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.

Seattle Public Schools announced that its 52,000 students would have due to large shares of staff making Veterans Day into a four-day weekend. And in Montgomery County, Maryland, the Board of Education voted this week to make a scheduled half-day before Thanksgiving a vacation day for the district’s 165,000 students because there are to fill in for the large number of educators taking time off before the break.

In an even more extreme case, in West Michigan made a last-minute call to shutter their doors from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 due to high shares of staff out for COVID-19, other illnesses or for personal reasons, the district announced Monday.

“We are unable to sufficiently staff our buildings to meet the needs of our students. Sub shortages are not unique to NPS, and this is a challenge we, as well as many other districts are facing,” the district wrote in a Nov. 9 unsigned to families.

In Seattle, requested substitute teachers for the day after Veterans Day, the district said.

“We are aware of a larger than normal number of [Seattle Public School] staff taking leave on Friday, and do not believe we have adequate personnel to open schools,” the district explained in an email sent to parents on Tuesday, just three days before the shutdown. 

In Montgomery County, the sudden change to the Thanksgiving holiday prompted outrage from some parents.

“To give families 13 days of notice … have you no consideration for parents in health care, parents who are essential workers, parents who basically count on the school schedule that you publish?” parent Dr. Jennifer Reesman told . “You basically told us all that you don’t care about us.”

The closures further compound the disruptions that schools have weathered over the past 20 months of the pandemic — exacerbating academic, social and emotional challenges for many students.

“Now is the time to double down and hopefully get students even more access to even more great instruction, not less,” Tequilla Brownie, executive vice president of The New Teacher Project, told The 74.

With dwindling substitute teacher reserves in many school systems nationwide, Daniel Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said there’s little district leaders can do when educators request leave around the holidays.

“These are days that teachers can take,” he told The 74, explaining that the right to use paid time off, known as PTO, is stipulated in many educator contracts. “Ordinarily, school districts would rely on substitutes to cover for teachers. The problem is, you can’t find substitutes.”

Closures are “not what superintendents want,” the AASA leader continued. “They want to get the kids back to school … They’re doing everything that they can with the resources that they have to mitigate the situation.” 

The pandemic, however, has shown that school systems can get creative, Brownie pointed out. Some districts tapped central office staff to help out with remote learning. She wonders whether it could have been possible to replicate those solutions to avoid school closures this time around.

“The most dismal option is to shutter the doors,” said the education equity expert.

In Montgomery County, the scheduling change comes on the heels of weeks of educator frustration and burnout. Two weeks ago, teachers held a to protest staffing shortages that, they said, were exhausting and stressing out employees. Signs taped in vehicle windows lamented “skeleton crews” and educators “drowning” in their workload, The Washington Post reported.

During a press conference Tuesday, union President Jennifer Martin warned of a “great resignation” in Maryland’s largest district if Montgomery County does not improve conditions for its teachers. The school system currently has , including 161 teaching positions, according to local reporting.

“We hope you are able to take some time to rest and recharge during the extended Thanksgiving Break,” said a Nov. 9 to families and teachers signed Montgomery County Public Schools.

Many school systems across the country have tried to preempt such situations by scheduling extra time for staff and students to recharge. Over a dozen districts — including and — recently announced days off or shortened schedules to fight burnout and provide mental health breaks for educators, according to a recent from Burbio, a data service that has tracked school calendars through the pandemic. 

District announcements generally did not mention substitute teacher shortages, though it’s possible the desire to avoid needing more coverage for teachers than they could supply also played into the calculus for some school administrators.

Policy varies on whether the days off will have to be made up later in the school year. Most states require that schools be in session 180 days a year. A local that Montgomery County’s 2021-22 school calendar had 182 days built in so the additional day off would not affect it. The Newaygo Public Schools used up five of its snow days in the current closure, .

The disruptions, planned and unplanned, are yet another byproduct of the pandemic, said Domenech. He’s hopeful that newly authorized vaccines for younger children will help make the situation more normal by the spring. 

But in the meantime, he acknowledged that the scheduling changes may frustrate many families.

“Working parents very much are dependent on [having their children in school],” he said.