Gateways, Not
An academic course of study prepares all
students to succeed in both college and career.
Linda Murray
Although most U.S. states have now adopted the common core college- and career-ready standards for all their students, many
high schools continue to operate on an
old premise—that only the best and the
brightest will go on to college, with the
rest needing a lower dose of academics
sprinkled with some occupational
training.
We’ve put fancy window dressing on
the latter, with rhetoric about “career
pathways” that will lead non-college-
bound students into good jobs. But
those words ring hollow when one
looks at the facts. In its analysis of more
than 15,000 high school transcripts
from nine diverse school districts in
California, 1 the Education Trust-West,
a small nonprofit education policy and
advocacy organization dedicated to
closing opportunity and achievement
gaps, found a pattern of schooling that
should disturb us all.
