Pressures on the wider U.S. workforce caused by a lack of employees with the requisite skills will drive more collaboration between K12 schools and employers, say product developers who are forecasting 2024’s biggest education trends.

It will also drive a surge in popularity in career and technical education programs. “As the talent shortage concern shifts to the state level, 2024 will be a year of increased collaboration between employers, schools and government agencies,” says Jeri Larsen, the chief operating officer of YouScience, a career guidance platform for students.

“The goal will be to create a more responsive and adaptable education system that ensures the workforce remains well equipped to meet the evolving demands of the job market.”

District leaders will be updating curriculums with a deeper focus on future-ready skills and adding more work-based learning, STEM education and vocational training programs.

“These efforts will be aimed at equipping students with the skills that are in high demand in the job market and promoting a broader range of career paths,” Larsen notes. “With a rapidly changing job market and evolving skill requirements, schools and education systems will find themselves under increased scrutiny to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the workforce.

Employers should grow ever more eager to collaborate with schools and districts, predicts Hans Meeder, a senior fellow for education and workforce education at YouScience and a former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education.

“Yet, a challenge lies in the limited experience of schools and districts in systematically collaborating with business partners,” Meeder points out. “Many are still navigating this uncharted territory, actively searching for tools, guidance and real-world examples to establish partnerships that are not only effective but also sustainable.”

What other issues will be top of mind for K12 leaders and their teams in 2024? Here are predictions, hopes and forecasts from solution providers that cover a range of education topics.

Academic growth and interventions will be carefully assessed

The disruptions of the pandemic will continue to loom large over academic progress, and administrators will be emphasizing growth and doubling down on the most effective interventions, say thought leaders at NWEA, the testing firm. Here are some of their insights:

• Which academic interventions are working best? “While school districts made some progress in reducing pandemic-related achievement gaps in the 2021-22 school year, progress stalled in the 2022-23 school year. Interventions that have strong evidence of efficacy include high-dosage tutoring, summer school programs and double-dose math classes. Districts should adopt these high-impact interventions while continuing to monitor implementation and adapt interventions to local context so that students can have access to meaningful opportunities to catch up on unfinished learning.” —Ayesha K. Hashim, research scientist
• Classroom practices that support high-growth learning will be essential. “The cornerstone of elevating educational quality rests upon strengthening the student-teacher relationship. By fostering meaningful and constructive interactions and offering valuable feedback to students, we empower them to take greater ownership of their learning. Recent research underscores the efficacy of specific approaches and practices in promoting substantial learning growth, such as allocating time for retrieval practice (where students benefit from multiple opportunities to reinforce new knowledge) and maintaining flexibility in student group dynamics (allowing for effective student movement between learning groups), among others.”—Chase Nordengren, principal research lead, effective instructional strategies
• Research-based interventions will be needed to help older students with reading fluency. “National data shows that almost 70% of eighth graders are not considered proficient in reading based on 2022 test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation’s Report Card. In 2024, districts will be working to find research-based interventions to help older students with reading fluency. Middle and high school teachers will need support to help older students with foundational reading skills to address this problem. Programs that emphasize repeated reading and giving older readers the opportunity to choose practice readings on topics they find engaging will help older readers improve fluency.” – Laura Hansen, NWEA director of academic services
• A data-driven revolution in gifted and talented identification. “In 2024, states are poised to revolutionize their approach to gifted and talented education, driving greater equity and inclusion through a dual strategy of data-driven identification and the implementation of state policies mandating access to gifted services. Universal screening, encompassing a multitude of assessment tools, will ensure that no gifted potential remains unnoticed, while continuous monitoring and transparent reporting will guarantee equal access to the selection process. Simultaneously, state policies will require the development of individualized learning plans for gifted students, promoting inclusive enrichment opportunities, differentiated instruction, and robust teacher professional development.”—Scott Peters, senior research scientist

Edtech evolution will be all about AI

The expiration of ESSER funding and tightening budgets will force K12 leaders to prioritize, says Jeremy Cowdrey, the CEO of Discovery Education. That means, in the wake of the COVID-era flood of edtech, administrators and their teams will begin paring down the edtech resources they are using down to the most effective platforms.

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“We are calling this movement the great rationalization and consolidation,” Cowdrey explains. “They will seek to renew products that have high usage, personalize learning and drive deeper engagement in instruction. They will keep edtech resources that have shown a proven, measurable impact on students.”

Leaders will maintain relationships with edtech providers who are purpose-driven and offer multiple solutions from one consolidated platform, he adds.

Beyond that, artificial intelligence will likely continue to suck up all the oxygen in the edtech space. “AI will impact everything—from creating relevant lesson plans to acting as a teacher’s assistant and student learning,” says Sara Gu, co-founder and COO of ClassIn, which provides blended, hybrid and remote learning platforms. “AI tools are being developed for educators and launched into the market every week. Many of these are designed to save teachers time.”

As many AI tools are designed to save teachers’ time, Gu says she expects a comprehensive lesson-planning tool will soon emerge. “With the vast amount of material currently available on the internet and the number of databases that the [AIs] can pull from, a world where all teachers have to do is plug in their learning objectives and standards and get an array of choices in each of the categories—materials, activities, and assessments—can’t be that far off.”

Gu also predicts that student behavior will guide the development of AI codes of conduct and determine how the technology is used in schools. Gu sees a fine line between AI being used as a tool and being used to cheat.

“There is not yet one commonly accepted approach to integrating AI tools and technology into a school or school district’s code of conduct,” she continues. “Early policies range from extremely strict “student work submitted for academic credit and completed using AI will be considered plagiarism” to encouraging teachers to use AI tools in their classrooms.”

Teachers will increasingly use AI to assess and grade students and these tools could save time and reduce burnout, says Sari Factor, chief strategy officer at K12 curriculum provider Imagine Learning. “Educators will have more equitable access to actionable, research-based measures of student success to better inform instruction, allowing educators to focus on providing personalized support to students,” says Factor.

Ethical school leaders will also have to ensure that principles such as transparency, accountability, fairness, and privacy are priorities when adopting AI-driven educational tools. “Leveraging AI and digital-first curriculum to develop personalized lesson plans that cater to unique student needs, for example, will allow teachers to focus on delivering impactful lessons that inspire student success,” Factor contends. “As a result, we’ll see less teacher burnout over time.

Beyond AI, Gu expects more schools to lean on virtual and hybrid instruction to cope with teacher and staff shortages. She notes that a charter network in San Jose, California, has transferred math and science classes to Zoom where students are taught by teachers from around the country.

“We also expect hybrid solutions to gain momentum in response to student demand as schools work to balance their finite resources while offering more flexibility,” Gu predicts.

ESSER expiration requires reliable data

States and school districts have about $70 billion left to spend this school year, which “will be a mix of states and districts spending their remaining funds while also looking to the future,” says Lindsay Dworkin, NWEA’s senior vice president of policy and government affairs.

“As the one-time funds expire,” Dworkin adds, “it will be more important than ever for education communities to have access to reliable and actionable data to know which interventions have been most effective in helping students grow, and where to continue investing strategically amidst shrinking budgets.”

Because decision-makers will continue to analyze persistent learning gaps, they also will be looking for innovative approaches to instruction and assessment.

Administrators and teachers will become more discerning about edtech purchases as ESSER money expires and shortages increase workloads. Says Gu, of Classin, who estimates that schools adopted between 600 and 1,400 products during the pandemic.

“While many of these products helped plug the gaps during remote instruction, now districts are faced with the dilemma of too many tools. The process has already begun, but schools are starting to become more strategic about which tools they keep and which ones they stop using.”

The ongoing importance of equity and PD

The academic identities of educators will have to be a focal point in district administrators’ efforts to make their districts more equitable, says Fenesha Hubbard, the lead professional learning designer at NWEA.

Academic identities comprise educators’ attitudes, beliefs and dispositions toward teaching and learning. “When teachers develop an unhealthy academic identity, their internalized negative perception is very likely to influence their instruction and can shape their students’ academic identity,” Hubbard, explains.

Educators will strive to better understand themselves and others by exploring their beliefs, examining their actions and strengthening their academic identity. “More teachers will identify and address their academic identities, whether healthy or not, and employ strategies in their classroom to help all students thrive,” Hubbard forecasts.

Family engagement will be emphasized

Districts will take several approaches to leveraging the strengths of families to accelerate student achievement, including by providing more learning materials that can be used at home, say Vidya Sundaram and Elisabeth O’Bryon, co-founders of the nonprofit Family Engagement Lab.

Here is what they expect will happen:

• How can districts make the most of classroom instruction? “Improving the quality of instructional materials is a smart, cost-effective strategy to improve learning outcomes. Districts looking to optimize their curriculum investment will also implement newly available curriculum-aligned offerings, from professional learning to assessments and family communications,” says Sundaram, the Lab’s CEO.
• What’s the role of families in effective SEL programs? “With student mental health needs outpacing many schools’ capacity to provide support, it will be even more critical to look to families as vital partners in supporting student success,” notes O’Byron, the chief impact officer. Educators can promote relationship-building between parents and children and share activities that let families reinforce specific SEL skills at home.
• How do you envision school learning environments changing for multilingual learners? “As we continue to see an increase in the linguistic diversity of our school communities, as well as growing interest in multilingual learning environments, I am hopeful that a spotlight is shone on what a tremendous asset multilingualism is. Embracing multilingualism truly enriches school communities and, as such, schools need to be equipped to equitably and authentically engage multilingual families as partners in supporting student learning.”
• How do you envision K-12 edtech evolving next year? “While generative AI has been the hot topic of 2023, I expect next year we will see K12 technology advancements that strengthen the capacity of teachers (such as automating repetitive tasks), and more multilingual culturally responsive learning resources for students and families.”

Literacy will revolve around the science of reading

The science of reading, or SoR, has gotten almost as much attention as AI in K12 circles over the last year. In 2024, districts navigating its adoption will, for one, have to ensure teachers, principals and other administrators are receiving adequate PD in the science of reading, say thought leaders and experts at IMSE, the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education.

“States that have passed SoR legislation recognize the need for teacher prep programs to include SoR, but getting universities to change is a slow-moving shift, even if legislation requires it,” says Janelle Norton, IMSE’s senior manager of strategic partnerships.

“Expect more administrator training in SoR as districts recognize the need for principals to understand what children need to learn to read,” Norton adds.

Teacher shortages will likely be a barrier as district leaders work to embed the science of reading in their curriculums, says Alana Mangham, a lifelong early educator and IMSE’s current director of development and implementation support.

“There aren’t enough qualified individuals in the science of reading,” Mangham notes. “Schools can only hope to find capable candidates. And, if they do, the next hurdle is paying them equal to or better than what they can make as a private professional.”

Elsewhere in the literacy spectrum

Elsewhere in the literacy realm “multilingual learner instructional practices will become a hot topic,” concludes Nicole Florez, literacy specialist and IDA structured literacy dyslexia interventionist for IMSE. She predicts more leaders will “recognize the need for culturally responsive teaching in response to the growing population of English language learner.”

“States are leveraging the right stakeholders to develop learning modules around second language learners and literacy,” she concludes.

Math will matter even more in 2024

If 2023 was all about the science of reading, state education leaders will turn their attention to providing systemic support for math education in 2024, says Karen Beerer, Discovery Education’s senior vice president of teaching and learning.

In the wake of COVID learning loss, several states have already passed new laws requiring schools to identify and provide additional math support to students and teachers.

Alabama is creating an Office of Mathematics Improvement to monitor the implementation of screener assessments, diagnostic assessments, and formative assessments for grades K5. Florida now requires students deemed “deficient” in math to receive intervention and monitoring from their district while Louisiana mandates additional professional learning in numeracy for math teachers in grades 4-8.

“While these are just a few examples of state departments of education adding additional support to math education,” Beerer notes, “I believe in 2024 these efforts will accelerate and become the norm nationwide.

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Pressures on the wider U.S. workforce caused by a lack of workers with the requisite skills will drive more collaboration between K12 schools and employers, say product developers who are forecasting 2024’s biggest education trends.

These college and career trends will also drive a surge in popularity in CTE programs. “As the talent shortage concern shifts to the state level, 2024 will be a year of increased collaboration between employers, schools and government agencies,” says Jeri Larsen, the chief operating officer of YouScience, a career guidance platform for students.

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“The goal will be to create a more responsive and adaptable education system that ensures the workforce remains well-equipped to meet the evolving demands of the job market.”

District leaders will be updating curriculums with a deeper focus on future-ready skills and adding more work-based learning, STEM education and vocational training programs.

“These efforts will be aimed at equipping students with the skills that are in high demand in the job market and promoting a broader range of career paths,” Larsen notes. “With a rapidly changing job market and evolving skill requirements, schools and education systems will find themselves under increased scrutiny to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the workforce.

Employers should grow ever more eager to collaborate with schools and districts, predicts Hans Meeder, a senior fellow for education and workforce education at YouScience and a former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education.

“Yet, a challenge lies in the limited experience of schools and districts in systematically collaborating with business partners,” Meeder points out. “Many are still navigating this uncharted territory, actively searching for tools, guidance and real-world examples to establish partnerships that are not only effective but also sustainable.”

What other issues will be top of mind for K12 leaders and their teams in 2024? Here are predictions, hopes and forecasts from solution providers that cover a range of education topics.

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The “Freedom to Succeed” master plan, which should be completed next fall, will also emphasize:

• Hands-on learning and real-life skills. Students should have expansive opportunities to learn by doing and get trained in real-life skills, especially via paid “earn-and-learn” opportunities.
• Universal access and affordability. Students should have access to career education without incurring substantial debt or having to navigate confusing bureaucracies.
• Breaking down silos. State agencies will greatly expand alignment and coordination across sectors—both public and private—to ensure students are offered more career and skill-building opportunities.

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“All families, students, and workers deserve the freedom to succeed: to build real-life skills and pursue careers — including those that don’t require college degrees,” Newsom said in a statement earlier this year. “California is leveraging billions of dollars in investments to prepare students and workers for good-paying, long-lasting, and fulfilling careers.”

Newsom has directed the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the presidents of the California State University and the University of California to produce the career education master plan in collaboration with the State Board of Education, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

California has been increasing CTE spending, including $500 million on the Golden State Pathways program, which provides students, no later than 10th grade, with opportunities to examine careers that require specialized technical training. The state has invested another $200 million each in dual enrollment programs and youth apprenticeships.

Regional K-16 Collaboratives will receive another $250 million to work with businesses to ensure K12 and higher ed career education programs are preparing students with the skills to meet future labor demands.

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“They are embracing some different practices we’ve put in place to take the really good things to the next level and improve the things that need to be improved,” says Mendez, who was previously principal of Seymour Middle School in Seymour Community Schools.

He has devoted a lot of his energy toward his teachers and to offering more intensive instructional coaching, in particular. He hired four full-time coaches this year to provide embedded professional development through one-on-one co-teaching and observations. “We always say we need to grow ourselves to grow our kids,” Mendez notes.

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Mendez also created instructional coaching residencies that pair coaches with a different teacher each week, for an entire week. In some cases, the coach may teach and ask the teacher for feedback. Along with improving teachers’ skills, the more comprehensive PD should also help North Central—Indiana’s largest urban high school—retain its educators.

“Teacher support—the most important piece—is giving them the tools and coaching them up in instructional capacity so they’re successful with their students,” Mendez explains. “It makes them more confident. It lets them know they have somewhere to go if they need help and are lost vs. some models where they have to go outside the building.”

How to be a great simplifier

Another high-priority project for the school year is aligning the high school’s course offerings with more intentionally guided career pathways that go beyond traditional CTE. The goal is to grow into areas such as engineering and biomedical fields that are highly relevant for today’s students. “Getting that engagement from them will help with achievement and give them options when they go on to college,” he notes.

That drive to help students succeed after completing high school comes from Mendez’s experience working with high-needs schools. And once again, teaching is the key to helping students in these schools defy expectations and break cycles of marginalization. “I always tell teachers in job interviews that we need people who believe a student’s circumstances don’t have to dictate the outcome,” he continues. “Whether they come from a house of drugs, a house of poverty, a house of trauma—that does not sentence them to a life of the same.”

The key to motivating staff to achieve these goals is for a principal to be “a great simplifier” who can take difficult concepts and help educators find a comfortable place to start. “It’s partly simplifying incredibly complex things, but also talking about ‘why this school exists,'” he asserts. “This is the one profession that helps create all the other professions. It’s being a storyteller about our kids—who they are, what they need, what they want to be and what their dreams are.”

An important part of the narrative is detailing the reasons behind the actions leaders are taking and the goals that are being set. However, exploring the flip side can also have a significant impact. “One of the powerful pieces is talking about, ‘If we don’t do this, what happens?'” he explains. “If we aren’t all in, what happens? If we don’t grow ourselves, what happens? Who gets hurt if we don’t take these steps?”

One of the biggest challenges he’s contending with is building students’ social-emotional skills so they feel safe to focus on academics. Digital literacy is a crucial tool in this effort. He and his educators are teaching students how to handle the responsibilities that come with “the ability the grab information from anywhere at any time.

“They are growing up in a world that moves much faster than what a lot of the adults had to deal with when they were growing up,” Mendez concludes. “They have exposure to a lot of things earlier.”

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The National Center for Education Statistics tracks schools based on four geographic locale classifications: urban, suburban, town or and rural. And location has a big impact on how leaders craft their strategic plan goals, according to an analysis by Burbio, a K12 data tracking and research website.

For instance, the phrase “community engagement” appears more often in the strategic plans set by urban districts and is least prominent in rural school systems, revealing a difference of about 15 percentage points. Chronic absenteeism was also more likely to be addressed by urban districts than by all other school systems.

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On the other hand, rural districts’ strategic plans focus on career and technical education more heavily than districts in more populous communities. CTE is least prominent in suburban districts, Burbio found. Mental health is most prevalent in suburban strategic plan goals.

Earlier this year, Burbio examined the most popular overall topics in strategic plans, including which areas leaders are focusing on more heavily. Social-emotional learning was covered in about 25% of the 2018-19 strategic plans, peaked in 2021 at 42% and is now a key term in about 30% of 2,200 of the plans that Burbio analyzed.

The most common topic was attendance, which appeared in just more than half of the plans tracked by Burbio while multitiered system of support and mental health showed the largest growth as strategic plan priorities.

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The most important thing to know is that a district, no matter the size, can’t go it alone, says Marisa Mission, co-author of “Scaling Opportunity,” Bellwether’s policy playbook for building statewide career pathways programs. Though the report focuses on Delaware’s program, its lessons—covering curriculum, internships and work-based experiences—also apply to district-level initiatives, Mission adds.

“Employers need to buy in to help determine curricula and help districts understand the competencies will get graduates employment,” she continues, adding that K12 leaders shouldn’t limit their programs to the high school level.

“Expanding to middle school expands equity,” Mission explains. “If students are aware of opportunities earlier on and learn more, they have more time to make choices. They’re on a more equal footing rather than having to rely on family or social capital.”

Here are seven steps s for forming key partnerships and paving career pathways:

1. Align on and articulate a vision: Districts can assemble an advisory committee that consists of educators, business leaders, local officials and community members. The group can draft a strategic plan that sets a broad vision, creates a structure for the pathways program and identifies underrepresented stakeholders.

2. Build and sustain key partnerships: The superintendent is likely the one who will begin forming partnerships with a wider group of employers that will provide work experience and with nonprofit organizations that can help with funding and coordination.

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3. Ensure that programs are high quality and easy to implement: Identify and design pathways that meet the needs of local employers or fill gaps in other local career readiness programs.

4. Commit to data collection to assess impact and improve practice: Make career pathways data publicly available, including disaggregated data on participation and outcomes, to ensure programs are operating equitably. Districts can also share data with higher education and state labor agencies.

5. Create accountability around equity: Identify gaps and barriers that are limiting equitable access to career pathways programs. Convene teachers, parents, students and administrators to share ideas for closing equity gaps. Train district staff to identify and eliminate unconscious biases. Partner with advocates for historically underserved student populations.

6. Communicate the value of pathways programs to employers: Ensure industries and employers know the steps they cant take to support career pathways programs. Create a value-added argument that communicates why supporting pathways programs is good for business.

Bellwhether’s report also explores various funding sources districts and their partners can leverage to ensure career pathways programs are sustainable. “If a district is doing something great at the local level, it can inspire the state to take action,” Mission concludes.

District Administration‘s Superintendent’s Playbook series examines how superintendents, principals and other administrators are solving common problems that today’s educators are facing.

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“I share my travels as I go—I highlight incredible kids and incredible community members, really leveraging social media for good, and just doing that across as many channels as I can,” says Nichols, who was recently named a Superintendent to Watch by the National School Public Relations Association. “It’s just capturing pictures and videos and commentary and sharing it through Instagram and Facebook and X.”

He’s just started to produce a series of podcasts with student interviews and plans to have up to 30 or 40 recorded before he begins sharing them so he can space them out over the school year. Superintendents and other leaders aiming to thrive online should adopt a similar content strategy—rather than putting a bunch of posts and photos up at once—so community members will see regular updates. Nichols and his team post in the morning and the afternoon, with the first message meant to be inspirational and to get students and staff “moving,” Nichols explains.

He also recommends keeping notebooks handy to jot down ideas for social media posts. “Some of it is spontaneous,” Nichols explains. “It builds a nice story but you should have a plan before you start—keep it simple, highlight great kids.”

It’s no surprise that he finds most of his social media mentors among New Kent County Public Schools’ 3,500 students, who spend a lot more time on Instagram and YouTube than on Facebook or the district’s website. Nichols does not use the wildly popular Snapchat or TikTok but he and his team try to craft messages to fit each channel.

Nichols, who calls himself “the worst selfie taker in the world,” also learns from his social media mistakes. One girl, for instance, recently told him that he wasn’t posting about females who are succeeding in male-dominated fields. “I’m in our career and technical education classes all the time so it made me target representation a little better and show that we have diverse kids in our engineering class and our EMT class,” he notes. “That’s just an interaction that started with social media, that made me more aware of how I post and the content that I choose.”

The key to his use of multiple social networks and his wider communications strategy is engaging with his students. His social media activity sparks lots of conversation with his students. “It creates deeper connections,” he points out. “I have very strong relationships with our kids. When kids see me, they call me by name—I have 3,500 kids and I’m getting to where I can call them by name.”

New Kent County Public Schools’ 3 pathways

Rural New Kenty County, located between Richmond and the urban areas beyond historic Williamsburg, is the fastest-growing country in all of Virginia. The increasing population has spurred Nichols and his team to expand college and career pathways, launch a NAVY ROTC program and add middle school sports, among other activities.

“We want every kid to walk across the graduation stage with a diploma plus something that helps them with the transition, that could be college credit so they can enroll post-secondary, career certification so they can be employed directly into a great career, or opportunities to enlist and serve their country,” he explains.

“We’re building out those three pathways and pulling them down to the middle school and doing the elementary work so kids know there are a lot of great opportunities out there that we’ll prepare them for.”

Nichols and his team are also laser-focused on proactive teacher retention and recruitment initiatives as his district contends with a national teacher shortage. New Kenty County Public Schools now has a teacher residency and grow-your-own programs for students and paraprofessionals. It also offers training for local professionals who want to switch careers and move into education.

“The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is our outcomes with kids. We have a very strong graduation rate, Our kids receive those diplomas but may not walk into something else. I don’t want that to be the culmination, I want that to be a transition point into something I want you to walk across the stage and into something.”

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While these numbers are no cause for alarm, leaders should be concerned that nearly one-third of the class of 2023 graduates were not aware of the available career and technical education programs that would have given them alternatives to the traditional higher education path. Here are some more findings from YouScience’s poll that should catch the attention of district leaders:

• Only 33% of the class of 2023 reported regular exposure to various postgraduation career options.
• 65% of the Class of 2023 graduates had five or fewer conversations with teachers or counselors about post-high school choices.
• 83% of respondents said understanding their natural aptitudes better would have increased their engagement in learning.
• Nearly one-third (31%) of class of 2023 students were unsure if they were in the right place on their education or career paths; 34% of 2020-22 graduates expressed similar uncertainty.
• 27% of respondents in the class of 2023 reported attending a 2-year college, while 13% were working as part of a career plan, 9% had no plan, 7% were attending trade or technical school and 5% were joining the military.
• Over half (51%) of the class of 2023 cited ‘family members’ as their primary influence on their path.

“Empowering students with a deeper understanding of their unique strengths enables them to proactively plan their future and make well-informed post-graduation decisions,” said Edson Barton, founder and CEO of YouScience. “Our research highlights the urgency of providing students with more individualized guidance and exposure to diverse pathways.”

Equipping the class of 2023 and beyond

To set students up for post-high school success, YouScience also recommends:

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1. Personalizing pathways: Aptitude and interest assessments can steer graduates toward the most fitting post-secondary programs.

2. Interdisciplinary teaching: Schools and districts can work together to develop career clusters that give students access to sequenced and personalized programs of study.

3. Collaborative planning: Once students have a solid grasp of their aptitudes, they can work with family members, educators and counselors to choose the most relevant courses, earn career-tech certifications and enter the workforce or pursue post-secondary degrees.

4. Education-to-career tools: Administrators should provide counselors and teachers with resources to create personalized plans for postsecondary education and training based on student aptitudes and interests.

5. Industry-recognized certifications: These can be leveraged to quantify student knowledge and skills

6. Work-based learning: Internships and apprenticeships connect students with business and industry partners to gain real-world work experience.

The post 7 quick tips: Helping the class of 2023 find alternatives to college appeared first on District Administration.

Until recent years, K12 districts gave short shrift to equipping students with the skills they need to thrive in the workforce, relegating career education to students in vocational programs, as though college-bound high schoolers wouldn’t need them, too. Today, however, districts like mine recognize that helping students identify their interests and passions while developing a toolkit to navigate the world of work is one of the most important, if not the most important, functions of K12 education.

And that’s particularly true during high school. Employability and technology skills are essential components of this expanded view of a 21st-century education, which is why the mantra “Discover Your Future” guides all the decisions we make in our schools—from what we teach to how we direct resources. Teaching students to be entrepreneurs has played a central role in helping them discover their futures in Township High School District 214.

Firsthand entrepreneurship experiences

The term “entrepreneurship” usually prompts thoughts of people starting companies, inventing products or spinning hobbies into side hustles. While those certainly are elements of entrepreneurship, it doesn’t begin to cover the range of skills that entrepreneurs must employ to be successful: collaboration, creative thinking, resilience, learning from failure and applying what they’ve learned to solve real-world problems.

As it turns out, employers are clamoring for workers with the same skills that entrepreneurs develop over time. According to a report from the World Economic Forum, analytical and creative thinking are the traits most prized by hiring managers, who consider them to be core skills. Others include flexibility, agility and curiosity, all of which rank higher on the list than technological literacy.

One way Township High School District 214 helps students develop these entrepreneurship skills is through an entrepreneurship course we offer utilizing Uncharted Learning’s INCubatoredu program. During the school year, students create and develop their own product or service that solves a problem that they’ve identified themselves. It ends with the students pitching their ideas to potential investors.

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The program not only puts teenagers in proximity to mentors and experts from various industries, it drives the development of the very skills they’ll need once they enter the job market. Entrepreneurship education also allows students to experience their interests firsthand, rather than just reading about them.

But because not every student takes the course, and because these skills benefit students more broadly, we’ve also embedded entrepreneurial experiences and work-based learning into each student’s journey. For instance, in our MobileMakersEdu computer science program students not only learn how to code, but in the second half of the year, they use their newly developed skills to launch their own tech startup. In the process, students learn more about themselves as they apply what they have learned to solving real-world problems.

Skills that last a lifetime

It’s difficult to discover your future within the pages of a textbook, so we have provided students with opportunities to engage with mentors and industry experts through work-based learning opportunities connected to the 16 career clusters we offer. For example, students considering careers in accounting, human resources, sales management and other facets of finance and business services can engage in mentorship programs and internships as they potentially earn one of 21 industry certificates. Similarly, those who are leaning toward careers in health and medicine can explore courses in allied health, nursing and pre-med can also engage in work-based learning experiences and learn first-hand from experts in the field.

These pathways, which are anywhere from two to four years long, cover just about every facet of the workforce and give students an authentic taste of what they might expect in their chosen fields. Classes become increasingly advanced each year and generally culminate in opportunities to receive early college credit, an industry certification or experiential learning opportunities.

The entrepreneur’s journey is at the core of our district’s vision for student learning: learning from failure, relevance through real-world application, and connecting with and learning from industry experts and mentors. In the process, students develop skills that will last them a lifetime while they get a glimpse at what their futures can look like. And if they can experience that in high school, then they’ll make more informed decisions about their next steps, whether it’s college, trade school, an apprenticeship or something else.

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A loose coalition of 250 school leaders is experimenting with four of these nontraditional outcomes—deeper learning, social-emotional skills, self-direction, and career readiness—as they and their teams seek new ways to equip students for success after high school graduation. A recent survey found that two-thirds of the school leaders who are participating in the innovation-oriented Canopy project are assessing students for deeper learning and social-emotional skills.

About 40 percent are assessing for career readiness while about one in five are also evaluating how self-directed their students are, say researchers for the Canopy project, which is led by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University and Transcend, an education nonprofit.

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Most schools that are measuring these nontraditional outcomes are assessing students’ skills and knowledge through portfolios and projects rather than traditional tests. Moreover, many schools have created their own assessments for these evaluations, particularly when it comes to deeper learning and SEL.

Many of these leaders, however, are still figuring out how to determine or demonstrate the overall impact of assessing these outcomes, the report noted, adding that making sense of the evidence will be the topic of future research.

How nontraditional outcomes can ‘solve for inequities’

That sounds like a mouthful, but part of this evolving approach to student success is designing better ways to support the progress of students of color, students with disabilities and students from low-income backgrounds, the researchers noted. One solution that sounds obvious is intentionally designing courses and climates to meet the needs of marginalized students and multilingual learners.

To gain some insight, Canopy’s researchers tracked differences in practices deployed by schools that are focused on inclusion and those that are not. For instance, schools focused on inclusion were more likely to offer 1-on-1 mentoring and follow Universal Design for Learning concepts. Schools where inclusion was not reported to be a core practice were more likely to focus on community and business partnerships and mastery grading policies, the report explained.

School leaders surveyed also noted how external conditions—such as central office support and political divisions—are impacting their improvement initiatives. Only about 30% of the educators said their schools were part of a system-wide innovation initiative. About the same number attested that local and national political debates were interfering with their schools’ ability to educate students.

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