One of the biggest shifts in education reform in recent years has been widening acknowledgment that the “college for all” mantra was misguided. Almost everyone now admits that college, as traditionally defined, is not going to be for everyone, and that career and technical programs and trade schools can provide sturdy on-ramps to the middle class.
Yet so far our commitment to “multiple pathways” to opportunity is almost all talk accompanied by very little action. Those of us in and around K–12 education continue to behave as if virtually every student is expected to go off to a four-year university. That’s especially the case when it comes to:
