Sunday evening is when my wife and I often watch a recording of the “Sunday Morning” show on CBS. On a recent Sunday evening, I was pleased to see an important story about the changing understanding of the college-for-all proposition. Here’s a link to the story: https://youtu.be/tk_Iie0ZyAk.

The Sunday Morning segment covered a wide gamut of related issues.  First, you’ll hear the difficult story of someone who took on a massive amount of student loan debt pursuing the college-for-all mantra. Then, a vignette of a young woman who attends a technical high school in Connecticut and has a bright future with skills and employment, apart from a traditional college path.

Then you’ll hear about a corporate initiative led by the former CEOs of Merck (Ken Frazier) and IBM (Ginny Rometti) who are working with their former companies and other corporate mainstays to update thousands of job descriptions, so they don’t require a bachelor’s degree by default. Together Frazier and Rometti have founded OneTen, an organization working to promote change within corporate America, as well as link with job training and community-based organizations.  “OneTen’s mission is to hire, promote and advance one million Black individuals who do not have a four-year degree into family-sustaining careers over the next 10 years.” See: https://oneten.org/about/mission/

There are so many facets to how the College-for-All mantra has played out in the lives of Americans over recent decades.  While College-for-All is well intended in many ways, it has dominated our national mindset for decades and has fostered some unintentional negative side effects.  Without strong career and college advisement, College-for-All has made many individuals more susceptible to college scams, and more likely to pursue low-value but expensive degrees.

I think there’s a better way than “College-for-All.”  It is time to replace “College-for-All” with a better message –“Readiness for All.”

Readiness for All respects the need for strong academic skills and for most people, some sort of high-value postsecondary education to gain economic mobility.  But Readiness for All is more than just academic skills and college aspirations.  It also recognizes the need for Career Navigation Skills, the analytical skills and tools to evaluate different college options, transferable Workplace and College Success Skills, and other critical inter-personal and social-emotional competencies. The whole package is what makes a high school graduate “Ready” for the next step in life.

One tool to make Readiness for All come to life is when schools and districts across the U.S. work to create a Profile of a Graduate. The Profile of a Graduate explains the varied knowledge and competencies that students need to be truly ready for the next step after high school. Through creating the profile and then aligning school curriculum and activities to the profile, schools and districts begin to officially recognize and pursue Readiness for All as a better alternative to College for All. While we are not the only organization doing this work, you can learn more about our Profile of a Graduate work at NC3T here:  https://nc3t.com/profile-of-a-graduate-2/

There’s a lot of tough news in today’s media feeds – health and emotional challenges for children and adults, shortages of talent, and weak supply chains.  But many good things are happening too, both in our schools and in corporate hiring practices. This recent Sunday Morning story attests to some of those trends. Let’s keep pursuing these positive steps forward!

By the way, please let me know if your district is pursuing a Profile of a Graduate, and how that is working so far. Reach me at [email protected].

Hans Meeder is President of the National Center for College and Career Transitions (NC3T). NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance, and tools. These strategies help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education. Discover more at www.nc3t.com.