For the entirety of my career, I have been an advocate for college and career readiness, an education reform effort focused on ensuring all learners graduate high school fully prepared for their next step. As Bill Gates said at the National Summit on High School in 2005, which in many ways launched the college- and career-ready agenda, “all students can and should graduate from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship.” While I was early in my career at this time, the notion of high schools as the pivot point between K-12 and what comes next resonated deeply—putting me on my own career pathway and sense of purpose.   

Now, 20 years after the National Summit, is an important time to take stock of how far we’ve come. Unfortunately, there has been one issue that has limited our ability to truly meet the charge of true readiness for all learners: an imbalance in focus on college and career readiness.  For too long, the conversation around success after high school has leaned heavily towards one path. But the reality is, true readiness lies in the powerful ‘and’—ensuring all learners are both college ready and career ready, with all doors remaining open as they embark on their journeys.

Back in the early days of college and career readiness, it was fairly clear that ‘career’ wasn’t the top priority in the overall agenda. In the 2000’s, college and career readiness efforts mainly focused on shoring up mathematics and literacy skills, aligning K-12 and higher education systems, and ensuring postsecondary and industry were at the table to validate the learning happening in high school. This initially leaned heavily towards the ‘college for all’ agenda, driven largely by labor market data showing that good jobs require education and training beyond high school—a trend that has only grown in the last two decades. Even then, efforts to define ‘college’ as opportunities beyond four-year degrees was a challenge. I remember observing a focus group of high school students in Arkansas around 2010, and trying out different ways to talk about college—postsecondary, higher education, tertiary. All of them fell flat.

In the first 10 to 15 years of this century, a true commitment to meaningful career-focused programs and experiences, namely Career Technical Education (CTE), was lacking in most states’ policy agendas. Needless to say, this frustrated those of us who recognized the power and opportunity of high-quality CTE and wanted to see it flourish alongside and connect to other reform efforts such as strengthening graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability systems. 

The pendulum started to swing in the other direction starting in the early 2010’s. Common Core State Standards had become the third rail in education circles and the Great Recession shook up the labor market in key ways, ushering in a focus on those middle skill jobs that require some education and training beyond high school, but less than a four-year degree. 

And, we’ve only seen momentum increase since then: between 2013 and 2024, states have passed over 1,600 policies related to CTE and career readiness. Between 2012 and 2022, 27 states increased their secondary CTE funding, representing an average increase of $182 million across those states. CTE and career pathways were not on the agendas of many in the philanthropic community (for example, just 37% of education funders responded that they funded efforts to strengthen school-to-career pathways in 2010) and now many major funders are leaning into pathways efforts.

The progress in CTE over the past 15 years is undeniable and a cause for celebration. CTE has come so far in terms of quality, access, and alignment to industry and learner needs. The recent release of the modernized National Career Clusters Framework^® shows just how far the field has come in its scope. It is truly wonderful to see so much attention, support, and momentum behind programs that provide both hands-on technical skills and academic preparedness.  

But there is also a reason for caution; today, the fight over the ‘and’ is not around ensuring all learners have access to meaningful career pathways (not that more work isn’t needed to achieve this goal), but rather to make sure learners are able to engage in high-quality CTE pathways AND take the coursework they need for postsecondary readiness and success. The “and” is critical.  As noted above, most careers that pay a family-sustaining wage do require a credential beyond a high school diploma. There is clear evidence that learners have the absolute best outcomes—including increased wages—when they meet both college AND career ready indicators. 

At a recent Advance CTE meeting, we heard from a high school senior who couldn’t have put it better:

“[Create] as many opportunities as possible for people like me that bring the worlds of college AND career, don’t just give [students] one pathway. You can mix them both.”

Finding the right balance is a challenge, for sure, but balance is what our learners need to be nimble, adaptable, and successful in an ever-changing economy. This is core to Advance CTE’s mission of helping state CTE leaders across secondary, postsecondary, and workforce systems make the connections and build the supports necessary to ensure success in careers AND college. 

In my next post, I’m going to dive into states that are being intentional about protecting the ‘and’ and where there are some signs of concern in other policy developments.