepodge of factors, in addition to basic influences of nature and nurture.

Studies have reported that older people, whose expected time horizons are shorter, tend to have a greater sense of self-continuity, as do members of East Asian cultures, which, as some scholars speculate, tend to have a more holistic, connected worldview.

But researchers have found that people struggling with depression, poverty and childhood trauma tend to feel less connected to their future selves.

Morning guy vs. night guy

The degree of coherence we feel with ourselves over time can support or sabotage us. People with a sturdier connection with their future selves may be more likely to pay short-term costs for future benefits and vice versa.

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld illustrates the conflict in his riff about how Morning Guy always suffers for the carpe-diem antics of Night Guy: “You get up in the morning, your alarm, you’re exhausted and groggy,” he says. “Oh, I hate that Night Guy! See, Night Guy always screws Morning Guy.”

The same tension is evident in the failure by many Americans to save for retirement. In a 2022 survey of more than 1,100 retirees, 70 percent said they wished they’d started saving earlier.

Hershfield says this emerging crisis is what drew him to focus his research on self-continuity and its behavioral consequences. He and others have found that people with more self-continuity are more likely to engage in behaviors that deliver future benefits, including not only saving for retirement but also taking better care of their health in the present.

People with stronger self-continuity are also more likely to behave ethically and responsibly, Hershfield’s research suggests.

In a 2012 study, he and colleagues measured the self-continuity of 85 Northwestern University students, then followed up with a test of a smaller group to assess their ethical conduct. Only 50 percent of those who scored low in self-continuity showed up for the follow-up, they found, compared with 73 percent of those who scored high. What’s more, of the low scorers who did show up, 77 percent were willing to lie to an anonymous partner to earn more money when tested with a “deception game,” while only 36 percent of the high scorers would do so.

A stronger sense of connection with one’s future self may also push people toward environmentally responsible behavior.

In a 2022 study, researchers recruited 175 undergraduate students at an unnamed U.S. public university, randomly assigning them into three groups: one that was encouraged to visualize themselves at age 60, and the others told to visualize themselves, or another person, in the present. Afterward, all of the students played a game in which they could take simulated fish from a pool.

The students who focused on their future selves limited the number of fish they took each round to conserve the pool of fish longer, the experiment revealed, while those who focused on the present were more likely to quickly exhaust the pool.

Write yourself a letter, then write back

For more than a decade, scientists have searched for ways to manipulate self-continuity in study participants to encourage them to behave more prudently. They have reported success with a variety of approaches, including having people interact with a computer-generated older version of themselves, sometimes with the help of virtual-reality glasses.

Most recently, a new program called Future You, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offers young people a chance to chat with an online simulation of themselves at age 60 that is generated by artificial intelligence. A recent study of 344 participants found that users who interacted with their future selves reported “increased future self-continuity” and, perhaps as a consequence, reported significantly less anxiety, compared with those who did not.

Future You is a high-tech version of a technique long practiced by high school teachers and counselors who encourage students to write letters to their future selves.

In a pilot study of high school students in Japan, social psychologist Anne E. Wilson, at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, took the exercise one step further. She and her colleague, Yuta Chishima, instructed students to respond to their letter to their future selves as they imagined their future selves might.

Writing a letter from the future made the students feel more connected to their future selves, the researchers found. A month later, students who had written back from their future self’s perspective reported “more intensive career planning and a greater willingness to study hard at school even when temptations beckon,” vs. students who wrote only the single letter, according to Wilson and Chishima.

To be sure, there are times when a shorter horizon may be useful, researchers from Britain’s University of Southampton note in the 2023 Annual Review of Psychology. For example, too strong a sense of continuity with one’s past self might hamper efforts in the present to abandon “sunk costs” — investments already made in a doomed plan or project — they report.

The same may apply to quitting a bad habit such as drug addiction. “A bad past could be like an anchor for someone,” Wilson says.

“On the other hand,” Wilson says, “a bad past could be something that we learn from and then figure out different strategies for the future, so we don’t keep making the same mistakes.”

Perhaps like Kundera, who so forcefully repudiated the man he was in his 20s, and died at 94 in 2023, after a long and celebrated writing career.

This article first appeared in Knowable Magazine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/01/05/future-self-continuity-planning-wellbeing/