Created through a partnership between 50CAN and Edge Research, captures the views of more than 23,000 parents across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., building on the more than 20,000 parents surveyed in summer 2024. What we found is an education system that is being remade for the better by making available to more families the experiences traditionally reserved for the wealthiest among us. 

That starts with schooling. Historically in America, the wealthy have taken advantage of the range of choices in schools that their resources have unlocked while most families had to make do with only one option. But with the huge expansion of school choice programs over the past few years, more working- and middle-class families are getting to take control of their child’s education and it shows: the percentage of parents who say they feel like they have a choice in what school their child attends is up five points from 65% to 70%. 

In sync with this shift, we also found that the percentage of parents who say, if they had to do it over again, they would send their child to the school they go to today also rose, climbing four points from 64% to 68%. Finally, the percentage of parents reporting they are very satisfied with their child’s school rose two points, and the percentage reporting they are very satisfied with the emotional and mental health their child receives at school rose four points. 

Another point of real progress since 2024 is in high school students’ participation in career pathways. Children of the well-off have traditionally had a leg up in this area but through leadership at the state and local level, more opportunities are being made available to more children of all walks of life. 

The number of families who say their child is participating in pathway programs climbed across the board: Participation in dual enrollment courses, CTE programs and industry certifications are all up three points while internships and apprenticeships jumped six points. At the same time, we found an increase in demand for these programs, ranging from two to five points, among those who do not currently have a child enrolled, suggesting demand for future growth on the horizon. 

Tutoring represents a third area of promising growth. When the children of the wealthy fall behind, they have always known they can get their child the help they need to catch back up. Now that same resource is reaching more students regardless of income. Overall, the percentage of children who received tutoring in the past year increased five points from 19% to 24%. At the same time, the gap in tutoring between low-income children and high-income children decreased from 12 points to just eight points. 

Will these trends continue? They will if parents have anything to say about it. We found that 86% of parents favored free tutoring for any K-12 student who falls behind, 80% favored free summer camp for all K-12 students, 77% favored open enrollment so any student can transfer to the public school of their choice and 77% also favored universal ESAs, where any parent can use a government savings account to pay for everything from tutoring to textbooks to tuition. 

Now it’s up to education advocates and policymakers to look past the gloom in the daily headlines and recognize the opportunity this moment represents. We have emerged from the pandemic with a stronger sense of purpose around the ways education needs to change. We have seen those changes taking root in states around the country. And it is clear that parents of all political stripes want us to go further to make these initial steps a permanent part of the American educational landscape. 

We have an opportunity to secure the policy wins this year that will get headlines for all the right reasons by focusing less on ideological battles and more on the practical changes that will improve students’ lives.

When tragedy struck, we suddenly needed something more: flexibility and understanding. We found that at an alternative hybrid school.

Our mother had Type 1 diabetes during our whole life, but in our junior year of high school it got worse. She needed around-the-clock help, including support from us. We tried to make it work for the first two years, but it just got to be too much. Plus our minds were in a different place. We weren’t interested in dances and socializing. We were always thinking about our mother. We were dealing with bigger problems than what to wear to school. We looked into online programs for school and picked (CCAA), a hybrid alternative school that was available through our school district.

We were able to set our own pace and had the flexibility to meet our school obligations while focusing on taking care of our mother. We were able to make our own decisions about our school/life balance. Our teachers at CCAA were understanding when we had to leave school early, and they offered the support we needed to get us through the times when our mother’s illness meant we had to put school on the back burner.

We had to be mature. We didn’t go to school to play and hang out, but to get work done. We were responsible for our own success and finally had a structure that allowed us to manage that responsibility on our own terms, along with plenty of personal support. Wendy Thompson, former district director at CCAA, checked on us every week. If there was something we couldn’t do, she would help us or find someone who could. Just her constant presence and caring about our schoolwork and our personal well-being filled a void and helped us not feel so adrift. She helped us fill out college applications and sorted out a plan for how we would start a career and get the training we needed. 

Miss Wendy also helped us pursue our college plans once we graduated. After our mom died, we were at a loss for how to move on to that next chapter; the idea of working and running a home and tackling college at the same time was just too much. Miss Wendy called us every day for a week and asked “What’s wrong? What can we do to make this easier?” She helped us realize we could still pursue our dreams in the medical field.

Today we’re both medical assistants. We went through a training program at Northwest Career College and earned medical assistant licenses and phlebotomy certifications in nine months. Now we are pursuing bachelors of science degrees in nursing through a different hybrid program at Grand Canyon University. All the prerequisite courses are offered online and then students complete their clinical work at the school’s hospital in Henderson, Nevada.

We wish more high school students knew that there are alternatives to traditional high school. A hybrid school like what we did in high school and now in college is a great option. There are some young people who need the social interaction an in-person environment offers, but there are also a lot of us who face challenges or who just want something different.

It takes a lot of strength and drive to persevere through challenges, and we were fortunate to have each other to lean on as well as lots of adults who helped us along the way. We needed each other to push us forward, and we needed supportive adults who trusted us enough to follow our own school pathway on our own terms. 

We have benefitted so much from an alternative pathway through school to a career that we’ve aspired to for years. We want to make sure other students are aware of alternatives that will allow them to focus on their families while meeting their own expectations, so they can achieve their dreams no matter what happens, too.

 People are exhausted and desperate for some good news. Well, we now have some.      

Despite the virulent and largely inaccurate charges levied against higher education, the American public may hear it but clearly doesn’t buy into the raft of misinformation. In a recent , seven out of 10 adults without a college degree believe both a bachelor’s degree and an associate’s degree are either extremely or very valuable. And despite the costs, a majority in the poll believe college will pay off within five years.

In perhaps the best piece of news, a about the quality of their college classes found that 72% consider their classes to be either “excellent” or “very good,” and half were very confident their college education and degree would result in positive career opportunities.    

This positive view of higher education also extends to seniors in high school. In 2025, the percentage of seniors who have filled out their FAFSA forms has increased by 13% over 2024, and the percentage of seniors filling out the Common App for college admissions increased by 4%, with the number of first-generation college goers increasing by 13%. 

According to the , the largest gains are among students from low-income neighborhoods. This is significant because the decline in birth rates has affected the size of the youth population. Add all of this to the fact that nationwide this past fall college enrollment was up by 3.4%, it is clear that the notion that “college doesn’t matter” has little truth. 

This news is particularly important because labor market data shows that by 2031, despite the phrase “college doesn’t matter,” more than seven of every 10 jobs will require a post-secondary degree or credential. , those entering the workforce with a college degree earn more than $1 million more over their lifetimes compared to those with only a high school diploma. We see growth in the semiconductor industry due to the CHIPS and Science Act, growth in health careers, green jobs, and a host of labor market areas.      

This doesn’t mean our higher education systems can’t improve. They can and they must improve. The growth in micro-credentials is a significant innovation offering students an opportunity to earn industry credentials that are both credit-bearing and stackable toward a degree.

In New York State, the Power Authority, a big green jobs employer, is partnering with SUNY to not only double the number of micro-credentials for green jobs but also offer them to high school students in some of the state’s , at no cost. This year Gov. Kathy Hochul announced free community college tuition for students seeking degrees in areas of labor market growth. 

Other colleges and universities have begun providing an opportunity for a bachelor’s degree in three years, rather than four, reducing the time and cost of a degree. Others, including SUNY, have expanded the use of credit for prior learning, allowing military service, community service, work experience and other backgrounds to qualify students for academic credit, also reducing the cost and time of a degree. 

The P-TECH approach, which offers a model of education combining high school and college via dual enrollment along with industry engagement, has spread to over 500 schools across 28 countries. It offers a clear pathway from school to college to career for students regardless of income or achievement levels. Many employers — including IBM, Cisco, Northwell Health, Micron, GlobalFoundries, and the NY Power Authority — are seeing strong results from this model. An by MDRC demonstrates its success, especially for low-income students and students of color.

While some of the issues involving education appear to inspire more division than unity, this isn’t the case on the need for a clear pathway from school to college to career. This is an issue that unites and doesn’t divide. It is this unity that will bring together Republican and Democrat governors, education leaders, business and labor leaders, and student representatives at the on Thursday to discuss the need for innovative paths from school to college to career.  

It will take all of us — regardless of political affiliation — to achieve success for our nation. We must examine models of success together and identify ways to make them scalable and sustainable with clear solutions that include more experiential learning, career guidance and exploration, and access to academic and workplace skill development.  

It is true that these are difficult and challenging times. But the good news story — about the latest poll numbers, the degree to which education leaders are willing and able to innovate and the unity demonstrated at the upcoming summit — give me some hope.

The broad political support for career pathways isn’t a fluke: It was between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. With the law supporting these programs due to be and the , career pathways will be on a short list of issues that could move quickly in this divided Congress.

Given this bipartisan momentum, how can leaders in Washington create programs that truly prepare students for jobs and fulfillment in the real world? They can start by learning from successful career pathways programs that are already flourishing in red, blue and purple states across the country. 

For example, Colorado demonstrates that successful career pathways programs can’t be one-size-fits-all: They must meet the needs of students in communities with very different economies and job markets. That means policymakers designing pathways programs should speak to local government leaders, school leaders, educators and students to understand potential barriers to student participation and success. 

Leaders of the Colorado Succeeds career pathways initiative conduct a local needs assessment that covers every region of the state every two years — and adjust policies, funding or programming based on what they hear. Through this assessment, leaders learned that high school students participating in dual enrollment were limited to attending their local community college, regardless of whether it was affordable or offered the program they wanted. Colorado Succeeds leaders shared this information with the state Department of Higher Education, which then changed the policy to enable high school students to enroll regionally and virtually at community colleges across the state.

By regularly gathering and acting on feedback from communities, Colorado Succeeds has not only strengthened its statewide programs, but built trust among business leaders, educators and students.

Knowing that flexibility and innovation are essential to building effective pathways programs that meet changing student and economic needs, leaders in Indiana embrace creative, outside-the-box ideas and refine them as they go.

Recently, the state’s Department of Education redesigned its in an innovative way — a process that required many rounds of refining that ultimately offered graduates three pathways: college, career or military. The state also created the Indiana Career Scholarship Account program to provide funding to high school students for work-based learning opportunities like internships and apprenticeships. And they expanded course options by allowing more people with relevant industry experience but no traditional teaching license to head up classes that require highly technical knowledge.

In Delaware, new approaches show that while bold new ideas are important for innovation in career pathways, so are adaptability and resilience. Leaders shouldn’t expect to get everything right on the first try, but they should expect that regular adjustments will bring them closer to creating programs that effectively serve more students. That requires a well-designed data system and using it to decide whether specific programs should continue, shift or end.

Delaware regularly reviews its career pathways programming and uses data to make necessary changes. Committees of educators, students and employers review all career and technical education programs in the state every five years. By regularly working with a wide range of partners, state leaders ensure that this programming remains up-to-date and relevant for students.

Delaware’s data also inform ongoing adjustments to program offerings and funding. For example, when data revealed that high school students with disabilities participated in pathways programs in lower numbers than students without disabilities, Delaware officials made policy changes that improved access for all students.

Building successful career pathways programs is hard work, but Colorado, Indiana, Delaware and many other states show what’s possible by listening to local leaders, thinking creatively and using data to guide improvement. Leaders in Washington have a rare opportunity to embrace common ground on this issue, give students a leg up in high-demand careers and help maintain America’s competitive edge in the global economy. They must not squander it.

As Diane Tavenner and Michael Horn launch a sixth season of Class Disrupted, they talk through Michael’s newest book, the bestseller Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career, and map its implications back to K-12 schools and students through Diane’s startup, .

Listen to the episode below. A full transcript follows.

Diane Tavenner: Hey, Michael.

Michael Horn: Hey, Diane.

Diane Tavenner: It is really good to be back for a sixth season, and it’s especially good because I’m recording in person with you.

Michael Horn: We always treasure those times when we actually get to be face to face, not in front of the video cameras. And that’s another perk because, Diane, the other people in the audience listening to us, they don’t have to see us. That’s a good thing.

Diane Tavenner: So some folks have been wondering if we were coming back for the sixth season, given how late it is in the school year. We wanted to just be transparent about what’s going on. And so two things. First, we’ve always wanted to come back. We get tons of feedback and questions and suggestions that are totally awesome and interesting, and it just suggests to us that there’s a lot of people across the education spectrum who are listening and getting some value. So we want to be here. And our roles have been changing and our schedules have been changing, and they’re a little bit less predictable. And so there are just some logistics we’ve run into.

But here we are. And excited to be here.

Michael Horn: Yes, indeed. We’re figuring it out. You have taken a new job over the last couple years, which will be directly applicable to today’s episode, obviously. I teach in the fall, and then I’ve learned teaching while putting out a new book that we’re going to talk about. It’s just really busy, and I don’t know if I would have repeated that if I had the chance, but now we’re here in person, we’re doing this, so let’s talk.

I would say our curiosity is really leading us to focus on some books that not just me, but other folks have coming out. And also artificial intelligence. AI is everywhere in the education landscape. People are asking a lot of big questions. Frankly, we are asking a lot of big questions. There are a lot of hot, polarized takes, and I think that’s never been our thing, Diane.

Diane Tavenner: No, I mean, you know we’ve always talked about our original motivation. And the reason we started this podcast is because we wanted to think about third way solutions. We wanted to think about bringing groups together for really meaningful, purposeful engagement and education and solutions – things that would move us forward. And so, you know, I think that combined with the fact that we both share a very strong belief that schools are in desperate need of redesign, I think maybe growing more desperate every day.

Michael Horn: Maybe that is our hot take. But we’re different from the poles in that way…

Diane Tavenner: Right, right. And, you know, they have to change in order to meet the needs of today’s learners as well as our society. And when the pandemic began, we both thought it would be finally this catalyst that we needed to accelerate the change. We thought we could maybe contribute to that by highlighting what learning could look like and elevating sort of third way perspectives and solutions for how to get there. I don’t think either of us are satisfied with the progress that’s been made since we started this several years ago. But we remain optimists and determined and so here we are.

Michael Horn: Those are good words to use, I think, to describe how we both feel. It’s also one of the reasons AI is so interesting to us, because we do think it’s an important tool. And I’ll say that again. It’s a tool, not the ends. So do not expect us to talk about AI for AI’s sake, but rather in the context of learning and the learning environments we create. And I’ll say in all candor, as we start this season, like I don’t think anyone really knows its ultimate impact. Anyone who does, they’re lying because it’s a lot of theorizing right now. I remain incredibly curious about it. I would say I’m very malleable still in my thinking.

Michael Horn: Maybe “Malcolm Gladwellian,” if you will, if that’s a phrase. I don’t know if I’m going to reverse everything I’ve ever thought, but I’m really curious about where it will and won’t have impact. What’s positive and negative about that, the timeframe over which it will happen and want to learn a lot about that. I will also say I think it’s important to note because it’s on the minds of a lot of folks. We are obviously statement of the obvious about to have a change in federal leadership and the President and the administration. And there are a lot of questions, of course, about how that might influence or impact what’s happening in education as well.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah, and I think one of the things we do is we lean into topics that arise and certainly, you know, there’s stuff that’s going to be coming our way and when we think that we can bring a useful perspective or make a contribution, we, we get together and talk about it. And so I think we can expect some of that over the next year. We’re not exactly sure what it will be, but I think we can expect it. And then I think finally, you’ve always spanned K-12 higher ed and workforce. My work continues to expand as well. And so I think we’ll always or continue to center K-12.

You know, we hope to help folks see all of the connections between these, you know, sometimes siloed elements of education and learning, because there really is a bigger, broader picture and set of connections.

Michael Horn: I’m glad you’ve come over to the dark side of not just K-12, but, you know, look, K-12 at some level is a dependent system on higher ed in the workforce, and those are extraneous macro conditions that impact what K-12 is preparing students for. So it’s a really important conversation to frankly set the context for our schools.

Diane Tavenner: Totally. And so with all of that context studying as we launch this new season, I am really excited for this first conversation. Michael, your new book came out literally yesterday as of recording time, and I really wanted the opportunity to interview you about it. We had such a fun interview this summer with David Yeager around his. His book that came out 10 to 25.

And I just wanted to do a reprise, you know, like, how do we do that again with your book? You being you, when I suggested this, you said it should be a co-interview. And I was like, I don’t have a book coming out.

But you rightly pointed out that your book is so related to the work that I’m doing and this is new work for me. At first I thought, you know, well, I don’t know. And then I really read the book and I was like, okay, this. This could be interesting. Usual. You were right. So we’re going to have this kind of hybrid book talk today.

Michael Horn: Well, you actually were showing me a version of the product platform that you’re building. And I was like, holy cow, we did it again! Unintentionally. We have wound up with a lot of similar insights. We come there different ways. We do, but we often find ourselves in these places of convergence.

Diane Tavenner: Yes, indeed. It’s awesome.

Well, let’s start with some basics. Your newest book is called “Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in your Career.” You have two co-authors on this one, so Ethan Bernstein and Bob Moesta. And the book was released on November 19th. And so I guess my first question to you is, why? Why do you decide to write this book and why is it so important, especially given this moment that we’re living in? Like even more important than when you started writing it, I think.

Michael Horn: Yeah so I will say there’s a personal story to that and then there’s like the story of why we think this is the right book for the moment. And I’ll lean into that second one for a moment because what we saw obviously during the COVID pandemic was the great resignation in the United States. We saw literally unprecedented numbers of people leaving jobs, trying to make progress in their lives and then frankly, unprecedented numbers of them really dissatisfied with the moves that they had just made. And I’ll say 1 billion people roughly every year worldwide switch jobs. In the US we switch jobs every four years. And we have a lot of evidence, according to Gallup, Pew others that at least 2/3 of the workforce in the jobs they are presently are completely disengaged, quiet quitting, whatever you want to call it. And so our basic sense, I think is that we make progress at some level by switching jobs, but it does not line up with how companies think about progression.

And we want to help empower people to realize you get to hire your next job, treat it like product development, prototype what you could be doing and figure out the trade offs you’re going to make. Like what’s a better or worse fit for you so that you can get the progress that you’re really prioritizing. So that’s where we’ve landed and why I think it’s so important. And we’ve obviously pitched. You know, we talked last year on this, on this season about your own switch. But like, just to remind folks, you started thinking, “Hey, college for all is not the narrative either.” Careers in K-12 schools and the jobs and what people like doing is a really important thing to start figuring out. So maybe talk about that as well.

Diane Tavenner: Well, first of all, all that really resonates for me and it’s just, it’s stuff I know, but when you just lay down all those stats that way, it just is a really profound, it’s so important. That’s why we’re doing this work. So here’s what I would say. One of the fun parts of being in a startup is that I get to spend a lot more time with young people than I did when I leading a much bigger organization. And you know, over the last year we’ve been working directly with high schools and their students to build Future, the Future Platform, which is a life navigation platform and it’s really designed for right now, young people, ages 15 to 25. And you know, our small team is made up of college interns and recent college grads. We’re building for this group.

We need to, you know, be this group, except for a couple of us sort of older and grayer folks. And working with them has been so fun and inspiring and enlightening. And you know, we set out to build Future because we didn’t think anything like it existed. So as you’re going through your list, you’re like, there’s all this reality and we don’t think, you know, when we look around we’re like, how do high school and college students figure out what life they want to lead and what careers will enable that life and how to connect that to the day to day decisions and activities they’re engaged in. Which, by the way, may very well be college. But college is a means to that end. It is not the end. And I think that’s where we went wrong or went sideways for quite a while.

And I’m saying “we” in the, you know, grander sense there. And so currently there’s a bunch of technology that’s designed to manage the process of applying to college. There’s a bunch of websites, you can search for information on careers, but there’s nothing that meets you where you are and kind of walks beside you for a decade plus as you figure out you are what you want, what the world has to offer, and where those two things intersect and meet. And so even though your job moves and future are focused on people at different ages and stages, one of the things I noticed immediately was that you identify four primary questions for why people seek to change jobs. And those seem to be so similar to the motivations of young people who I’m talking to and working with. And so let’s talk about those four. Will you tell us about those four motivations and what you learned?

Michael Horn: Yeah, absolutely. So we did the jobs to be done methodology, I should say that, which is like, explains why people switch behavior. One of the big things is “Bitchin’ ain’t switchin.” Just because you’re complaining about something doesn’t mean you’re going to actually switch behavior. We want to see people who’ve actually made switches and then we code for the pushes and pulls. So the things that are driving them away from the status quo and I’m pulling you toward this new future. And then we cluster them. Okay, so four quests.

First one, get out. These are people who are like, just ain’t good. It’s going nowhere fast. Managers, you know, we’re not vibing. The job description is not working. I want to reset how my energy is being used and how my capabilities are being used. I need to find some place better and quick. The second quest is what we call regain control.

And these are people who are really like. I actually like a lot of what I get to do on a daily basis, like how it uses my capabilities. But I don’t like how it energizes or makes use of my time. I feel like that’s out of control. This could be like I need more work life balance. It could be I actually want to figure out how or where I do like hybrid work. Right?

Has become a big deal remote work. It could be that micromanaging boss. My energy’s out of whack. The third one is what we call regain alignment. So these are people who basically say the opposite. I really like how my energy is being used in my time. But I’m feeling disrespected for the skills that I bring to the table and what they’re being what I’m being asked to do. And then the last one, we call these folks to take the next steppers.

This is I would say the closest thing to sort of climbing the career ladder or in our choosing college book, like get into the best college for its own sake. I have no idea why but like I just. That’s what I’m supposed to do. And these are people that like actually I like my how my energy is being used. I like what I’m doing. Let’s take that next step. I will say there’s like U turns in this one as well. We profile some people where that is but it really is fundamentally for all these quests.

And we’ll get into this something that I’ve learned from you which is the “ings”—what you’re doing, not what the title is and the perks in the surface level. Like does what you do on a daily basis really line up with the things that give you energy and are the skill sets that you’re good at? And as you know, those are interdependent.

Diane Tavenner: Totally. For those people who work in K-12 and specifically in high school, I and specifically with seniors in high school, I suspect they recognize a lot of connection there. So when I read these motivations I was like, oh my gosh. This is is describing high school kids. They want to get out. They’re maybe not regaining or real control or realigning. They’re doing it for the first time, really.

Michael Horn: I think that’s right. And we also, you’ve noted to me we don’t really give high school students in our present design of schools the opportunity to, like, go deep in something and then be like, “Oh, I actually want to regain alignment because I’ve gone off somewhere.” Right? Like, we don’t actually give them those choices.

Diane Tavenner: Right, right. But as you describe the energy, so many kids in high school are like, my energy is not here. This is not feeding me. Like, I. I could be out doing things, making money, you know, and I don’t feel respected. There’s tons of high school kids who don’t feel like what they can do and are capable of doing are being illuminated or highlighted. So I just saw so many connections there, and I thought it was such a great way to start the book. We’re going to get very practical here, but let’s spend a couple of moments on the research.

There’s a ton of research. Oh, my go, gosh, buckets of research underlying your book. And the same is true for our platform as well. So let’s just spend a couple of minutes on some of those key points that really matter to you and connect to those nine steps with the, you know, journey. And again, I’ll. I’ll point out, I bet there’s going to be some intersections there. But let’s do that for a few moments.

Michael Horn: Sounds good. So I’ll just say, like, we actually… Ethan’s a qualitative researcher. He’s a professor at the Harvard Business School. Bob Moesta is the “Jobs to be Done” guy. He created the theory. He loves to do interviews. Over the course of a decade plus, we collected data on over a thousand individuals making the choice to switch jobs.

And then Ethan designed an entire course around it, which allowed him to coach literally hundreds of people in lots of different career walks. Not just like your HBS students, because it was an exec online course. So, you know, they’re construction workers. Like, it’s a pretty wide range to actually start to build processes and protocols. And then Bob actually, when the pandemic hit, Clay Christensen died. This is the personal side of the story. And the three of us agreed within a few weeks to write the book with each other. Bob started prototyping with cohorts, actually coaching them through the process.

And so we built a first process. He then improved it in a second step. Then a third step. He tried to break it by seeing how fast. What if we limited time? Like, how are all the ways we can purposely break it and then the fourth and fifth were like, let’s put it back together with what we’ve learned. And that’s what’s in the book.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah. That’s awesome. And again, so parallels. You’re doing this in a more analog version.

Michael Horn: Yes. And you get to do it in a digital.

Diane Tavenner: I’m doing it in a digital. But so, so, so similar. And, you know, I think what I’m drawing on is the research around how young people develop, the learning science behind that. The power of purpose in driving. You know, the striving for a good and fulfilled life. And that’s all present in what you’re doing.

Michael Horn: And I would. Yeah. On that front. Right? Like, I would say, we pulled in a lot of those unintentionally throughout or maybe intentionally. Of purpose was a big one. Progress is really what jobs to be done is all about. That’s connected.

And then Ethan, obviously, being a professor at HBS and sort of the HR person has a mountain of research on a lot of stuff around. Like he’s the transparency paradox guy. Like, when is that actually a good idea, when is it a bad idea and things of that nature. And so we got to pull all of that in as we were building these.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah. Yeah. And I think what’s cool is that, and this is a thing we’re both committed to is that research for its own purpose is not useful.

Michael Horn: Not very useful.

Diane Tavenner: So we want it to always be applied. And so, you know, what we have, what we are building is the app is embodies the application of that research. And so we’re very committed to the research, but in that real way. So let’s just jump into a few of the steps. I’m not sure we’ll get through all nine.

Michael Horn: Let’s not do all nine. Let’s focus on the ones that are interesting for your purposes as well.

Diane Tavenner: Okay. So I love this [second] step. Energy drivers and drains. And you just sort of alluded to it. But let’s dig in a little bit more. It addresses so many of the challenges I have with traditional career coaching. So. Yeah.

Michael Horn: Oh, boy. So I want to hear this on the back end because it occurred to me we wrote a book, for people, frankly, who’ve had at least one job and then the backward mapping of into the K-12 and higher ed processes I actually think is your platform does it pretty naturally. But this big first one is not a new idea. A lot of people have written about understand what energizes you, what drains your energy, how that changes based on context. You know, Bill Burnett, design your life like a lot of this stuff. Right? But what I think we did uniquely here is we want you to look at your. Your actual experiences and reflect on times when you were in flow and your energy was really turned on and it was building and so forth.

And at past work where it was draining that energy. Now, for someone in the job market, we’re looking at past jobs, past roles you’ve had. My sense is if you’re a K-12 student, it’s looking at the projects you do, the times you’re in classes, the extracurricular activities you’re involved with. And then I think this is where your ings come into Diane, and where you’ve built around this a little bit.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so I think you’re exactly right. So one of the things I notice and observe both in K-12, but also in anytime people are sort of coaching or helping people figure out career paths is it’s a pretty common practice that they give people sort of this, what I would call a black box assessment that is somehow going to figure out what your aptitudes are or, you know, what you’re going to like. But ED is a black box. People don’t understand what’s going on in that assessment. And what it usually spits out is either some very high level things like, you know, you’re a whatever, or I’m not even thinking I’m a good whatever because I never pay attention to these things. But you know what I’m talking about.

Michael Horn: Yeah. No, you said you ship to my class. Right? Like, you know, these. This is your fixed personality, so to speak. Or this is your fixed, you know, aptitudes.

Diane Tavenner: Right?

Michael Horn: And therefore you should be, you know, communicator. Right? Or you should be. Mine is like writer, private equity, like three others. Right? And you’re like, what careers?

And I mean writer. I guess it landed. But you know, when I might.

Diane Tavenner: Well, when they get mortician, they’re like, what? What are you talking about? For the most part. And so I don’t like that black boxiness because the whole point is we’re empowering individuals to figure out the life they want. And so what I love about this is they’re actually reflecting on and thinking about things they’ve already done to apply them to the future.

Michael Horn: Well, stay with it. Right? This is the big flip in the book, which is that most places think of job seekers as the supply side, like the, the available pool of talent and the jobs out there as the demand side. Companies demanding workers. Our notion is you flip that. That the individuals, right, have to actually learn about themselves so they can figure out what they are demanding.

Diane Tavenner: Yes.

Michael Horn: As they go seek out work and that they are the demand side. So it’s a flip from labor economists, but it’s what I’ve learned from you about the importance of agency, frankly, building this metacognition about what really makes you tick and then being able to pattern match well.

Diane Tavenner: And this is exactly the flip I want high school students to have is I want them to, whether it be applying to college or the career they’re thinking about, I want them to see themselves as the people who are making the choice. And I think one of the, you know, challenges that the College For All movement and exclusive colleges have created is that young people feel like they’re just trying to get someone to pick them and that it’s very arbitrary. And they don’t, you know, they’re. It’s not clear what to do versus feeling totally empowered to be like, no, I’m gonna decide who I am and what I care about and then I’m gonna go find the fit for that. Totally. So I love this. Let’s. Let’s talk about another one.

So there’s this idea, and it’s very connected, this idea of the career balance sheet and the assets and liabilities, which in my view is such a positive kind of flip from what we normally hear, which is like strengths and weaknesses. So talk about that contrast and what you’re doing here.

Michael Horn: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the big thing, right, is that again, this sort of strengths and weaknesses, which I like, I think is useful input and data, but it’s a very fixed perspective on what an individual is. How many of you have taken Myers Briggs and like come out with a pro personality type and then realized, actually, in this situation I’m quite extroverted, and in this situation I get a little withdrawn and like, my introverted side comes out. And context is really important. Todd Rose talks about the context principle, right? And so our big thing. And then there’s Carol Dweck’s work around growth mindset that you can actually build capabilities over time. And so this is the big idea, right, is that we actually have these career balance sheets. Boris Groysberg, the professor at HBS, there’s that research, came up with that idea.

And basically what he said is that assets from an accounting perspective are resources that have future economic value that are acquired at cost. And so your capabilities, if you will, your assets are skills, your knowledge, your ability to do things, also your credentials and degrees and things of that nature that have value and they’re acquired at a cost. And that’s the liability side. What’s the time and money it takes to actually learn that third language, if you will, to actually become a coder? These things don’t happen magically, which is, I think, frankly, another weakness of a lot of these things is like, oh, you’ll just learn these skills and do it and no one asks you, what’s the trade off in terms of the time you have to invest. Oh, go be a doctor. Well, you gotta get through organic chemistry, at least in our present system.

So is that gonna work for you, that investment? And so that, that’s basically the idea. And then I guess the last thing I would say is we also want people to realize that these assets you build, they have a shelf life. They depreciate over time. Your degree will be a lot less valuable 30 years from now than it is when you first perhaps come out of college. Your technical coding skills, we know those are eroding faster than ever, thanks to AI, maybe even faster than that. And so what’s the useful life of each of these assets you’ve built? And be like brutally honest with that and then really understand what are the trade offs of, like, where you want to go in developing your further assets? The last one, I’ll say this, we talk a lot about the importance of social capital and network. It is, but those have shelf lives as well. Unless you’re consciously reinvesting in them to build them up in the directions you want to go.

Diane Tavenner: Totally. This is so aligned with how I have experienced some of the best folks across the country starting to talk to and engage with young people about their futures. And they’re framing it in the language of ROI or return on investment. I think we’re talking about the exact same thing here, which is this idea of like, we need young people to realize, like, whatever you’re doing post high school, you are making an investment that is a liability.

Michael Horn: When I saw that on your, in your platform, I was like, oh my gosh, like, alarm bell. I was like, this is the same thing. It’s just a different age and stage.

Diane Tavenner: It is. And so what we’re trying to show them is like, think about not only your, your money, but your time, because that is your most precious resource.

Michael Horn: That is your most precious resource. I mean, right when people talk a lot of times, and I’m now talking about adult learners, for example, about their lack of resources to, you know, they’re working three jobs and they’re trying to get the degree to get ahead. Time poverty is the biggest poverty they face.

Diane Tavenner: Totally. Well, I mean, I feel that right now.

Michael Horn: Right? We feel it right now. Yeah.

Diane Tavenner: Literally. So we talk about that return on investment, like what do you, what can you spend and how quickly do you need to have that start paying off? Like what is it actually going to buy you? Buy a good return. Right? Like you’ve got to invest in assets that are going to get you the return you want. And I, I fear that a lot of young people don’t even think about their time or their money into college as investments. And so there is no sort of plan to get a return on that. And as a result, so many are not getting a return on that investment. And so they’re, they have massive debt, not just financial debt, but, but this sort of more skill, knowledge.

Michael Horn: Yeah, I mean we call it like this is how careers go bankrupt when the liability side is bigger than the assets you’ve built and frankly are misaligned. And this is where these things are interconnected; misaligned to what gives you energy.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah. This is so interesting. We could have a long conversation about how I feel like in education we’ve gone so far away from thinking about money and business that we’ve actually done a really significant disservice to everyone who’s in it. And I kind of know why we maybe sort of went that way, but we went way too far. And I think we’ve got to, we’ve got to pull it back.

Michael Horn: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s right. I think it probably also explains some of the populations that have become more disaffected with schooling over the years. I’m thinking of males at the moment as one example, but I think these are all factors.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah. One of the things I love about the book is that of course you’re asking people to prototype the jobs and the careers that they want. And you know, you and I are both pretty obsessed with prototyping. We talk about it all the time. I was in your class yesterday, we were talking about prototyping and I think we’re obsessed with it because it’s so much smarter to spend time, you know, in a low stakes way, figuring out options and ideas and really sort of digging into them before you actually spend all this time and energy to get into them. And so talk about how you, how this comes to be and what it looks like in the job moves world.

Michael Horn: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s exactly right. What you just said is prototyping is how we learn. And so what we really want you to do in the book is get away from one of the biggest mistakes I think people who are looking for new jobs make is they think like, “Oh, I’m chasing the one job.” And instead we want you to create divergent prototypes, like really far afield. You know, next role, same company, totally different company, same role. And then like different careers. Things I’ve always dreamed about, like, really go spread them wide, A so that you can start to understand and learn about many different careers and how what drives your energy and your capabilities, like back to those ing is what you like doing actually maps onto these different types of roles and start to flush them out.

And I, I guess this is the next piece of it. We really want to help people learn before they switch, not afterwards.

Diane Tavenner: Yes.

Michael Horn: And to do so, as you know, there’s all sorts of things you could do. Job shadowing, you know, the expeditions. Right? You had in Summit, right? Where you’re actually spending real time with real professionals. All that is great. It’s not always accessible to people. And so the other way we do it is suggest is informational interviewing. And this is a very different kind of informational interview from the one at least as a kid I went on where like, you know, my parents would say, like, “Oh, here’s a friend of mine, you know, they’re a journalist. Like, go do an informational interview with them.” I had no idea what to say or ask in those conversations. But here what we want to say is like, you’ve done the reflection on what you want to do and what drives your energy. So figure out is what they do on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. Where does it align and where does it not align? So you get a real sense of what it would be like to be in this job.

And then the contrasts between these things start to create meaning about where do you want to go next? We, I guess we could talk about how to funnel it down. But I’m curious, like, you’ve built this out a little bit as well. Right? So how do you think about it?

Diane Tavenner: Yeah, I mean, very aligned with what you’re saying. And I think a key point I want to pick up on is like, people are really, you know, attuned to and focused on. And I think you’re seeing more in high schools where people are trying to do More shadow days, more job fairs, more, you know, company visits or employer visits, more informational interviewing. And I think you just made a really important point that we’re focused on, which is those things are all great, but they’re not nearly as good if you go into them cold and not knowing what to ask or not what you want to learn for them from them.

It’s not as good for you. It’s not as good for the people who you are with. And so one of the things we’re doing in the platform is helping young people really do exploration before they get into those experiences so they can make the most of them. And I think your whole steps, your sequence, really helps people get ready for those experiences so they make the most of them. And in our case, you know, we have 868 careers that. And there are all these really thoughtful ways to explore them and figure out, like, what parts of this career are you going to like that match up with who you are and your ings and what you like doing. And so you go into those, those experiences and conversations with a lot more knowledge and with, with what you actually want to figure out coming out the other side and then reflect on. And I think then you talk about moving into ranking those prototypes, which is, which we’re moving towards as well.

And I’m curious, like, what, what does that look like? And then, you know, if people open up really wide, how do they then, you know, bring that back and converge, which is another concept you’ve got in here.

Michael Horn: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll try to cover it quickly and then ask like, how you guys do it. But also one of the questions that’s always on my mind about doing this in the K-12 environment versus where we are doing it, where like someone’s theoretically anyway going to try to find a job within the next few weeks or month or something like that. So the way we do it is you have these energy drivers and you have these capabilities and we’ve had you bucket them right into the must have the ideally would have and like, okay, I can live without. But, you know, all things being equal, it’d be pretty sweet if it did this too. And then we have you rank these different prototypes and your current job on all of these dimensions. You can think about it of a scale to 1 to 10. And then we’ve got on jobmoves.com, this really simple Google sheet that will literally multiply it out to give you a mathematical answer.

But I think a lot of people frankly have a gut feeling after they’ve gone through this and you start to realize one of these prototypes or maybe your current role really is hitting most of these critical must have things that you’ll be doing. Again, emphasis on the doing, right? That is so important to you and that’s how you learn to your point, I love that point. This learning agenda, that’s how you start to learn, is you start to use the rank your prototypes so that you can converge and say, this is the one or two things I’d really love to get out in the market now and go find for what I could do next. So we hope the math helps. The force ranking of, you know, I’m on an, I’m an eight on working with people, but I’m a two on leading meetings. You’re probably pretty high on leading meetings, I suspect.

And so right? And we understand how that role, you know, fills in against it. You know, people should check it out. I didn’t explain that correctly, but I think when they check it out, you’ll start to see how it works and gives you information about yourself at this moment in time because it changes. So that’s the question I want to ask you is like, how do you do the convergence but also how do you do the fact that like people are changing quite a bit when they’re still in high school? And also the world of jobs is changing so rapidly. Like we have it easy, right? Because that job, presumably it exists. Yours, like it could be totally different in five years from now because of AI and automation.

Diane Tavenner: It could be. And so that’s why I think knowing yourself and who you are and what you care about will always matter a lot because then it’s a matter of matching up with what a world is offering today, tomorrow, in the future. And so that underlying piece of knowing who you are and in a really granular level, like what gives you energy or what doesn’t, or what do you like doing or, you know, all those things is so critical. But we’ve got a experience we call Compare. One of the things we heard is just let us take two careers side by side after we’ve done some exploration and then compare them to each other. And there’s a couple of things going on here. You know, we’re, we’re sort of showing a framework for how you can do analysis about the exploration you’ve done, which it sounds like, you know, you’re using some math and some ranking. We’re doing something similar. And then the sort of head to head of one versus the other really does illuminate what is more important to me than other things.

And it sort of gives some, some credibility to those gut instincts, like you said, or at least makes you talk through them and, and articulate what’s going on for you there.

Michael Horn: And so I think that’s right. And this is, I think, the big thing that our book does. Like there’s other books that have a lot of these notions in them. “Design your Life” is, I think, both of our, you know, one of our favorites. But I think what we really want to help people do is figure out how you make the trade offs because there’s no job that’s perfect. And so we want you to visibly see, oh man, if I take this job, I’m going to have to lead some meetings. But you know what? I’m willing to trade off on that because of all these amazing things I got that are at the top of my list. That’s a trade off I’m willing to make.

Or the one that Bob loves to always say is, man, I’m going to have to have an hour and a half commute, but it’s more money or do I want less money and like it’s five minutes from my door. These are real tradeoffs that like you’ve got to figure out and you have to do it relative to the things that you most want to get in your next role.

Diane Tavenner: Totally. And so Michael, where do they go from there in your process after we’re sort of converging and we’ve done this analysis, just bring us home.

Michael Horn: Yeah, I’ll try, I’ll try to whip through the final few steps quickly for our, for our audience, Diane. But essentially this is all the demand side, right? We’re doing a ton of demand side work around what you want and the trade offs you’re willing to make. So now we switch to the supply side. What jobs actually exist. We’re going to start looking at postings, we’re going to use those interviewing techniques to actually talk to real people and use our network because it turns out 70% of jobs are filled by a network, someone in your network. And the reality, I think, with AI is that’s going to become more in the years ahead. I think social capital is going to get more important.

And so we then help you find those jobs, unpack what they really mean. Are they actually what you think they are? We teach you to tell your story through Pixar. All this reflection you’ve done you need to be able to explain it in an elevator pitch. We help you with that and then we help you. The final step is just a personal cheat sheet so that you know in a really easy way what makes you tick, the work environments where you’re most likely to be successful. But it’s also something that if it’s not too Millennial or Gen Z, you can share with people around you so they know where you’re excellent. And frankly, like, you know, you know, a bunch of my weaknesses, we all have them.

Like, let’s be honest with them. This is where I’m not as good. And can you build other people on the team that are awesome at it? Because frankly, my energy is such that I’m probably never going to really lean into that. Let’s be asset based as opposed to deficit minded.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah, I love so much about that. The, the last quick thing, I had an amazing mentor who always says, like, you know, people spend all this time trying to improve the things that they’re not good at, rather than doubling down on the things that they are good at and being great at that, you know,? So I favor that approach.

I will just say, you know, for those who’ve listened for a long time, you know that my son graduated from college in the spring and he spent the summer working for the Aspen Institute, and then he joined as a field organizer of the Presidential campaign. So he’s just coming off of that. And I ordered the book for him, Michael, because I think it’s like such a perfect moment and way for him to approach this. And it’s funny because so many people really respect what he did. I mean, field organizing is no joke. And they’re like, wow, he probably has a lot of skills and a lot of knowledge, and it’s just like swimming around there.

And I think this process is going to be really amazing for him to make sense of it and figure out where he wants to go next. And so I’ll report back, but I’m excited to see how he progresses through that.

Michael Horn: Well, thank you. I hope it’s a positive one. And I hope for folks listening also that if they check it out for themselves or frankly, if they’re trying to retain a team at a school or a nonprofit, they can use it that way. Or frankly, that they get to see how it maps onto what you’ve built at Futre at Futre.Me right? Because it’s an incredible resource. Obviously, you are architecting for kids that they get to keep with them as they leave high school, which is so important. So let’s use that as a segue.

You bought the book for Rhett. I appreciate that. What are you reading or listening to or watching? Let’s wrap us up there.

Diane Tavenner: That’s great. Well, I have read a ton since we last talked, but the thing I’m immersed in right now is “Nexus” by Yuval Harari. And I will say that I am a big fan of his writing. And because it really provokes me to think differently. I feel like he tells stories and that are very relevant and very current in a way that I’m like, “Oh, I hadn’t really thought about it that way or looked at it that way. And this is no different. It feels like very appropriate to this moment in time. And then you burst my bubble a little bit and told me about how he was being brutally attacked for his research.

And so I did some looking at that as well, and, you know, that’s a longer conversation, but I’m going to stick with it. I think the book is really provocative, especially in this moment as we are coming off an election and into a new administration. And thinking about social media and the media in general and information. Super, super!

Yeah. Making me think a lot. Yeah. How about you?

Michael Horn: No, that makes sense. That makes sense. And look, I think at the very least, he helps us ask big questions.

And that’s the theme of what I was going to bring to you, which is that I’ve been trying to ask better questions, to listen, better not interrupt as much. It’s sort of been a New Year’s resolution of mine. And so I’ve read a trio of books around that. First is “Ask: Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You.” You have it there for unexpected breakthroughs in leadership in life by our good friend Jeff Wetzler at Transcend. This is not about his work at Transcend, but it’s an incredibly good book around asking questions and approaching problems with curiosity.

And then I read Hal Gregerson’s book from, I think it was 2018, where it’s called “Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life.” Great book as well.

And then I’m rereading the book that I suspect you like as well, which is “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss.

Diane Tavenner: Love, Chris.

Michael Horn: So good. So good. And I felt like his Masterclass is amazing. I just felt like, okay, I need a refresher on this, because a lot of the stuff that, like Amanda Ripley and others write about in terms of deep listening and frankly, the jobs to be done approach that underpins job moves is all around that deep listening of, like, what is someone really saying and really understand on their terms. So that’s what I’ve been reading.

Diane Tavenner: So cool. I like how you got those all piled in. You know, you, you, you slipped three into  one.

Michael Horn: I’m going thematic, which gives me license. And, hey, it’s our show, so we get to do what we want. But for all you tuning in, thank you for doing so. We look forward to the season to come, and we’ll see you next time on Class Disrupted.

This Thursday, join The 74 and the Progressive Policy Institute for a special conversation about how rural collaboratives can transform life trajectories for rural high school students and create sustainable economic development for their communities. 

The Rural Collaborative model, inspired by Texas’ Rural Schools Innovation Zone (RSIZ), aims to better align educational pathways with local economic needs. Speakers will include RSIZ Executive Director Michael Gonzalez, Texas State Rep. Brad Buckley, Colorado State Rep. Eliza Hamrick and Empower Schools CEO Alyssa Morton. RSVP right here. 

Sign up for the Zoom or tune in to this page Thursday at 11 a.m. ET to stream the event.

More rural education and career pathway coverage from The 74: 

• Q&A: Nation’s First School Counselor Residency Launches in Rural CA 

• NJ Nonprofit Offers Hands-On STEM Learning to Low-Income Students at 150 Schools

• Campus Road Trip Diary: 8 Things We Learned This Year About America’s Most Innovative High Schools

• Report Shows Millions of Rural Students Facing Multiple Crises after COVID

• STEM with a Purpose Sparked Better Learning, and a Patent, for My Rural Students 

Equally concerning is the recent steep rise in kids missing too much school. of students missed 10% or more of the school year—the threshold for chronic absenteeism—in 2022-2023, the latest year for which we have nationwide data. 

As hard as teachers are working, school feels irrelevant for many kids. But it doesn’t have to be that way. When kids can see the connection between what they’re being taught and what the future holds, they learn.

It’s clear that our assignment as adults is this: Make sure our schools engage all kids, no matter their background or where they live. Every school can be a place for connection, rigorous learning, even joy. And when kids are prepared for the future, our country is, too.

It’s a good first step that schools are facing chronic absenteeism head on. A bipartisan coalition has declared curbing chronic absenteeism “school’s top priority” this year. In that spirit, rural, urban, and suburban districts are applying to boost attendance.

These are important short-term efforts and can be a down payment toward a better education system. At the same time, we need a wider lens that holistically improves students’ experiences at school and how prepared they feel for future success.

In my 26 years working alongside many others to drive change for K–12 education, I’ve seen reform efforts tinker with discrete parts of the system. It’s not that we don’t know what kids need to succeed; we’ve got to get better at expanding these efforts and putting them in place across the board, so all kids have access. And we must take a collective approach, with students, educators, families, and other stakeholders working together. 

We can do three things we can to accomplish that.

First, we must renew our focus, at every level of government and in every school system, on improving measurable student achievement in reading and math. We have plenty of evidence that ensuring students and by fourth and eighth sets them up for success. For example, research shows that taking Algebra I by eighth grade is the strongest indicator of college readiness and graduating college within four years. Yet too many students .

By leaning into the science of , we can make these subjects relevant and accessible for every student. As of this month, have passed legislation or put policies in place that promote evidence-based reading instruction. We can also fund and support promising new models, policies, and practices that ensure all students, regardless of their backgrounds, have an equal chance to excel.

And schools must be able to more easily find new ways to boost student engagement and learning. To that end, states could give districts more flexibility on requirements like seat-time, length of the school day, and grade-level grouping, all while ensuring a high level of academic rigor.

Second, let’s reimagine the role of the teacher—in every school district. One teacher in front of one classroom is how I learned, how my kids have learned, and how most students learn today. But it’s not the best recipe in our dynamic 21st century world for quality teaching or student learning.

The —which includes the organization I lead, Teach For America—believes that modernizing teaching is key to ensuring all students realize their unique potential. Let’s give educators more flexibility to meet the high bar we set for them, change how we staff schools so teachers and students are more supported, boost teacher pay, and give educators the tools to help every child grow and achieve.

Already, districts from Arizona to Kansas City to Washington, D.C., are using team-based teaching, and helping kids succeed with tutoring, such as Teach For America’s virtual tutoring program. But we need to do more of these things, in more school districts.

Finally, we must truly prepare kids for life after their K–12 schooling—which would make classwork feel more relevant for many students. High-quality programs that ensure students have options after high school—whether they choose college or career—can be a part of every child’s education.

The Rooted School, founded by Teach For America alumnus Jonathan Johnson, provides for how this can be done. The school’s four locations—New Orleans, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and Vancouver, Wash.—integrate early college experience with a strong school culture and give students “a voice and choice” in what they’re learning. Work-based learning starts freshman year with Friday internships. The school day includes counseling, career planning and jobs skills education. All students leave with “a job offer in one hand and a college acceptance letter in the other.”These three key steps to transforming American education go hand in hand with other goals, such as ensuring students have safe and welcoming schools and that they’re building important life skills such as empathy, self-regulation, and critical thinking. Working together, we can build a better kind of education—one that meets every child’s needs and aspirations and prepares them to go out into the world and realize their dreams.

A partnership between and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is providing $1.5 million in scholarship funding for aspiring principals from small, high-need North Carolina school districts.

The Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of Effective Educators scholarship initiative covers the cost of a two-year Master of School Administration degree program. This includes tuition and a salary for their full-time principal internship, which is completed during their second year. Funding for the scholarship comes from grants, one via the U.S. Department of Education and another from N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

“This partnership underscores our shared dedication to advancing educational equity and excellence and preparing our aspiring leaders to lead with integrity,  purpose, and through innovation,” NCCU MSA Program Director Portia Gibbs-Roseboro said.

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The Innovation Project is a nonprofit that connects school district leaders throughout the state with the purpose of inspiring change and equity.

Sharon Contreras, CEO of The Innovation Project, said that with strong support, great teachers can become great principals.

“The interview process was especially dynamic and illuminated those candidates with the potential to do the work our students need and deserve. I’m thrilled with the outcome and I look forward to seeing these professionals advance in their careers and continue to serve in smaller districts,” Contreras said.

Candidates were selected to be in the scholarship program’s first cohort after nominations, applying, and a group interview process. The 16 scholarship recipients are listed below.

• Cecelia Aguilar, Warren County School District
• Trevor Beverly, Lexington City Schools
• James Brown, Warren County School District
• QuaShana Brown, Edgecombe County Public Schools
• Sylvia Carver, Elizabeth City – Pasquotank Public Schools
• Wilonda Gillespie-Cates, Vance County Public Schools
• J’Vonn Davis, Elizabeth City – Pasquotank Public Schools
• Megan Gentry, Mt. Airy School District
• Pamela Jordan, Warren County School District
• Ashley Knowles, Sampson County Schools
• Brandon Powell, Sampson County Schools
• Jennivise Lindsay, Vance County Public Schools
• Kenya Raynor, Edgecombe County Public Schools
• Elaine Reales, Mt. Airy School District
• West Scherer, Asheboro City Schools
• Danielle Wissner, Elizabeth City – Pasquotank Public Schools

The cohort members will begin classes in the upcoming fall semester. In addition to their course work, recipients also committed to a five-year service obligation.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Indiana is the latest state to work with ETH Zurich — where Albert Einstein once studied —  to develop ways to break down barriers between educators and business so that career training can be a large part of a reinvented high school experience.

Indiana government, business and education officials  — like those in Alabama, California, Colorado, Washington State, New York City and Washington, D.C. — have spent the last few years working with Ursula Renold, the former head of the Swiss vocational system.

Now a professor at ETH, Renold’s highly-regarded Center on the Economics and Management of Education and Training Systems, known as CEMETS, earns rave reviews and advises companies and officials around the world.

A broad Indiana coalition including legislators, the state community college Ivy Tech, the Indiana Department of Education and Indiana Chamber of Commerce have visited Switzerland under CEMETS’ direction. Committees of executives from several industries have also taken trips to see Swiss companies and schools in their field.

The coalition expects to release a statewide plan to expand youth apprenticeships — potentially from 500 today to 50,000 in 10 years  — in September. 

“College, of course, is very important, and it will continue to be important,” said Claire Fiddian-Green, President and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, which has paid for and is leading some of the work. “But we know that it’s not serving the majority of students in Indiana today.”

“We are trying to grow another great pathway that allows for upward mobility for young people in our state and also meets the demand for skilled labor that employers have been struggling to find for a long time,” she said. 

That vision includes creating thousands of apprenticeships in fields such as health care, manufacturing and information technology, which are common in Europe. Such apprenticeships would add to the more traditional ones in the U.S. in the construction trades. 

Among potential changes coming to Indiana based on the Swiss system are letting 11th and 12th graders work part time while attending school part time; and letting businesses have a say in which work skills schools teach students.

The plan will likely call for high school students to receive credit toward graduation from their work and training experiences, a change already being discussed at the department of education as it debates new diploma requirements.

Indiana already has a pilot Modern Youth Apprenticeship Program that started in 2021 to let high school juniors and seniors earn money working in businesses, such as AES Indiana and pharmaceutical company Roche, through their first year in college. Nearly 500 students have worked as apprentices in the three-year program.

That program will soon expand to four other communities across the state, but officials want to grow it even more.

“We’ve really kind of hit the accelerator,” said Robert Behning, the Indiana House education committee chairman.

Annelies Goger, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches career training, has traveled to Switzerland with Indiana officials for research on how the state, along with Colorado and Alabama, is breaking ground in trying to bring apprenticeships to a large scale.

“I am struck by the level of cohesion and shared vision in the state across many of the key leaders in workforce, education, the legislature, and the chamber,” Goger said. “CEMETS has played a critical role in creating the space and time for these leaders to work together and align around how they plan to tackle several challenges with student success.”

Day 1 of our Summer Institute was a hit!

— Chair of Education Systems (@CES_zurich)

The top challenges the Indiana coalition has identified and are looking to Renold and the Swiss for solutions include high school class schedules that interfere with work, a lack of public transportation for students to get to jobs without a car, and businesses’ willingness to train large numbers of students — not just a few as a charity effort.

Perhaps the biggest will be having competitors in each field partner to find common skills they all want new employees to have, so apprentices can train for an entire industry, not just a single employer.

The Swiss have solved many of these issues, at least to a far greater degree than the U.S. About two thirds of students in Switzerland participate in apprenticeships as part of their education. Though attending university can still be the most prestigious path, apprenticeships are respected and are often combined with college by students who want both theoretical and practical training.

The Swiss also have no reluctance in having high-school age students as apprentices as Indiana is considering. Many Swiss apprenticeships start as early as age 15, not after high school when most start in the U.S. Swiss companies view working with young people as a chance to attract new talent, not the risk and bother many American companies do.

The Swiss system also gives companies a say in what skills schools teach in return for taking on responsibility and the expense of co-training teenagers. 

Fiddian-Green said she was sold on the potential of Indiana schools and businesses cooperating to help students and themselves after attending a summer seminar in 2019 that CEMETS runs every year. Teams from around the world spend the week of the seminar  touring businesses and schools, then work with Renold’s staff to try and better grow training programs back home.

Fiddian-Green said visiting training centers that Swiss businesses create just for young people and seeing how competing companies can agree on what students need to be taught to succeed in that industry, not just their own company, was eye-opening.

“You start to have light bulbs go off after you’ve been there about three days, because it all starts to kind of click together,” she said.

Noel Ginsburg, the Colorado businessman who created the CareerWise youth apprenticeship program in Colorado in 2016 had a similar experience. He credits Renold and the CEMETS summer seminar with showing him how apprenticeships succeed for so many students and  inspiring CareerWise, which has served nearly 2,200 apprentices.

“It’s the combination of the theoretical that you learn in the classroom, where there’s discussion, but then you see it at scale, which is why CEMETS is powerful,” Ginsburg told The 74.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and his wife Judith are also fans of Renold, CEMETS and the Swiss system after Renold and staff took them to businesses and schools to see it in person. Chase now hires CareerWise apprentices in its New York City offices and is an outspoken backer of CareerWise expansion in that city.

Judi Dimon told The 74 she was impressed with how engaged Swiss apprentices were, even those still of high school age. And she saw how seriously companies took apprenticeships as a recruiting and talent pipeline strategy, not a charity program as many youth training programs are.

“It was not… a corporate responsibility project that is paid for by the (company) foundation,” Dimon said. “It is core to the businesses themselves, and to the culture and to their ability to attract young talent.”

That shift of viewing high school work experiences as a real business strategy and not just a public relations effort is cited by many experts as crucial to expanding high school internships or apprenticeships to a large scale anywhere in the U.S., not just Indiana.

Making a return on investment case to businesses is one of the key issues that Indiana teams have been working on with CEMETS staff.

Others include adapting high school schedules so that students can fit in real work time, perhaps by having some days of only work and some devoted to school as in Switzerland.  

The state also wants each industry to develop standards for what employees should know across many companies, so that training can be common across an industry. Having committees of competitors from Indiana building a plan together with CEMETS is a step toward the industry associations that determine training in Switzerland.

“Those associations actually create a curriculum with input from the education system,” Fiddian-Green said. “That’s a huge critical function that makes it possible for employers to engage in apprenticeship, and that’s what we don’t have in Indiana.”

The Class of 2024 had a college experience like no other, starting its first year during peak pandemic and graduating amid protests of the war in Gaza. Many of its graduates will be joining a working world that holds their future in its hands and that was transformed by technological advancements and changing attitudes about work while they were in school. What can they expect from the world of work today?

One of the unique demands of the workforce of the future will be in industries dealing with the impact of climate change. This imperative is squarely on the radar of leaders and educators in Colorado, who are now championing state policies that support youth career development in “green” occupations.

The 74 recently partnered with the Progressive Policy Institute on a new installment of the “Future of High Schools” webinar series, which highlighted the Climatarium initiative of nonprofit group Lyra, which brings together education, industry, and policy partners to build climate-related college and career pathways for Colorado students.

In the replay below, you’ll hear from experts Mary Seawell, CEO and Founder of Lyra, Colorado State Senator Chris Hansen, and Dr. Karen Cheser, Superintendent of Durango School District. Watch the full conversation:

Recent coverage of career pathways and climate education from The 74:

• Creating a Climate-Literate Workforce in Colorado, Starting in Middle School

• Howard: Universal climate education can teach students how to preserve the planet today and train them for the green jobs of tomorrow

• “This Is the Existential Crisis”: A Push for Climate Change Education

• 6 Tips for Spotting a High School That Best Prepares Teens for Their Futures

Kids, teens and young people, who researchers say are historically more likely to be optimistic than older generations, are overwhelmingly concerned about peers’ and their own mental health, as well as their futures and the nation’s political environment.

“Gen Z is a group of people who care and have gone through a kind of collective trauma — I think we see it,” said Amanda Lenhart, lead researcher with Common Sense Media, which has just released a “They’re kind of fed up. They’re worried about the future and they really would like people to pay attention.”

When asked what would improve life for children in the United States, Gen Z said a better education system. They and voters point to a need for increased mental health care offerings and affordability, job preparation classes and free after-school programming. 

For Gen Z, schools are “where they see an opportunity for assistance and amelioration,” Lenhart explained. Across party lines older members of the generation shared the same desire: for schools to provide more wraparound services like health care and food pantries, aligned more with the community school model. 

Lenhart and fellow researchers are interested in what will come when the remaining Gen Z youth reach voting age, because “they have a lot of frustration about what they see as a little bit of a kicking of the American dream in the teeth. That is, a sense of my own opportunities are diminished; I see my peers burdened with this mental health crisis.” 

For many, feeling frustrated and stressed has impacted future aspirations: An overwhelming 75% of Gen Z has interest in at least one STEM field, with the next most popular fields being healthcare and arts, media or journalism – areas that offer long careers and support society. 

Yet many feel their goals are out of reach: less than a third will pursue STEM, according to . Outside of environmental science applications, the majority haven’t been exposed to foundational material like computer programming or coding, robotics, or electrical circuits.

Here’s a recap of four key findings from the nearly 3,000 12-26 year olds surveyed late last year by Common Sense Media, Gallup and the Walton Foundation.

1. Mental health & gun violence are the most concerning issues for kids and teens right now.

Nearly a third of Gen Z feels that youth mental health challenges are the most pressing issue for their generation, with girls and white children citing the issue more than their peers. When asked about top concerns at schools specifically, the number grows dramatically: 53% said mental health. 

They attribute the cause of the mental health crisis to two main sources: bullying or discrimination, and social media. 

About 21% of Gen Z feels gun violence is the most pressing issue for their generation — even more so for Black kids and teens, 28% of whom cited gun violence. 

In just the first month of 2024, about were wounded or killed by gun violence. 

2. Most of Gen Z are interested in STEM careers, but less than a third plan to pursue them.

A major gap is emerging between desire and preparedness for STEM careers. The gap is even more stark for girls, who are less likely than peers to pursue the field, to a lack of mentors who students can identify with, imposter syndrome, and facing stereotypes about who is capable. 

“Half of gen Z is far less confident than the other half that they’re even good at this,” said Gallup pollster Zach Hrynowski of the gender gap, adding that prior research has confirmed the importance of having diverse STEM teachers and mentors, who can help students break through inadequacy, fear or systemic barriers. 

Having a teacher or mentor that looks like you or has shared life experiences can make a world of difference. For a Black student to have a Black computer science teacher, Hrynowski added, could “make you more likely to want to step through that door that currently is not something that you’re being pulled through by virtue of the curriculum.”

Simultaneously, there’s a huge discrepancy of middle and high school STEM offerings across the country that has left the majority of Gen Z high schoolers unexposed to basic courses and curriculum such as computer programming, 3D design, cybersecurity and hydraulics. 

Researchers fear a potential hit to the American economy. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of STEM jobs will increase 11% by 2032. About , in fields like engineering and computer science, may go unfilled by then if pipelines aren’t built up imminently. 

3. Most of Gen Z believe better education is the key to improving lives of children in the US

The majority of voters across party lines agree with young people — about 53% point to the education system as a saving grace for children in the U.S.

Likely voters, including some older Gen Zers, say their top education priorities are getting kids to read at grade level, teacher burnout and associated shortages, bullying, and student mental health. They believe individualized learning plans, increased teacher pay, more social, emotional and mental health support, and smaller class sizes would make the biggest impact. 

At the same time, young people feel like political priorities are misaligned. About 60% of Gen Z believe politicians do not reflect the needs, desires, and experience of young people in this country well. 

“They feel like people in elected office and people in positions of power aren’t listening to them, not doing a good job of representing what young people need,” said Lenhart.

4. They’re still optimistic: 70% of young people think they’ll be about the same or better off than their parents in adulthood

Despite coming of age during periods of extreme violence, social unrest, and historical traumas, including 9/11 and a pandemic, Gen Zers are still more cautiously optimistic about their future prospects than voters writ large. 

In contrast, only about 22% of likely voters who are not parents believe children today will be better off than they are now. 

Yet a majority of parents of color are in hopeful alignment with Gen Z: 60% of Black parents, 62% of Asian American and Pacific Islander parents, and 52% of Latino parents say kids today will be “better off.” Just over a third of white parents believe this to be the case.

Black kids and teens are the most hopeful subgroup, with just over half saying they will be better off. 

“The more we can help create a functional adulthood for our teenagers and our young adults,” Lenhart said, “where they’re not worried about meals, health care, their own safety, their ability to take care of their families when people get sick … if we can make that better, then people will feel better.” 

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to The 74.

Des Moines Area Community College student Jay McCord has been working as a paraeducator in the Perry Community School District for three years, and is taking advantage of the community college’s teacher pipeline program to further his education.

He and other Iowa educators got to share their experiences last week with the U.S. secretary of education in the hopes of eventually spreading the opportunities they’ve utilized through DMACC to schools and teachers across the country.

“Education was really something that was hard for me just because I needed an awful lot of extra help,” McCord said. “So this program really helped me with being in the classroom while taking those classes, and being able to connect my schoolwork to what I’m actually doing.”

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U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Iowa Dec. 7 to hear from students, both in lower and higher education, and teachers about the triumphs and trials, and how programs like those implemented at DMACC open doors for those wanting to work as an educator.

After a tour and discussion at Perry Elementary, which was named a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, Cardona spoke to DMACC students, who also work as educators in Perry and other schools, about the community college program and the opportunities it has afforded them.

Each group emphasized that schools need more teachers to support students, and that programs like DMACC’s Teacher Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship program, housed at the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy, are necessary to make earning an education degree more accessible.

“I heard it from college students and a college president, but earlier today, I heard it from second-graders,” Cardona said. “They said the same thing — we need to support teachers and we need more teachers. Seven-year-olds.”

He said the earn-and-learn program does just that. It allows anyone from high school students to adults to current paraeducators in the district to take classes and work at the same time, getting career experience while learning the curriculum that will eventually lead them to getting the degree to have a classroom of their own, if they wish.

Students get access to support from professors and mentors, and are able to offset costs with up to $7,000 provided for tuition and fees for up to two years. To qualify for the program through the Perry school district, students must be committed to remaining in the district for three years after graduation. Students also support each other, DMACC student Emilie Cross said, as they work and learn in the same cohorts.

“We feel like we have somebody to lean on,” Cross said.

One thing that McCord said would help the DMACC program is more exposure — if more students and educators learned about what the program offers, more would join, eventually swelling the workforce.

Just under 30 states have teaching apprenticeship programs like the one at DMACC, Cardona said, and he hopes to spread the idea systematically and ensure every state can create pipelines for potential teachers.

“What you’re doing over here is an example of what we want to replicate,” Cardona said. “I want to get to 50 (states), I want all of them.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

That might seem like an innocuous statement, but states are struggling to define those pathways in equally rigorous ways. Moreover, a lack of reliable data on who actually serves in the military means that it’s being left out as a successful post-high school outcome. 

Let’s start with the college track because it’s the largest and easiest to define. About two-thirds of high school graduates go into some form of postsecondary education. That number is down slightly in recent years, but states have built sophisticated data systems to track public school students from K-12 into higher education. If students go to a private school or leave the state, a nonprofit called the National Student Clearinghouse has data on 99% of postsecondary students nationwide. That data allows any state or school district in the country to find out, for a nominal fee, how many of their students enroll and persist through higher education.

In contrast, it’s harder to define a successful outcome on the career side. More than half the states are now counting whether high school students earn “industry recognized credentials.” This is admirable work, but states are struggling to balance encouraging students to follow a wide variety of pathways on one hand, while also ensuring that all of those options are equally rigorous. State lists of allowable credentials routinely run into the hundreds, and a 2020 found that the most common credential students earn was “Microsoft Office Specialist.” That report concluded, “many of the credentials earned by K-12 students carry little currency with employers, and therefore offer questionable career value to students.” 

This lack of rigor shows up in depressingly small income gains. For example, by Matt Giani at the University of Texas found that students who earned a credential had somewhat higher employment rates, but the median earnings of recent high school graduates with a credential was barely over $10,000 a year. A out of Florida found that, five years after high school graduation, those who had completed a certificate earned about $600 more than those without one. 

Contrast the situation on the career side with military service. Military service is not only a noble career, it’s also a strong pathway into the middle class. And yet, states don’t have a good way to get accurate counts of which students serve in the military. 

Upon the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, 10 states said they were planning to use military service as one of their indicators of student success. Unfortunately, without a good way to collect that data, they were forced to remove military service as a success indicator, treat it as an optional measure for some schools, or fall back on self-reported data, effectively putting the burden of proof of military service on individual schools and districts. 

To address this problem, a number of state education chiefs are working behind the scenes to ask the Department of Defense (DoD) for help in solving this data challenge. (Disclosure: I’ve been helping the states craft that request.) 

This is not just a wonky data issue, because the military stands to gain from a secure but accurate data-sharing process as well. If military service counted as a successful pathway for students, that might indirectly help the armed services meet their recruitment goals. 

To be sure, this is delicate ground. If states begin working with the DoD to solve this data challenge, there are questions about data security and concerns about not promoting the military above other potential pathways. And students need to be protected from receiving unwanted recruiting pitches. At the same time, this issue needs to be resolved in order to recognize military service as a successful outcome for students who do choose to serve. 

This isn’t the first such effort to track military service. Many states have tried to get this type of data in the past, only to be stymied by technical or bureaucratic obstacles. But there’s widespread interest in solving this problem and putting military service on par with other post-high school pathways.

 sits near the heart of Louisville, Kentucky, down the street from a community college, two big hospitals, a museum, and a short hop to the Jefferson County courthouse and the central business district. But take a different turn off the nearby Interstate and you see a far less prosperous Louisville, with homeless encampments, empty lots, public housing, and the flashing lights of police and ambulance sirens day and night.

Central, the alma mater of heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, has a mostly Black student body and 70 percent of its students are from low-income families. It’s had some tough knocks against it over its 150-year history, and it’s not where Rikaiya Long, now a junior, first thought about going after middle school. She was a high-achieving student, doing well in advanced classes. Many who knew her assumed she would head to , widely considered one of the best high schools in the state.

But Rikaiya, an aspiring lawyer, felt confident about choosing Central instead, where more than 60 percent of graduates go to college. “I wouldn’t put myself in a position to get a subpar education,” she says. Middle schoolers can apply to a high school in Louisville, and every year school representatives make their pitch to eighth graders, touting their school’s offerings. At one such session, Rikaiya learned that Central had a solid reputation for supporting its students while providing rigorous pathways toward their futures. “I knew I wanted to be in a legal profession,” says Rikaiya. Central offered a Law Magnet program with a sterling record. Its alumni, she found out, included attorneys, elected officials, and judges. Seven Law Magnet graduates were in law school in 2022. And that’s what Rikaiya wanted as well — to go to law school.

Pathways to career options

Not many eighth graders are as focused as Rikaiya. For too many teens, high school is little more than an annoying habit they must put up with until graduation. Beyond that, their goals are often vague. Some, like Rikaiya, have been steered to college, but chances are high that many teens haven’t received much guidance.

Some educators are changing this by giving every student an education that provides a solid direction — a pathway — after graduation. At Central, Magnet Coordinator Cynthia Eddings-King explains that students are encouraged early on to think beyond high school, and they’re given several pathway choices through the school’s magnet programs that lead from getting a diploma to getting a life.

Pathway programs combine academics with exposure to careers in specific fields.  include Innovation (STEM), Medical/Health Services, Teaching and Learning, Montessori, and, of course, Law and Government. Each pathway includes real-life experiences, such as job shadowing or internships, connections to community businesses and professionals, and in some fields, professional certification that can lead to a job right after graduation.

Teachers at Central also see part of their role as making sure youth of color realize all their options, explore them, and go for what they want. Shantel Reed, nursing pathway coordinator and a registered nurse, says she is thrilled to watch teens learn about different medical professions available to them. They return from visiting a hospital, she says, amazed at seeing jobs they didn’t even know existed—like a speech language pathologist checking patients’ swallowing function. “I can tell them all day, but when they are following someone all day, they get it. There are jobs they never imagined.”

School culture is part of its mission

While Central gets high marks for its magnet structure and curriculum, what seems to be the glue holding the pieces of the puzzle together is its school culture, where administrators, teachers, students, and staff all feel as if they have each other’s back. That was something new for Rikaiya.

“I’ve always been in (advanced) classes,” she says. “And I’ve been the only Black girl. At Central, I have classes where everyone looks like me. It’s an amazing feeling; I feel extremely comfortable.” She adds that this has created a more relaxed learning atmosphere for her. The academics are still rigorous, but the sense of being with family makes learning natural, she says.

Central was Louisville’s high school for Black students until 1956, when a school busing program began. After that initiative ended, Central, located in a Black neighborhood, reverted to a mostly Black student population. Today the school is 77 percent Black, 12 percent Hispanic, 7 percent white, and 4 percent other.

Principal Dr. Tameka Coleman is thrilled about that 7 percent. She sees Central’s culture having a positive effect on white kids, too. “These students will be the most well-versed, diverse kids because they have been able to garner an experience that their white counterparts will never have. They will see when an environment lacks diversity.”

Many of the other 93 percent, however, might experience culture shock in the other direction when they leave Central. At predominantly white institutions and workplaces, they won’t see as many Black and brown faces. They may wonder where they fit in.

Central will have given them one big advantage, however. They’re academically ready, says Coleman. “Our college partners are always so complimentary on how Central students come in with an edge,” Coleman says. The culture may be different, but the work is familiar because of the pathways program. The nursing students know how to draw blood. The law students are already dissecting cases and writing briefs. The engineering students are programming robotic animals. And Central’s vet students are doing things that many college students don’t learn until vet school – post grad, Coleman adds. “They can approach the work unapologetically and unafraid.”

Sometimes, the pathway changes

The culture of Central is supportive, but the schoolwork obviously has an impact. Assignments in all of the programs are often multilayered, for instance, with multimedia documentation and team presentations. Students meet and learn from local, practicing professionals. Students in every program are out in the community, participating in city forums, mentoring and teaching elementary school children, shadowing medical professionals at the hospital, or working at dental, vet, or law offices.

Rikaiya’s law magnet teacher (and magnet coordinator), Joe Gutmann, is a former prosecutor, “with a lot of experience and a lot of stories,” says Rikaiya. The Law Magnet has a double-sized classroom, half of which is decked out as a courtroom to allow students to practice what they learn. After first seeing it in eighth grade, Rikaiya has become the one presenting in it. The junior classes’ mentors/student teachers from University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law sat on the bench listening to oral arguments from the briefs each student had written. The assignment regarded “strict liability,” and the case revolved around a Tiger King incident. “The judges ask a lot of questions, and you’re defending your side. It’s not a debate, but it’s very intense. It makes you think on the spot,” says Rikaiya, who adds enthusiastically that she enjoyed the presentation, and, at least for a while, the rest of her law studies, too. The curriculum’s practical, participatory education about law, democracy, and human rights also matched one of Central’s key principles, social justice, something Rikaiya feels strongly about.

Despite all that, she realized something during her sophomore year: “Law didn’t grab my attention like I thought it would.” That was during the pandemic, when the campus was closed and lawyer-wannabes had to figure out what practicing law meant over Zoom. “I was still interested in the business aspect of things; I was still looking at a corporate career, but no longer a law job,” she says. Rikaiya made the decision to change her intended college major. Through studying various law specialties, she came across public relations. “I started to get to know what they actually do, and I kind of fell in love with the idea of becoming a public relations specialist.”

But now what? Just as at the end of eighth grade, she faced another big choice. Back then, she had successfully become one of a class of 350 accepted to Central, applying with the Law Magnet in mind. She’d spent the requisite first semester learning about all of Central’s magnets before joining Law and Government. Once you’re in a magnet, it’s a commitment. The curriculum from semester to semester, and year to year, is linked to your pathway. Changing magnets, though not impossible, would require a lot of catching up on classes and adjusting.

Another option, of course, was to change schools. Rikaiya never considered that. Ultimately, she decided it just wasn’t necessary. Her core academic classes would still provide the rigor she needs, and the skills taught in the law magnet would not go to waste. “You don’t have to be a lawyer just because you’re interested in law. You can use your law degree for anything,” Rikaiya says. She is reminded that Gutmann had often told them that the law touches everything: If there are regulations, policies, and contracts, the law is involved. One of the big advantages of pathways over older, more traditional vocational programs is that they are coupled with academics strong enough to help a student into college. Even if the first pathway a student takes isn’t what she envisioned, she can find another to her liking.

Her journey continues

Despite her qualms about practicing law, Rikaiya was elected president of the Law Magnet and of Central High School’s junior class. The people in her magnet are like family and those in the other magnets are like neighbors — and Rikaiya is the type of young woman to knock on a neighbor’s door and give them cookies. She wants to keep that feeling of family, community, and belonging alive. “I like to intermix with people and have them meet each other, too. I connect people whenever I can.”

That is what others have done for her. When she changed her career goals, her teachers and counselor were there to help her. For college, Rikaiya is applying to Howard University, Florida A&M University, and Xavier University of Louisiana — all historically Black institutions with public relations programs. The teacher of her favorite class has already put her in touch with a Howard graduate working in the field.

It’s clear to Rikaiya that Central is committed to successful pathways for everybody, and that high school graduation isn’t the end of a journey, but just the beginning. She says learning now that law wasn’t what she thought it would be was the best thing. “I definitely saved myself some money!” she says, thinking of paying for a year or two of college and then changing her mind and major. “That’s why I like the career magnets; they help you really figure out what you like and what you want to do.”

This story was originally published by