during the junior year of high school. but many students are working with college counselors earlier, some as young as eighth grade. stacy kadesh: what we're gonna do today, elizabeth, is we're going to talk about the classes that you think you might wanna take in high school. jessica: elizabeth romero will start her freshman year of high school this fall but she's already focused on college. elizabeth romero: what's it like applying to a college? jessica: elizabeth is working with a private college adviser to lay the groundwork for her college dream. stacy: is that going okay? elizabeth: it's going to be a process, but i know that starting this early is really gonna help me with it. stacy: those will be good choices. stacy: when i meet with students as early eighth grade what they're asking me to help them with is "based on my interests, based on my skills and my abilities, what classes should i be taking?" jessica: stacey kadesh says a growing number of students are arriving at her office earlier than ever before. stacy: i see students once or twice each year until they're a junior, and then we see each other a lot more often than that. molly romero: so when do you find out about that whether or not you get into dupree or to connors? elizabeth: we don't have any idea. jessica: the romeros wanna start working with a college consultant early so they can prevent headaches in 11th grade at the 11th hour. molly: because the junior or senior year is such a stressful year, being able to start work earlier is so beneficial. jessica: college admissions consulting is a booming business, fueled by stressed parents, complex college applications, and fewer spots at top universities. stacy: the outlook especially for kids in california is rough-- jessica: why? stacy: if they wanna stay here, because it's very competitive. denise pope: it is big business. and, there, i would say you have to really be careful. jessica: denise pope teaches at stanford's graduate school of education. denise: do you need to have a college counselor to have a successful college admissions outcome? absolutely not. can it be helpful at some point? yes. jessica: pope cofounded the challenge success initiative to reduce stress on high school kids. denise: many schools have college counselors already there and college centers with all this information free. make sure you're taking advantage of all of those options before you make the decision. stacy: maybe sometime early spring or late winter, we would wanna do some kind of a practice test. jessica: kadesh helps her students stay on track through the college application process and identifies colleges that are a good fit. stacy: and also to understand, "what do i look like on a piece of paper?" because most college admissions are done on a piece of paper. i mean a virtual piece of paper, right? we're talking online. elizabeth: i do choir-- stacy: mm-hmm. elizabeth: and that's really fun. jessica: for her part, elizabeth seems comfortable with her decision to start working on college early. jessica: so you're not overwhelmed by it? elizabeth: no, i'm not. jessica: no, she isn't. now, if you'd like to hire a private college counselor, experts say make sure you look for one who is accredited, and expect a dent in your pocketbook. a private college counselor can cost you anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 on the high end, depending on how many hours they spend with your students. okay, now to some education headlines. ten teachers from california will have their day in court in the highest court in the land. the supreme court has taken on a closely watched case over mandatory union fees. those ten teachers say they shouldn't have to pay dues to the california teachers association because they're not members of the union. teachers who are union members pay around $1,000, according to the filing. teachers who are not members pay around $650. now, the union collects money from non-union members to pay for things like collective bargaining. the ten teachers taking on the union say mandatory fees violate their right to free speech. the california teachers association, the national teachers unions, and several other public employees unions, say the suit threatens to curtail their freedom to organize and advocate. well, as we first reported earlier this year, a former google executive founded a new network of micro-schools. the founder of facebook took note. mark zuckerberg and his wife priscilla chan-- non-profit foundation is part of a $100-million investment in altschool. altschool plans to use that money to expand its network of small private schools. that hopes to eventually bring its education model to public schools as well. and last, but certainly not least, the economic outlook for california schools is on the upswing. california now ranks 29th in per-pupil spending. that's up from 42nd just 2 years ago. the boost is largely thanks to proposition 30. according to an independent analysis, prop 30 raised the state sales tax and personal income taxes for the highest-income californians and that money goes to schools. the state may be enjoying the influx of new dollars, but prop 30 is set to expire in a couple of years. okay, we're just getting started with this "class action" special. coming up, designing a school for the future. mark quattrocchi: and it was remarkable to see the expressions on their faces that real sort of, "ah-ha" moment when we could take 'em to some of these unique workspaces. jessica: a new kind of elementary school modeled after silicon valley. that's coming up next. [music] thank you so much. did you say honey? hey, try some? mmm that is tasty. is it real? of course... are you? nope animated you know i'm always looking for real honey for honey nut cheerios well you've come to the right place. great, mind if i have another taste? not at all mmm you're all right bud? never better i don't know if he likes that. yeah part of the complete breakfast jessica: and welcome back to this "class action" news special. students in marin county are getting googled. you heard me right. a school in corte madera is taking a page from google's playbook. its new campus is designed to mimic the search giant's famous open workspaces. it makes for a very different kind of elementary school. kristin lerohl: your goal for today is what? who knows what the goal is by the end? jessica: it doesn't take long to notice that things are different at the cove school a new public elementary school in corte madera. mark quattrocchi: well, i'll tell you what it's not like. it's not like the schools of the last 100 years. kristin: get your town name done and then we'll share those out at the end. jessica: folding doors divide extra-large rooms called learning suites with a special nook this class calls the den. [bell ringing] jessica: some kids sit on stools with round bases, which allow them to wiggle while they work. there are no neat rows of desks. kristin: pick the one street name. kristin: i came from a more traditional setting. jessica: inside and out, the cove school is designed for collaboration and flexibility, buzz words in silicon valley, but less so in education. that's why the designers of the school took a field trip to google to get some inspiration. mark: it was remarkable to see the expressions on their faces, that real sort of, "ah-ha" moment, when we could take them to some of these unique workspaces. jessica: the campus is open and airy with the strong connection to the outdoors and lots of places for kids to gather. interestingly, there are no bells. [gonging] male: imagine your breath, making deep down into your belly. jessica: one of the cove school's philosophies is experiential learning. see-through spaces and open floor plans are the norm just like at google. female: our son anderson just talks about it, sort of feeling like he's at home. female: going to ring the chime, and you're going to quietly come back to your circle spots. male: and i'm gonna bring the parachute out, and we're gonna spread it out like a big pizza. jessica: at the center of campus, an expansive hall gives new meaning to the old term "multipurpose room." michelle walker: it's designed for pe classes to be in there, performances, assemblies, as a gathering space where people pass through as the heart of the school, and that was something that we definitely took away from one of the main rooms that they had at google. male: good, lucy. kristin: so who has a name for their town? jessica: but at the end of the day learning still takes center stage, even in this decidedly 21st century classroom. kristin lerohl: i love it. i found it's fabulous. and i told everybody, all my admin, "i don't wanna go back." kristin: how about here? girl: natureville. kristin: natureville. how about here? boy: tropical triangle. kristin: tropical triangle. another alliteration. jessica: looks like fun. now, many of the teachers at the cove school leave the dividers between their classrooms open all the time. that means they have two teachers working together in one large classroom. okay, when we come back, seismic safety inside public schools. overhead lights fall during the earthquakes year after year in california. the damage goes back decades. maryann phipps: and to be continuing to see those photographs and that kind of damage is a little disheartening, a little shocking, and really unacceptable. jessica: but the lights aren't the only thing. we'll show you the dangers looking in plain sight as well. [music] you wish your dog could fight off fleas and ticks. but since he can't... you rely on frontline plus. because frontline plus unleashes a deadly killing force to kill fleas and ticks, plus flea eggs and larvae, preventing a new infestation. its protection lasts a full 30 days. no wonder frontline plus is the #1 choice of vets for their pets and yours. after all, your dog is a lover not a fighter. frontline plus. the vet's #1 choice. jessica: california's public schools are some of the most earthquake-resistant structures in the world, but the content of the classrooms are another matter. shelves, filing cabinets overhead lights. they fall in earthquakes and they can be dangerous. now, we first showed you the damage after the napa quake last august, but now we'd like to show you an encore presentation of our investigation in the months after that napa quake. it shows a pattern of dangerous failures inside classrooms dating back decades. female: be advised. we suffered a major earthquake. female: i know it's very scary, okay? but i need you to take a-- female: this is very scary. female: i know. i know. female: we have an earthquake. jessica: when the napa earthquake struck in the middle of the night, schools were empty, but daylight revealed chaos inside the classrooms. male: this particular event was the most violent thing i have ever experienced in my--close to 30 years in the fire service. jessica: photo after photo shows the rarely seen aftermath of an earthquake in schools--classrooms with no kids, in dangerous disarray. maryann phipps: we were incredibly lucky. jessica: structural engineer maryann phipps is co-authoring a report on the napa earthquake for fema. she saw our first story. and the photos we revealed concerned her so much, she added schools to her report. mary: you know, it had been another time of day, it would've been a completely different story, and we would've been mourning the loss of students. jessica: california is home to stringent school construction standards. the executive director of the seismic safety commission says our schools are the envy of the world. richard mccarthy: i get many people from around the world coming in, asking about how-- why california schools do so well in earthquakes. jessica: experts tell us schools have come a long way structurally, but the non-structural elements are another matter. mary: i don't know that all the non-structural hazards in classrooms had been evaluated and mitigated as well as the structural hazards have. jessica: take, for example, lights. overhead pendant lights fell in napa. they can be sharp and weigh up to 80 pounds. richard: one piece is attached, and it's kind of swinging around like this, and that's a dangerous feature. jessica: dangerous but not unusual. lights fell in calexico in 2010, northridge in 1994 coalinga in '83, even kern county, back in 1952. female: and they have a candidate who's very strong, and is fighting with us for second place. [rumbling] mary: and to be continuing to see those photographs and that kind of damage is a little disheartening a little shocking, and really unacceptable. jessica: unacceptable, since, with the exception of a 5.3 quake in 1957 there hasn't been a significant earthquake during school hours since 1900. the division of the state architect, or dsa, oversees construction of public k through 12 schools and community colleges. dsa is responsible for the safety of pendant lights but only when schools are built or remodeled. in fact, some schools may not have had a dsa review in years or even decades. another danger--displaced furniture, shelves, and shop equipment show up again and again in photos. male: well, i think that some of these items are relatively easily fixed. jessica: their hazards multiple state agencies have warned about since the early 1970s. richard: they are like huge missiles in the air or just giant objects falling down. jessica: these are some photos of classrooms. robert marshall: wow. jessica: we showed the photos to the contra costa fire marshal. robert: both blocking exits. jessica: looking at this as a parent-- robert: mm-hmm. jessica: and i see this, i'm not sure that my child could climb out the door in enough time. robert: yeah, and if you--certainly, if you had some kind of an emergency that had a time element to it like a fire or gas leak, i would share that concern with you. jessica: school districts are responsible for furniture and securing the contents inside a classroom. we asked the california department of education to sit down and talk to us. they declined, saying in an e-mail "we would certainly respond to your request if we were the regulating agency in this instance but we are not." trouble is there is no regulating agency for classroom furniture. then there's the earthquake that shook calexico 4 years ago. mary: if anybody had been standing under this they would've obviously been very seriously injured. jessica: when the underside of this overhang fell, it sheared off doorknobs and blocked classroom doors. richard: that was a very bad incident. jessica: those undersides fall under the jurisdiction of the division of the state architect but only at the time of construction and during renovations. and this school was built in the 1960s. mary: and, again, that was not during school hours. that was when there were no students there. so the fact that every time--i mean, one of these times it's not gonna happen in the middle of the night. jessica: and that's a scenario that has a lot of people worried and wondering if more can be done to keep kids safe. richard: we're gonna be test here pretty soon, i'm sure with a big event. jessica: well, it turns out that more can be done. fire marshals inspect schools every year but seismic safety isn't part of the fire code. the fire marshals we spoke to said they would be glad to take on earthquake safety if the state would give them the legal authority, and so far, it hasn't. an update on napa schools. napa unified is still making improvements a year after that earthquake. this summer, they're attaching all furniture taller than 36 inches, in elementary schools. and next summer, the school district says it will address middle schools and high schools as well. okay, taking the sat is a time-honored tradition and a necessity for getting into many colleges but the test is getting a makeover. the college board is redesigning the sat with an eye toward evening the playing field for all the test takers. female: have any of you thought about which colleges you would like to go to? jessica: these high school students at impact academy in hayward have a lot to look forward to these days-- female: i wanna go to stanford. jessica: including applying to college. female: and i wanna go to uc berkeley. jessica: they're attending a college spring program that helps students take the high-stakes sat. female: well, it's nerve-racking actually. jessica: students here said the sat is daunting partly because it doesn't reflect what they've learned. mark daniel graham: it's just not, like, not telling the colleges who i am as a person because it's not showing my academics behind it. female: sometimes they test you on stuff that you're never gonna know it--like, really need in life. jessica: those are some of the reasons why the sat is getting an overhaul. this is the last year of the old sat. julie gopalan: sayonara. [laughing] we're really excited about the one that's coming up. jessica: julie gopalan says the new sat will more accurately reflect what students learn in high school. the idea behind the remodel-- to level the playing field and make it more accessible. julie: i think they, the college board, is really working with equity in mind and working to make the test more fair. jessica: among the changes coming next year no more penalties for wrong answers, vocabulary words that are more relevant. the essay will be optional. mark: why couldn't they do this this year? i would've loved to have done the optional essay. male: the redesigned sat will be more focused and clear, useful, and open than ever before. jessica: also the college board wants to counter pricey, private test prep with free, online test prep the bay area-based khan academy. sal khan: this will be the best thing out there that happens to be free. richard greggory johnson iii: i think the efforts to overhaul it are moving in the right direction, but not far enough. jessica: but not everyone's convinced that the new sat will be a better sat. richard: i think that people that are still marginalized, students that are still marginalized, come from marginalized communities, still won't be impacted positively by any of the changes that the sat officials are trying to make. female: yup, there you go. female: good job. jessica: whatever the outcome of the new sat, these students in hayward are focusing on conquering this year's sat and pursuing their college goals. mark: really, it's all about endurance for me. female: remember, you can take the sat more than once. most colleges will see the last time you took the sat. jessica: now, something else to know. the college board gives eligible, low, and middle-income students fee waivers for four college applications. that means those students can apply to four colleges for free. the new sat--that's coming in the spring of 2016. back in a moment. [music] jessica: so can you teach perseverance and grit? more and more educators think the answer may be yes, including the founder of bay area-based khan academy one of the most popular learning websites in the world. khan academy hosted a math competition for bay area schools, and kids competed not just for top honors in math, but top honors in hustle too. [students cheering] sal khan: and the students that i'm about to announce-- these are top 20 out of 50,000 students in the bay area. [students cheering] jessica: this rally at a public school in east palo alto gives new meaning to the old phrase, "getting an a for effort." sal: first place mariam aholelei. [students cheering] mariam aholelei: when they called my name, i just-- my heart dropped. sal: jalin bryant smith. [students cheering] jalin bryant smith: i felt like screaming. i was, like, so proud of myself. sal: zariah stevenson. [students cheering] zariah stevenson: i thought i wasn't gonna be one of them. jessica: middle school students from 49ers academy take the stage to celebrate their success in learnstorm, a bay area math competition from khan academy. sal: we've had 1,500 schools participate, and the 49ers academy here in east palo alto is at the very top of that in what we call our hustle leaderboard. jessica: the hustle leaderboard ranks perseverance and grit--schools and students who have the tenacity to stick with it, even when the going gets tough mathematically speaking. david hicks: you have to get five right in a row, and so on that fifth question, in my room, you'll hear "awww," and you'll know that's when a student has failed that last question. but they don't stop. they don't give up. john fensterwald: yeah but i think that khan's been misunderstood that it attempts simply to get kids to do better in math. jessica: john fensterwald is with edsource a non-profit education news and research organization. john: but his goal, all along, is to produce confident learners who want to go at their own pace and succeed at their own pace. mariam: five times ten to the fourth power, times six times ten to the negative third-- jessica: back at the middle school, students keep on hustling in khan academy learning not just math but also lessons for life. zariah: i failed a lot of times, but i never give up and it just pays off at the end. jessica: and that is does. now, by the end of the learnstorm competition 73,000 students participated from bay area schools. and this coming year, learnstorm will expand beyond the bay area. well, that is gonna do it for this "class action" news special. you can see all of our stories on our website, nbcbayarea.com. search for "class action." thanks for watching, and we hope to see you next time too. bye-bye. [music] cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com >> rags. >> now, with just two nights left before the break, game 2 of the series coming up next. >> it's a brufl night at 24