Strategy 3: Clarify and Grow Multiple Pathways to Postsecondary Opportunities to Empower Learner Choice

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Promising Practice
 

Commission Recommendation

In listening sessions across the country, commissioners heard that learners “cannot be what they cannot see,” and this observation ultimately speaks to the impact of early exposure to a variety of career fields that learners may not otherwise know exist. Learners consistently reported that their understanding of college, service, and careers is largely limited to the paths pursued by family members, people in their communities, or what they see online, leaving them without a full picture of the steps required to enter those fields. This narrow exposure restricts learners’ sense of what is possible, limits their agency, and makes it difficult to envision future options. In many cases, delayed or inconsistent career awareness means learners miss early opportunities to align coursework and experiences with their evolving strengths, interests, and values. They also lack structured opportunities to explore the wide range of careers that exist within a single field. Teachers emphasized that learners often do not fully understand the economic mobility associated with postsecondary education or training, further compounding these challenges. As a result, learners frequently do not have the guidance, exposure, or mentorship needed to clarify their interests and make informed decisions about future education, training, and career pathways.

To be meaningfully empowered to make choices about their futures, learners need to have actionable information about their options for career fields, colleges, and service opportunities. One of the best ways to learn about these options is through hands-on experiences in a nurturing and developmentally appropriate environment with well-trained and supported advisers and mentors. In recent years, a movement to “blur the lines” between grades 11 and 14 has encouraged education and workforce systems to rethink learners’ experiences in high school and build new connections between high school, college, and workplaces.80

Middle and high school grades are important times for learners to develop their sense of self and explore their interests and aptitudes. Exposure to multiple postsecondary paths needs to start much earlier in most learners’ journeys so that they are positioned to experience and participate in early career, college, and service opportunities in the latter half of their high school years. Participation in multiple postsecondary paths should continue after high school graduation as learners enter the workforce, enroll in college, enlist in the military, and/or participate in service-year programs. Expanding the on-ramps to postsecondary education and training will continue to be necessary as lifelong learning is foundational to helping workers successfully adapt to a quickly evolving economy.
 

Recommendation 6

Expand Awareness, Exploration, and Participation in Activities Connected to Career, College, and Service
 

Learners and families have varying levels of familiarity with postsecondary systems, financial aid processes, and workforce pathways, which can make navigating decisions about college, training programs, service, or employment more complex. Addressing these barriers requires intentional support systems, well-trained and -informed high school counselors and advisers, expanded partnerships with postsecondary institutions and employers, and a coordinated approach that integrates career awareness, exploration, and planning throughout learners’ educational journeys. As children answer questions about what they want to be when they grow up, they may naturally transition from kindergarten dreams of going to outer space to middle school aspirations of standing in an operating room. However, to be set up for success, their career choices should be informed by their interests, values, and aptitudes, as well as the availability and stability of desired jobs in their local labor market.

The durable and technical skills that employers value can be developed in classrooms and through experiences outside the classroom, such as military service and service-year programs. Evidence shows that military veterans are more likely to have postsecondary degrees, to stay in their jobs in the first six months, and to have eight of employers’ top ten most-needed skills.81 Alumni of service-year programs are more likely to pursue a bachelor’s degree and enter a variety of careers with higher salaries than their peers.82 Whichever path they choose, to realize agency in the choice, learners need to develop valuable skills and have early and persistent exposure to and experiences in a variety of career fields and postsecondary paths.
 

1. Support Discovery of Aptitudes, Interests, Strengths, and Values

Throughout elementary and secondary school, students develop their sense of self and begin to understand their own strengths, interests, and values as they are exposed to different subject areas, learning activities, and extracurricular experiences. Often, learners benefit from a guided conversation with a teacher, counselor, or other trusted adult to examine their aptitudes. As they get older, learners start to connect their strengths and interests to potential career paths. Schools need to provide structured opportunities for learners to explore their aptitudes, strengths, interests, and values through age-appropriate career exploration and real-world learning experiences that expose learners to a broad range of industries and professions. This approach should help learners understand that many career fields contain diverse roles aligned with different talents and pathways. Our education system can help learners refine their interests over time, develop informed aspirations, and better prepare them for the education and training required for future opportunities by integrating career exploration into classroom instruction and connecting learners with mentors, employers, and community partners.

A promising practice in many communities is the development of a true learner profile that begins early in the educational journey and evolves into an actionable plan by the time students reach high school. At key transition points, such as the move from elementary to middle school, middle to high school, and again during the junior year of high school, students meet with a support team that may include the student, a teacher, and a school counselor. During these meetings, learners reflect on how their strengths, interests, and values have developed as they have experienced new courses, activities, and career exploration opportunities. Rather than focus solely on meeting graduation requirements, this process helps students build a personalized learner profile that gradually transforms into a clear and actionable plan for life after graduation.

While this level of individualized exploration and advising may be ideal, it is currently not feasible for many districts that do not have the human capital and other resources to support such a process. 

Loudon County Public Schools in Virginia has introduced the SchooLinks platform for all grade levels to support learners in discovering their interests and strengths and in exploring grade-appropriate activities connected to college and career options.83 As learners use the platform, school counselors and staff are able to more effectively tailor their advising and support to learners’ interests and aspirations.

By centering learner voice and ownership, these conversations encourage learners to articulate their aspirations, refine their goals, and identify the postsecondary education, training, service, or career steps they intend to pursue, ensuring that graduation represents not just the completion of high school but the beginning of a purposeful next chapter.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that learner self-discovery, connected to career awareness, begin early in a learner’s educational journey and continue throughout the K–12 and postsecondary experience.
 

2. Bolster Postsecondary and Career Navigation to Facilitate Transition Milestones

Developing meaningful postsecondary education, service, and career plans requires schools to proactively address a range of challenges and barriers. Many learners lack consistent exposure to a wide range of career pathways and may have limited awareness of the education, credentials, or experiences required to pursue them. In rural communities, geographic isolation, limited access to industry partners, transportation barriers, and fewer local postsecondary opportunities can narrow learners’ perceptions of what is possible. Schools in rural and urban settings also face structural challenges in providing this exposure, including limited counselor-to-student ratios, time constraints within the school day for individualized advising, and inequities in access to career exploration tools, internships, and dual-credit opportunities. Supported by philanthropy, nonprofits and community-based organizations can provide high-quality resources to aid leaners’ exploration of available pathways and supplement the more limited human capital capacity of districts with fewer resources.84

Learners need more than standalone conversations or disjointed information about postsecondary options for career advising to truly be successful. Consistent career exploration, intentional work-based learning experiences, and community partnerships can give learners the exposure they need to plan for their futures. To optimize support for learners and ensure success as they define the next steps in their postsecondary journey, they should be supported in developing a plan that outlines their career aspirations and the postsecondary education and training needed to pursue that path. Our education system should prepare learners for their first jobs and future opportunities, as well as inform them of the further credentials or training that may be available throughout their careers as part of their lifelong learning journey.

A promising practice across Indiana is the strong partnership between local school districts and Ivy Tech Community College to support learners in developing meaningful postsecondary and career plans. Through coordinated efforts between K–12 schools and Ivy Tech campuses, learners in both small rural districts and larger urban systems can access dual-credit courses, career and technical education pathways, industry-recognized credentials, and early college opportunities while still in high school. These partnerships help bridge geographic and resource gaps by allowing districts to leverage Ivy Tech’s statewide network, facilities, and faculty expertise. While larger districts are able to scale opportunities across multiple high schools and career centers, rural districts that collaborate with Ivy Tech can expand access to programs and career exploration experiences that may not otherwise be available locally. Working closely with Ivy Tech advisers, faculty, and workforce partners allows school districts to help learners understand credential pathways, align coursework with career goals, and build clear transitions from high school into college, technical training, apprenticeships, or the workforce. This coordinated approach strengthens talent pipelines and ensures that learners across diverse communities are better prepared for both immediate employment and lifelong learning.

All learners should develop and continually update a postsecondary plan through structured advising and career exploration experiences that help identify their strengths, interests, and long-term goals while mapping the credentials, education, service, and work-based experiences required to pursue their chosen pathway.85 Schools, colleges, and service organizations should work collaboratively with employers, workforce agencies, and postsecondary institutions to ensure learners have access to high-quality career counseling, labor market information, and experiential learning opportunities such as internships, apprenticeships, and dual-credit programs. Embedding career planning into the educational experience and revisiting these plans regularly can help learners make informed decisions, adapt to evolving workforce needs, and transition more successfully into meaningful employment and lifelong learning.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that all high school and college learners and service-year program participants develop, revisit, and update a career plan, including any necessary further education and training, upon graduation or completion of their program, as they experience career-connected education and as their interests change.
 

3. Align Career-Connected Experiences with Education and Workforce Standards

Career-connected education experiences will look different depending on the learners’ grade level, program of study, and career interests. Examples of high-quality, career-connected education include apprenticeships, internships, and career and technical education (CTE). Examples that may be appropriate for younger students but are not considered as meaningful for older learners are career days, career fairs, and job shadowing. Learners may also work on specific projects or challenges sponsored by industry partners.

“So our school, we actually have a program called work-based learning. It allows the students to go to school for three or four periods and then we get to leave the other half a day and we go to work. . . . For me, I want to be an elementary teacher. We actually have a preschool in our building, so that’s what I do. I did that so I could see if that’s actually something I want to do after high school.” 

—High school student in Indiana

The Commission heard from employers that they would like to see career-related content and skills taught in schools, and it heard from teachers and administrators that they do not have expertise across a wide swath of professions. Career-connected education should be aligned with related instruction and with advising that can help learners understand the appropriate course sequence and further career-connected experiences that would advance their opportunities in a given field. Employers should partner with educators to align career-connected educational experiences with current industry standards, especially for high-need occupations.

Genesys Works in Tulsa, Oklahoma, not only provides high school students with paid internships but sets them up for success with skills training before they enter a workplace and with aligned advising throughout their experience.86 Launched in 2023, the Tulsa program has built partnerships with twelve local employers and serves a majority of low-income learners who go on to be first-generation college goers.

Historically, high school education has been arbitrarily separated into either college preparation or vocational training. However, this traditional bifurcation has been breaking down, particularly with the growth of CTE course offerings in website design and digital media and the integration of degree apprenticeships at colleges and universities. Participating in CTE should not preclude learners from meeting college admissions requirements. Accelerating pathways to college and career for CTE participants can include connecting to apprenticeship pathways and earning college credit through dual enrollment.87 Educators and local employers can collaborate to align CTE coursework with industry standards so that learners graduate with both the durable and technical skills highly valued by colleges and employers.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that K–12 and higher education leaders provide learners with career-connected education experiences and that educators and employers collaborate to cohost or accredit CTE pathways to earn college credit.
 

4. Connect Dual Enrollment to Postsecondary Plans

Note: In some states, dual-enrollment programs that enroll high school students in college courses for college credit are called “concurrent enrollment.” In this report, we will refer to these programs as “dual enrollment.”

One of the most direct ways to accelerate learners’ journeys to college is to expand dual enrollment at two-year and four-year colleges and universities so that all high school students have access to high-quality instruction at a college level. School districts and institutions of higher education need to work together to ensure that dual-enrollment credits are transferrable to local colleges and can be used toward core requirements rather than solely counting as elective credits. Dual-enrollment courses taught on college campuses can be especially valuable for the exposure that learners get to a college environment.

“Fresh out of middle school, taking college classes, it’s pretty stressful. But what has helped me so much was the guidance I was given by the people from my high school, and then also. . . we have specific success coaches for dual-credit students. . . . They helped me understand how I can engage with the college, which helped me feel more belonging and also promoted [sic] me to do well.”

—Learner at a community college in Texas

During Commission listening sessions, high school students taking dual-enrollment courses at the local community college talked about how they were less intimidated by the idea of attending college after spending some time on campus. This kind of exposure demystifies the college environment, especially for first-generation college goers, and increases their likelihood of applying to college.88

In Colorado, credits earned through dual enrollment are transferrable to any public university in the state.89 Local districts have authority over which courses fulfill their high school graduation requirements in mathematics, reading, and writing and enter into a cooperative agreement with an institution of higher education. School districts use their per pupil funding to pay the tuition fees to the college or university, allowing learners to take these courses tuition-free and potentially increasing their interest in college matriculation due to lower overall costs of earning a degree.

A challenge many learners face when considering dual enrollment is understanding which courses align with their interests and potential program of study and whether the course credits will transfer to a local college. Informed advising either by high school counselors or advisers provided by the college is important to help avoid “random acts of dual enrollment” that do not ultimately accelerate a learner’s postsecondary education journey. Such advising can help learners avoid the common frustrations, from confusing or expensive processes for requesting transcripts to misunderstandings about how the credit may apply to a future degree, that cause a student to stop out or drop out.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that high schools and two-year and four-year institutions of higher education collaborate to provide dual-enrollment opportunities and aligned advising that will meaningfully contribute to accelerating all learners’ college paths, which can be further supported and incentivized by state policy.
 

5. Expand High-Quality Service Learning and Service-Year Opportunities

Service learning is an integrated experience for learners in which a curriculum-relevant community service project is codeveloped by educators and community members to address a local challenge or need. Service projects should be aligned to learning outcomes and include related classroom instruction.90 Service-aligned learning provides civic engagement benefits by connecting learners with community members and exposing them to new people and different needs within their community while also developing skills that will help them succeed in future education and career settings. Service projects also enhance understanding of learning standards by applying them to an activity in real-life settings beyond the confines of a classroom. Experiential learning projects are most beneficial to learners and communities when codesigned to meet local community needs and sustained as long-term partnerships between the educational institution and community-based organization.91

Schools can lower barriers to participating in service activities already organized by community-based organizations by allowing learners flexibility in the time they spend inside the school building, supporting such organizations in gaining approval to host and work with learners, and providing teachers with resources to provide related instruction aligned to learning standards and the service activity. During a listening session at a career academy, learners shared that they highly valued the projects they completed each year with nonprofit organizations in the community. These projects gave the learners a sense of accomplishment by developing an idea alongside a community leader, applying their learning and competencies outside the classroom, and serving a need in their community. Incorporating service-year positions alongside college enrollment offers the same benefits as service learning while also reducing the overall cost of tuition through education awards and contributing to learner retention.92

“We learn how to ideate; we learn how to listen and interact with people and draw meaningful conclusions and ideas from them.”

—Learner at four-year, private college in Massachusetts

Postsecondary schools can further embed these opportunities by fostering learner and faculty participation in publicly engaged research collaborations with their local communities. Colleges and universities can also create (or partner with community-based organizations to create) service-year positions for learners to develop real-world skills, social capital, and purpose alongside their coursework. Integrating service-year positions into a college path can also provide learners with valuable earn-and-learn opportunities, paid work that is relevant to their studies and interests. Schools can also award credit for these established programs to accelerate degree attainment.

When faculty and learners engage with local partners in the cocreation of service-year positions, the benefits are widespread and mutual, especially when the participants are from the very communities they aim to serve. Emerging and successful models include the California College Corps, active throughout the University of California and California State University systems, and the Empire State Service Corps across the State University of New York system.93 Participants receive financial benefits in the form of stipends and education awards, alongside professional experience in areas such as K–12 education, climate action, food insecurity, and other community-identified priorities. These programs are designed to generate reciprocal value: students build career-relevant skills, gain civic experience, and reduce financial strain, while communities benefit from expanded service capacity and targeted support in high-need areas.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that K–12 schools, institutions of higher education, and employers organize and sponsor service-learning opportunities directly or establish partnerships with community-based organizations to provide more service experiences to learners and employees.
 

Recommendation 7

Foster Effective and Efficient Journeys to Postsecondary Thriving, including Reengagement and Nonlinear Pathways
 

For many years, the common assumption has been that students attend high ​school​, graduate, and then enroll at a four-year college or university to ​receive​ a bachelor’s degree. That assumption is outdated. The Commission finds that multiple avenues exist for learners to ​pursue​ higher education. For some, a ​well-designed​ direct-admission program encourages the pursuit of higher education simply by eliminating the application requirement. For those who choose a two-year college, dual or concurrent ​enrollment​ with a four-year college or university, as well as a clear path for transferring credits, should be available. The goal is for learners to gain better visibility into their higher education ​opportunities​ and to have maximum transparency about how to use the credits they earn.

In today’s labor market, a postsecondary credential provides an incredible boost to a person’s lifetime earnings, employer-provided benefits, career stability, and various well-being indicators.94 In recognition of this reality, forty states have set goals to increase the percentage of adults with postsecondary credentials.95 Additionally, at the start of the 2023–2024 school year, more than 43 million Americans had earned some college credit but no degree.96 We must find ways to reengage these learners in pursuing postsecondary credentials and honor their prior learning, work experience, and valuable skills.

Many states and individual two-year and four-year institutions of higher education have initiatives to reconnect with and reenroll adults with some college credit. These initiatives primarily focus on communicating the value of reenrolling to attain a credential, helping learners navigate college, providing financial resources to learners, and supporting colleges with technical assistance.97 Mississippi’s Complete 2 Compete initiative provides both financial aid and navigation coaches for residents who are at least twenty-one years old and who earned some college credit but did not complete their degree program. North Carolina and Pennsylvania formed cohorts of higher education institutions to learn from one another as they worked to increase adult reenrollment. In Massachusetts and Michigan, Reconnect programs provide tuition-free community college access to residents over age twenty-five without a college degree.98
 

1. Expand Direct Admission Options

Direct admissions involve colleges and universities sending notification letters to learners that they have been accepted into the institution, without ever needing to fill out an application. Currently, most direct admissions decisions are based on academic eligibility, determined by high school grade point average and/or standardized test scores, which can perpetuate systemic educational inequities. Direct admissions differ from guaranteed admissions in one key facet: the lack of a required application. Guaranteed admission is sometimes also referred to as “assured admission” because learners who meet eligibility criteria are assured a seat at the higher education institution, but need to complete the typical application process before being accepted.

While direct admission notifications help learners imagine themselves on a college campus, they may not be enough to overcome concerns about whether an individual can afford to go to college. Direct admission notifications should be paired with financial aid information and be consistently evaluated to assess their impact on enrollment decisions.

Tennessee’s Direct Admissions program, led by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, automatically offers eligible high school seniors admission to participating in-state colleges and technical institutions based on existing academic records, eliminating the need for traditional applications. While many states have similar direct admission programs, Tennessee is conducting a pilot evaluation on the impact of pairing direct admission notifications with personalized financial aid information, with some learners receiving both admissions offers and estimated aid packages.99

In addition to often lacking financial aid information, direct admission notifications are not necessarily sufficient to help learners find their best postsecondary option. In some states, learners may receive direct admission to a community or technical college and not realize they could be competitive for a four-year college should they choose to apply. Consequently, state direct admission notifications should clearly present all the postsecondary options available to the student based on their academic eligibility.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS that states expand direct admission eligibility beyond standardized test scores and automatically notify high school students who are accepted into specified higher education institutions. The notifications should include 1) financial aid information and 2) information about other postsecondary education, training, and service opportunities for which the learner may be eligible upon application.
 

2. Facilitate Smooth Credit Transfer and Grant Credit for Prior Learning, Service, and Work

Between public institutions of higher education within the same state, so-called articulation agreements outline how credits transfer between institutions. Credit transfer can increase persistence and completion of a four-year college degree. Some institutions have offered the guaranteed transfer of an associate degree to a four-year institution when learners meet certain conditions of academic achievement. For such programs to be successful, faculty should be at the center of any efforts to design articulation agreements, because meaningful credit transfer will result in credits counting toward required courses for general education prerequisites and/or courses in a major program of study. Courses that have the same title do not necessarily cover the same material. Higher education leaders should create the conditions for faculty to crosswalk their learning standards, competencies, and coursework to build articulation agreements for meaningful credit transfers. To increase the impact of these agreements, state leaders can work with faculty across all public higher education institutions to develop core general education courses that are guaranteed to transfer to all other public institutions.

Florida’s statewide articulation agreement, also known as 2+2, establishes a structured pathway between public colleges and universities, guaranteeing associate degree holders admission to a bachelor’s program, though not necessarily to a specific institution or major.100 A defining feature of this model is the universal acceptance of completed general education requirements, ensuring that credits earned as part of an associate in arts degree fully transfer and satisfy lower-division general education requirements at receiving institutions. This policy reduces credit loss, lowers excess credit accumulation, and can contribute to timely degree completion for transfer students.

Another mechanism to smooth the transfer experience for learners is for higher education institutions to create dual-admission agreements that allow for contemporaneous enrollment at two institutions and increased services for participating learners. When two- and four-year institutions of higher education enter into these agreements, learners are accepted into both institutions with a plan to complete preliminary courses at the two-year college. Upon meeting certain conditions, they then face a simpler transfer process to complete their studies at the four-year college.

A related mechanism is the “reverse transfer,” when a learner who began their studies at a two-year college transfers to a four-year institution before completing their associate degree requirements.101 Smooth transfer of credits earned at the four-year school to a two-year college can then result in the learner receiving an associate degree while they either continue their studies or, if they have stopped pursuing a bachelor’s degree, avoid leaving school with some college credit and no credential. These agreements can be an important foundation for transfer partnerships between two- and four-year higher education institutions.

Finally, learners returning to college after time spent in the workforce, military, or a service-year program often desire credit for college-level learning they have experienced outside a classroom setting, such as in workforce training or the workplace. Credit for such experiences can be an important boost in accelerating the path to a college degree or other industry-valued credential. These programs can reduce the cost of and increase access to postsecondary education, while increasing a learner’s ability to obtain a four-year college degree. Like articulation agreements, however, a careful evaluation should be performed to ensure that college credit is appropriately given.102

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS the creation, expansion, and support of systems that facilitate credit transfer through mechanisms such as articulation agreements, dual admission programs, reverse transfers, and the provision of credit for prior learning and work experience.
 

3. Grow and Embed Credentials of Value Aligned to High-Demand Occupations

For cross-sector partners to successfully collaborate, they need to have clearly defined, shared goals and a common understanding of benchmarks to measure progress. State policymakers must provide clear definitions of credentials of value and set measures to determine local high-demand industries and occupations so as to facilitate educational partners’ contributions to state workforce development goals.103 Leaders should also work across state lines to build coherence across regional industries and economies. If employers and educators collaborate to provide learners with information about pathways into local high-demand occupations, they are more likely to be motivated to take the necessary steps toward more secure employment.

Accelerating Opportunity: Kansas (AO-K) is a career pathways initiative that integrates adult basic education with technical training to help low-skilled adults earn postsecondary credentials while improving foundational skills.104 A central feature of the model is its emphasis on embedding industry-recognized, stackable credentials within programs aligned to high-demand sectors, ensuring that participants acquire skills with clear labor market value. By partnering closely with employers and community and technical colleges, AO-K aligns curriculum and training with regional workforce needs, particularly in fields such as manufacturing, health care, and information technology. This approach is designed to accelerate participants’ progression into employment and support longer-term economic mobility through credentials that are both portable and responsive to evolving industry demand.

Higher education institutions should also review their current programs of study and, in collaboration with employer partners, embed industry-valued credentials into existing degree paths, where applicable. To support the ever-changing economy and provide more opportunities for lifelong learning, higher education must expand the number of nondegree credentials they offer and consider offering more credentials needed for local high-demand occupations that are aligned with current industry standards, particularly in rural or other underserved areas.105 Partnering with service-year programs to award credentials for experiences that prepare individuals for these high-demand occupations can expand access to credentials for more learners. Earning these credentials along a degree path can enable learners to secure jobs in their field of interest earlier and increase the overall value of their education.

Policymakers can also provide incentives and reduce barriers for credentialing in high-demand occupations to help colleges and universities redesign programs of study to more closely match local workforce needs and support learners in pursuing those credentials. Incentives for learners to pursue these programs of study could include lower or no-cost tuition, loan forgiveness, or cost-sharing among institutions, employers, service-year programs, and learners.

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS establishing cross-sector partnerships among state leaders, higher education institutions, service-year programs, and employers to create a responsive feedback loop that supports a continuous cycle of upskilling that adapts to changes in industry needs over time and transparently communicates opportunities in high-demand occupations to learners.