Learn what career and college readiness (CCR) looks like for schools and districts, how its definition is evolving to encompass the varying needs and interests of today’s students, and how you can drive CCR in your community.
FREE TOOL
Take the K-12 district assessment for career and college readiness to see how your district stacks up with current benchmarks.
According to 2023 data collected by Pollfish on behalf of Paper™, roughly one-quarter of respondents felt the educational system prepares learners adequately for the “real world”—and nearly all respondents across six states said high schools should better prepare students for life beyond school walls.
This data might not be surprising: After all, the world that today’s high school students will enter upon graduation is very different from the one their educators inherited. Both academics and the workplace are undergoing rapid and profound change for a broad range of reasons, including:
In response, educators are changing their approach to career and college readiness. Traditionally, this process consisted of preparing students for standardized tests and facilitating career and college application processes. Recognizing that such efforts are no longer sufficient, however, schools are expanding their career and college readiness efforts to help students acquire the soft skills and awareness needed to flourish in a changing world.
Many schools are also moving beyond leading students through a static array of postgraduation pathways—departing from the “college-for-all” mentality of the previous decade. Instead, districts are building student-led, adult-supported processes that encourage continuous career exploration and aligned academic decision-making.
Simply put, career and college readiness refers to students’ ability to thrive after high school. Definitions of career and college readiness vary from state to state, but there is widespread consensus that, in a rapidly changing and uncertain world, approaches to career and college readiness must expand beyond traditional expectations.
According to the College and Career Readiness and Success Center at the American Institutes for Research, a modern approach to career and college readiness is “multifaceted,” encompassing not just academic readiness, but also the “knowledge, abilities, and dispositions that impact academic achievement.”
As a result, CCR often includes the following skills:
Although four-year degrees from colleges and universities have historically been framed as the preferred pathway for high school students to follow after graduation, many of today’s learners and their loved ones are demanding more options.
Data from the ECMC Group suggests that as of early 2022, 51% of Generation Z teenagers are interested in securing a bachelor’s degree—a number that dropped 20 percentage points from May 2020. And it seems their parents are on the same page: In a report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gallup on building pathways from learning to work, 46% of parents said that in the absence of any obstacles or limitations, they’d prefer their child pursue an option other than obtaining a four-year degree.
To be sure, college is still a valid choice for many students; research on lifetime earnings from The Hamilton Project and The Brookings Institution suggests that at career peak, those with bachelor’s degrees have median annual earnings of nearly double that of individuals who have high school degrees or GEDs as their highest level of education.
It’s critical to be mindful of historic barriers marginalized students face in pursuing higher education, but alternative postgraduation options can still provide a legitimate pathway for all learners. This is especially true given predicted labor needs, high college tuition costs, and the increasing quality of local trade schools.
Likewise, it’s crucial for high school learners to discern whether their life plans or career goals require college—and for districts to provide more opportunities for students to explore careers so important job decisions don’t happen after learners take out costly student loans.
With these changing attitudes in mind (and with exposure to noncollege pathways lagging across U.S. districts, according to career and college readiness data from MajorClarity by Paper), it’s up to schools to provide more exposure to postsecondary options.
In recognition of the disconnect between traditional career and college readiness and the growing need to provide students with 21st-century skills, AASA, The School Superintendents Association, launched the Redefining Ready! initiative.
As Dr. David Schuler, superintendent of Illinois’ Township High School District 214, writes, the Redefining Ready! initiative asks critical questions not just about career and college readiness but also about life readiness, including:
In line with the changing understanding of this concept, New York State’s definition of career and college readiness exemplifies the more holistic approach educators are taking. In addition to academic (success in college-level classes that secure credits toward degrees awarded by technical, community, or four-year colleges or universities), admissions (ability to meet postsecondary admissions requirements), career, and financial readiness, New York’s definition explicitly supports personal and social readiness, including “the ability to set educational goals, make and monitor progress toward them, and create relationships with peers and adults that support academic success.”
By seeing career and college readiness as part of the broader path toward life readiness, schools have the opportunity to foster an interconnected set of essential skills students need to become successful and meet their goals beyond the narrow bounds of work and academics.
In addition to the obvious goal of preparing students for life after high school, the potential benefits of a successful career and college readiness approach are wide-ranging, research shows.
Paper’s proprietary data solidifies the link between robust career and college readiness and potential academic performance: More than 70% of survey participants say clarifying the links between high school courses and potential jobs would increase their motivation to succeed in a class.
A Learning Policy Institute study found that well-designed career and college readiness pathways can have a significantly positive impact on students from historically marginalized communities. “The four-year college-going rate for African Americans in these pathways was 12 percentage points higher than peers not participating in pathways,” the study finds.
This benefit extends beyond historically marginalized groups as well: Students with low achievement scores in earlier grades “made significantly better academic progress when they participated in pathways in high school,” write the report’s authors.
An article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports labor shortages among both entry-level and more seasoned workers. In other words, some industries and sectors produce more employment opportunities than there are people willing and able to take advantage of those opportunities. By producing graduates who are college- and career-ready, not only will more individuals prosper, but so will the entire economy.
A well-designed future readiness program may also help lower the opportunity cost of postsecondary decision-making.
When districts frame college as a natural extension of the K-12 experience, students may enroll in dedicated degree programs while using their time in higher education to learn about and uncover their true career aspirations—a potentially inefficient process. By instead allowing students access to career exploration in middle school and more dedicated career readiness initiatives in high school, students can line up their academics with their interests, thereby lowering the stakes of their postsecondary decisions.
Of course, career exploration is a long-lasting, iterative, and deeply individual process; learners will naturally discover new passions and outgrow old ones. But the more students engage in regular career exploration in K-12—from early career exposure to work-based learning opportunities—the wiser and more cost-effective their future planning will be.
