College and career success for all

Bronx Early College Academy students

Not every student wants to go to a four-year college to pursue a bachelor's degree. Some fear they'll be in the 40 percent who start college but never earn a degree. Others just aren't motivated to spend more years in a classroom.

"Some high schools that once pushed nearly all students toward four-year colleges are now guiding teenagers toward a wider range of choices, including trade schools, apprenticeships, two-year degrees or the military," reports Dana Goldstein in the New York Times.

The KIPP charter network, founded 31 years ago, has had a "single-minded focus on getting low-income Black and Hispanic teenagers to and through four-year colleges," she writes. But KIPP is rethinking "college for all."

This school year, all KIPP juniors and seniors are enrolled in College Knowledge and Career Success, which encourages them to research career paths, understand how to apply for financial aid and examine the graduation and job-placement rates of different college programs.

More than three-quarters of KIPP graduates enroll in college, the network reports, but only 40 percent earn a degree within five years. That's double the rate of other low-income students nationally, according to a 2023 Mathematica study. But it's left too many students with debt and no degree.

Demand is high for diesel mechanics

Like KIPP, the Bronx Early College Academy, which offers the prestigious International Baccalaureate’s diploma program, is encouraging students to explore career interests and options other than a bachelor's degree, Goldstein reports.

"College for all" has lost its appeal in Indiana, writes Dylan Peers McCoy for WFYI. Increasingly, students and parents are looking for faster paths to middle-class jobs. "The college-going rate is down across the country amid increasing skepticism about four-year college degrees," he writes. Indiana now encourages students to explore career and technical education.

Shoals Community Schools in rural Martin County is sending fewer high school graduates to college, reports McCoy. Students explore careers in middle school and choose a pathway in high school: Focus areas include healthcare, construction and agriculture. 

Senior Isiah Wininger wants to become a diesel mechanic, a high-demand job that will let him do hands-on work. Diesel mechanics average $59,000 per year, less than the average for four-year graduates, but a lot more than someone with just a high school diploma.

About 40 percent of jobs that pay middle-class wages don't require a bachelor’s degree, according to Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce. Many do require a vocational certificate or associate degree.

Zane Lake, now 22, enrolled in Vincennes University to pursue a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, he told McCoy. He switched to a two-year program in precision machining, and now works in a machine shop. “I like being able to take a block of metal or plastic or whatever and making it into a part,” Lake said, “then being able to watch it work and do what it was intended to do.”