Guiding Principles

A pathway is always about both objectives; it’s never a choice between one or the other. Here’s why: The probability of making a living wage in today’s economy without some form of postsecondary education is already low and will only diminish. Increasingly, career success depends on postsecondary education and gaining a formal credential—a certificate, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, or higher level of achievement. If there ever was a day when high schools could be content to prepare some students just for college and others just for work, that day is past.

Each pathway integrates challenging academics with a demanding career and technical curriculum. Pathways alter how core academic subjects are taught; they do not lower expectations about what is taught. Through the pathways approach, students are expected to achieve at high levels in mathematics, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. Students master these subjects through the power of real-world application—they learn by being presented with authentic problems and situations that are part of the modern workplace.

Pathways prepare students for all the avenues they might pursue following high school graduation: two– and four–year college, certification programs, apprenticeships, formal job training, and military service. Each pathway represents a broad industry theme that can appeal to and engage a student regardless of his or her prior academic achievement and postsecondary aspirations. Pathways can eliminate current practices that sort and track high school students in ways that limit their options after high school.

Pathways are based on accountability. They are designed to produce higher levels of accomplishment in a number of measurable arenas, including academic and technical scores, high school completion, postsecondary transitions to career and education, and attainment of a formal postsecondary credential. They also contribute, in ways that most conventional academic and career and technical education curricula do not, to increased student proficiency in vital areas such as critical thinking, problem solving, media and information literacy, and collaboration. Finally, pathways make an immediate difference— helping young people gain higher earnings right after high school and giving these students a leg up in the labor market while they pursue postsecondary education.