As Texas pushes more high schoolers to get ready for college and the workforce, new research suggests that some of the ways schools count students as ready don鈥檛 equally set them up for success after graduation.

The state rewards Texas school districts for preparing students for life after graduation, tying college and career readiness to more school funding and a higher school performance rating.

The Texas Education Agency has been increasingly strict on districts about college readiness. In the 2022-23 school year, state education officials raised the benchmark for schools to qualify for an A grade in the category of college and career readiness: Schools needed to get 88% of graduates ready for life after high school, up from 60% in prior years.

Researchers from four Texas universities nearly 1 million Texas high school students across eight graduating classes from 2016-23 to see how they fared after high school, including the wages they earned as well as whether they enrolled in college and completed their degree.

While English and math college prep courses have seen a boom in enrollment, the researchers found students in those courses were 5% less likely to earn a college degree or certification within six years of high school graduation than students who were not considered college ready. They were also 18% less likely to get a degree or certification than their dual credit peers. The results of the study, , suggest college prep courses offer a false signal of preparedness.

鈥淲e could be potentially setting students up for failure because we’re saying, 鈥極K, you’re college ready.鈥� But you actually get into college and you’re immediately taking developmental coursework,鈥� said Jacob Kirksey, lead researcher on the study and professor at Texas Tech University. 鈥淎nd maybe you’ve racked up, you know, loans as a result of that process.鈥�

Meanwhile, students who earned a credential in high school 鈥� be it an associate鈥檚 degree or a certificate 鈥� earned 15% to 20% more in wages later in life than students who were not college ready. Dual credit was also shown to predict a likelihood to enroll in and complete college.

The TEA has started a process to. To date, only a handful of English prep courses have received a . No math college prep courses have.

Kirksey has also called for Texas lawmakers and state education officials to rethink how college and career readiness is incentivized, offering public schools bigger rewards for higher-quality pathways like dual credit, and smaller rewards for lower-quality pathways like college prep classes. His previous research on the impact of teacher certification on student achievement led the state to in core classes.

鈥淐ollege, career and military readiness should not be treated as a black and white checkbox for students and districts,鈥� Kirksey said. 鈥淲e think by making that distinction 鈥� districts will have all the incentives they need to, again, be celebrating these better pathways.鈥�

The rise in popularity in college prep courses were a result of schools trying to respond to the stricter standards for college readiness despite limited resources, said Gabriela S谩nchez-Soto, a researcher with the Houston Education Research Consortium who studies college, career and military readiness. Prep courses were appealing because school districts were able to offer them without a massive overhaul to their curricula, S谩nchez-Soto said.

鈥淵ou can’t blame the players for playing the game,鈥澛� S谩nchez-Soto said. 鈥淏ut we need to always assess how well whatever thing we’re asking students to do is actually accomplishing. 鈥� If a requirement is not fulfilling its promise, we need to do something about it.鈥�

This first appeared on .

The Alabama state superintendent said Thursday afternoon that a diploma pathway focused on career readiness should not be used to remove lower achieving students from another diploma pathway.

Speaking to members of the Alabama State Board of Education during a work session, Eric Mackey told board members that students should not be forced to work toward a career-pathway focused diploma known as Diploma B just because they have lower ACT scores than others.

鈥淭here will be no 鈥業f your ACT score is 22 you鈥檙e on Option A, and if it鈥檚 21 you鈥檙e on Option B,鈥欌�� Mackey said. 鈥淎nd if anybody tries to do that, the furor of the state superintendent will come down on them, because that is not the purpose.鈥�

The remarks came in a discussion over the diploma options of 鈥淎鈥� and 鈥淏,鈥� with 鈥淏鈥� meeting a career-focused option required by the Legislature.

sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, the chair of the Senate Education Policy Committee, was part of a package of bills focused on workforce development in the 2024 regular legislative session. The legislation requires the board to create a diploma under the law鈥檚 goal of facilitating 鈥渢he development of a career pathways diploma at the K-12 level that would enhance career and technical education opportunities for high school students who plan to enter the workforce immediately after graduation.鈥�

Mackey said that diplomas issued by the schools will not note whether they are the 鈥淎鈥� or 鈥淏鈥� option. Both diplomas require 24 credits.

But the superintendent said he was worried about returning to an old educational model where people sent students to vocational schools just to get them out of the building.

鈥淚鈥檓 telling you, if anybody tries to go back to that, there will be fire raining down on them because that is not what this is about,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is about giving students opportunities.鈥�

Chesteen said in a Thursday afternoon phone call that he agreed with Mackey after the Reflector summarized what was said at the work session.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 one thing to pass a piece of legislation. I think the most important piece to that is the implementation. How is it going to affect the students? And that鈥檚 what I want to monitor very carefully,鈥� he said.

Chesteen said 鈥渨e can鈥檛 use it for an easy pathway out for these kids that don鈥檛 score well,鈥� and they need to have a career pathway after they graduate.

Diploma 鈥淎鈥� requires four credits each in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. Diploma 鈥淏鈥� requires four credits in English Language Arts and Social Studies, but two credits in Mathematics and Science. Option 鈥淏鈥� also requires three credits in Career and Technical Education to complete a whole sequence.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have kids that score a 32 on the ACT, that want to be Option B because they like working with their hands, and they want to go into robotics or such thing, and we鈥檙e going to have kids with with a 20 ACT, that are strivers, they want to do the Option A,鈥� Mackey said.

The Board intends to announce the intent to adopt the changes in the October meeting.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com. Follow Alabama Reflector on and .

Not long after new college students have finished choosing , they are asked to declare an academic major. For some students, this decision is easy, as their majors may have actually influenced their choice of college. Unfortunately, this decision is not always an easy one to make, and college students frequently change their minds.

This summer, Lodi, California, high schoolers will again head to local wineries to learn the business through a combination of hands-on internships and college classes. The first-of-its-kind initiative is the result of a growing partnership among the district, Delta College, the Lodi Winegrape Commission and the nonprofit San Joaquin A+.聽

蜜桃影视 recently partnered with the Progressive Policy Institute for an inside look at the “Growing Futures” Initiative and how it aims to promote a more inclusive agriculture industry. 

In the replay below, you鈥檒l hear from experts Stuart Spencer, Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, Kai Kung, CEO of San Joaquin A+, Kathy Stonum, Winemaker at Stonum Vineyards and Francesca Stonum, Operations Manager at Stonum Vineyards.

Some of our recent coverage of trends in career preparation:

• How a California Wine Region Is 鈥楪rowing Futures鈥� By Turning Vineyards Into State-of-the-Art Classrooms

• Why Wait to Graduate? Georgia Apprentices Start Training as Sophomores

• How Rhode Island Is Tapping Career & Technical Ed to Help Every Student Succeed

• LISTEN 鈥� Beyond 鈥楥ollege or Bust鈥�: Apprenticeship as a Path to Opportunity

• Who You Know: Social Capital is Key for First-Gen Students鈥� Career Success

Apprenticeships are booming as high schools and private industry recognize the need for training students for roles in the workforce of the future and for offering career pathways that don’t necessarily rely on a bachelor’s degree.

蜜桃影视 recently partnered with the Progressive Policy Institute on a new installment of the “New Skills for a New Economy” webinar series, which focused on solutions needed to ensure the U.S. education and workforce systems adapt to meet current workforce needs.

In the replay below, you鈥檒l hear from experts, you鈥檒l hear from experts Vanessa Bennett of Jobs for the Future; Lateefah Durant of CityWorks D.C.; Jess Kostelnik, senior policy adviser to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis; and Seth Lentz, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin. Watch the full conversation:

Some of our recent coverage of trends in career preparation:

• Indianapolis High School Carves Time Away from Class for Internships for All
  
• Why Wait to Graduate? Georgia Apprentices Start Training as Sophomores
  
• How Rhode Island Is Tapping Career & Technical Ed to Help Every Student Succeed
  
• LISTEN 鈥� Beyond 鈥楥ollege or Bust鈥�: Apprenticeship as a Path to Opportunity
  
• Who You Know: Social Capital is Key for First-Gen Students鈥� Career Success

The American high school is broken. The pandemic underscored just how broken. American teens are鈥攁s a September 2023 Gallup poll shows鈥攄isengaged, stressed, and questioning the value of high school and college. At the same time, they are hungry to make a difference in the world and to use new technologies and ideas toward that end. 

In 2013, Ted Sizer wrote a book called The New American High School. Large national foundations invested in smaller, more personalized high schools. The pandemic made clear it鈥檚 past time to finally remake high school, but with an eye toward the future. 

Rather than seek to provide a comprehensive set of learning experiences under one roof, the new American high school would connect students to meaningful work in their communities and to expert knowledge around the globe.

Rather than dumb down concepts or activities to make them easier for teenagers, it would support young people to do meaningful work that makes real contributions and leads to credentials that hold weight in the adult world.

Rather than sort students into tracks or marshaling all of them toward a single objective, it would provide every student adult guidance and technological support to understand their own conception of a good life, and provide them with the support, connections, knowledge, and skills to pursue that life鈥攁nd to change course where necessary. 

Rather than focus on a centuries-old curriculum and memorization, it would recognize the transformative forces of AI technology, climate change, and geopolitics and prepare students to thrive, collaborate, and innovate in a rapidly changing world. Yes, students would still study Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Newton, but in a more relevant, contemporary context. 

Arizona State University鈥檚 Michael Crow conceived something similar for the postsecondary world鈥攖he New American University. These institutions would be designed for access rather than exclusivity, and would develop knowledge that could improve student鈥檚 communities and address global challenges. 

New career and technical education (CTE) programs popping up across the country provide a great starting point. They鈥檙e building tighter integrations between high school and postsecondary education, delivering industry-recognized credentials on the way to graduation, resourcing students through college via learn-and-earn programs, and developing students鈥� social capital to strengthen their support circles and professional networks. 

Seamless and permeable pathways

It is key that the New American High School does not place students into tracks or find them in dead-ends. Instead of 鈥渢racks,鈥� there should be a seamless and permeable set of pathways between high school, college, and career. 

To provide a few examples:

• Colorado鈥檚 Homegrown Talent Initiative is a grant-funded program designed to help rural districts create career-relevant learning experiences aligned to the needs and aspirations of their local economies. Participating districts have redefined student graduation requirements, designed new courses, integrated career exploration into existing classes, and created new learning opportunities via internships with local industry and dual enrollment in local higher education institutions. 

• Seckinger High School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, is the district鈥檚 first artificial intelligence themed high school and is part of a broader district vision to foster excellence and a sense of belonging in every school. Once the school opens, students will receive a college preparatory curriculum that is taught through the lens of artificial intelligence. Students will also be able to pursue an education in developing artificial intelligence. 

• Indiana鈥檚 Purdue Polytechnic High School is a public charter school network designed to prepare students for careers in the STEM fields. The school implements hands-on and project-based learning, industry and higher ed partnerships, and a flexible and personalized approach. Students leave high school with college credit, in-demand industry credentials, as well as preferred admission to nine out of the 10 colleges at Purdue University. 

• Another Indiana charter school, GEO Academies, offers a College Immersion Program, a hyper personalized dual enrollment program where high school students take college classes on the college campus of their choice beginning as early as the ninth grade. GEO pays for everything and provides the academic, social, and emotional supports so that kids learn real-life skills and grow the confidence necessary to earn college degrees鈥攁nd a path to escaping poverty鈥攂efore they graduate from high school. When they are on the high school campus, GEO students can engage in direct, teacher-led instruction, independent learning and practice, and teacher-assisted small group instruction. 

• At the state level, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, and Virginia are moving toward more coherent state-wide career pathways, using federal funds and industry partnerships to create a more permeable path between high school, college, and career. (Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera elaborate on their states鈥� work in essays on pages 76 and 39, respectively.)

There is plenty of evidence that the current American high school is outdated and irrelevant. The best source of data is coming from students themselves. Adolescents report feeling isolated, bored, and disengaged in school. In this volume, we report plenty of evidence that they are calling for change and they are voting with their feet by failing to attend school or dropping out to get a job in larger numbers than ever. 

Despite the very obvious need to update and refresh secondary education, high schools are notoriously resistant to change. Shifting existing curriculum, coursework, instructional strategies, counseling, industry partnerships, and teacher expertise are all onerous prospects. What鈥檚 more, the old model of high school is hard-wired: core graduation course requirements are geared toward a 鈥渃ollege for all鈥� mentality. Do students intent on pursuing a career in music, for instance, really need to take calculus? Schedules do not easily shift to accommodate a student who must leave during the day for an apprenticeship. If a student wants to take an online pre engineering course in place of a course offered by their high school, they must pay for it themselves. 

Much of schools鈥� inability to change stems from outdated state policy. State teacher licensing laws often prevent would-be teachers with industry expertise from teaching credit-earning classes. State graduation requirements often do not allow students to count industry credentials toward graduation. Funding models are outdated and assume high school students will receive all of their education in one building. 

A New National Initiative

To overcome these and many other barriers, we need a new national initiative for the New American High School. We need more states to follow the lead of vanguard states such as Colorado and Virginia鈥攁nd for these states to continue to push for lasting changes to the core aims and structures of their schools. 

The growing movement to add or update career and technical education is a good start, but ultimately, career focus needs to grow rapidly from small, peripheral programs to a widespread, core element of all secondary education. 

As the other essays in this report suggest, we need to start thinking, talking, and acting bigger. Career preparation in high school is essential for every student. At the very least, students should leave high school with a guarantee that they have mastered the core skills the business and nonprofit sectors say they will need for the middle-class jobs of the future.

We can do this, but the business community, philanthropies, governors, and state school chiefs must lead. Here are some first steps that could make a real difference:

• Create a national council on the New American High School to set national goals and guide federal and state funding strategies 
• Support more state- and district-level initiatives for business-education partnerships like Colorado, Louisiana, and Virginia have done 
• Incentivize every state to collect data across states on long-term outcomes like Indiana has done
• Build a global network of schools and school districts that are committed to the New American High School
• Create a national research center on the New American High School to amass evidence on innovations, best practices, and policies to support schools and states that want to re-tool their high schools 

Tinkering around the edges of American high schools won鈥檛 ensure that every student graduates on a viable pathway to a family-sustaining career. We don鈥檛 need to remake career and technical education鈥攚e need to remake high school. 

Skeptics will understandably ask: how is this possible when school systems are struggling just to keep their heads above water, grappling with record levels of mental health and behavior challenges and declining achievement? 

My response to the skeptics: high schools across the country began this transformation before or even during the pandemic. They did so because they know there is no alternative but to shift toward the future. They know they must catch kids up, but they also know that the best way to do so is to engage them in deep, meaningful, and relevant ways. With the right help from the federal government, states, businesses, and philanthropies, this is doable. 

But the first step on any road to recovery is to admit that there鈥檚 a problem. Given the reality of the past few years, can anyone really argue that the American high school has not reached its bottom?

See more from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and its .

I鈥檝e always believed that education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet for life success. A quality education leads to greater personal earnings, better health outcomes, a stronger economy, and lower community crime rates, among many other benefits. For example, bachelor鈥檚 and associate degree holders take home median weekly earnings of $1,334 and $963, respectively, compared to $809 for their peers with only a high school degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But as the global economy rapidly evolves, we must rethink the way we educate students and our workforce. A fragmented approach鈥攚here high schools, postsecondary institutions, and employers all work in their own silos鈥� shortchanges everyone.

We need to create more seamless pathways from school to careers. In Colorado, for example, 91.4% of jobs that can support a family of three require postsecondary education or some form of training or certification in high school beyond diploma requirements. Conventional four-year degrees alone cannot solve this problem, as more and more jobs value skills over a formal college diploma.

Blurring the Lines

In Colorado, we refer to breaking down silos as 鈥渂lurring.鈥� Advanced degrees and credentials are now table stakes to participate in the modern economy, but accessing them usually requires students to persist through four years of high school work that often doesn鈥檛 feel relevant to their futures. Then they proceed to postsecondary programs where they must take on debt, pay tuition, or forgo work while they pursue credentials. Blurring can make high school more relevant and credentials more attainable for all students.

While Colorado has seen one of the strongest economic recoveries in the country following the pandemic, employers across our state still struggle to find the right talent for their available jobs. One factor: we have historically asked students to make choices about their careers after leaving high school, often without the appropriate data needed to identify industry-specific needs or what kind of return on investment a particular pathway will afford.

That鈥檚 why we have been laser-focused on blurring the lines between high school, higher education, and the workforce. Students and young professionals deserve more opportunities to gain skills.
By increasing those opportunities, we can save people time and money, create a better-trained workforce, and better support our businesses.

Today, roughly 53% of high school graduates in Colorado earn college credit or industry credentials through dual and concurrent enrollment while in high school, saving them an estimated $53 million annually on tuition costs. A growing number also participate in apprenticeship and 鈥渓earn while you earn鈥� models.

Innovative intermediaries, such as CareerWise Colorado, are working between education and business to provide youth apprenticeship opportunities in industries such as banking, finance, health care, insurance and advanced manufacturing.

Additionally, Pathways in Technology Early College High School models (PTECH) provide students the opportunity to learn on the job while in high school, earn an associate degree and be first in line for those jobs following graduation.

However, more students can and should be participating in these opportunities. Our vision is that every student will graduate with a diploma in one hand and a certificate, degree, or meaningful job experience in the other.

That鈥檚 why the Colorado Legislature created a task force that brought together partners from schools, postsecondary pathways, and industry. Its mission was to 鈥渄evelop and recommend policies, laws, and rules to support the equitable and sustainable expansion and alignment of programs that integrate secondary, postsecondary, and work-based learning opportunities.鈥�

This past year, the task force identified several impediments to the various pathways available to students: lack of awareness, confusion about program goals, affordability, and inadequate data on outcomes. Schools are already working to better target and maximize their resources, and the task force will present a final report with clear recommendations on how to scale this work by the end of 2023.

A Skills-Based Ecosystem

The four-year degree is still a great choice for many students, but we must also create opportunities for those who choose a different path. That鈥檚 why we are creating a skills-based ecosystem, where people of all ages can get the skills they need to fill jobs that will earn them a good living and support their families.

To lead by example, we implemented skills-based hiring practices for our state workforce, and we expanded apprenticeship opportunities within state government, implementing best practices already in place at many major employers in the state.

Colorado has removed or provided flexibility on degree requirements for most state jobs, such as entry-level positions, project management, IT and supervisory roles, replacing them with the opportunity to show experience and transferable skills. In the private sector, companies such as Google and Slalom Consulting now list degrees as optional for most positions in Colorado.

To ensure all students have access to these various pathways, Colorado has created a zero-cost credential program, making it completely free to pursue a number of healthcare certifications at any of our community and technical colleges. More than 1,000 students have taken advantage of this program, and we are working to expand it to other in- demand industries, such as early childhood and education, law enforcement, fire and forestry, skilled trades and green jobs. We also created a new state scholarship program that will provide eligible students who graduate in 2023-24 with $1,500 each to pursue higher education or postsecondary training.

We have also implemented a series of programs that help ensure our agencies, schools, and industry partners work together to break down silos and integrate our 鈥渂lurring the lines鈥� vision at a statewide level. In recent years, we鈥檝e created other programs that encourage agencies, schools and businesses to collaborate in ways that offer students more opportunities to pursue credits and degrees. Those include expanded state apprenticeships, more scholarships for students in high-needs fields, and an $85 million grant program that helps businesses work with schools to grow their own talent.

All of this work creates a more integrated talent pipeline that serves students, professionals, and businesses alike. Blurring the lines means creating new opportunities, taking a bold new approach to training the workforce of tomorrow, and meeting Coloradans where they are鈥攖o help everyone achieve a successful future in a career that they love.

See more from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and its .