My Take: Pathway Payoffs

The headline of an Education Week blog post by veteran education reporter Catherine Gewertz seemed mildly interesting: “Combination of Career, Academic Skills Pays Off for H.S. Grads, Study Finds.” That is, until I read the teaser under it: “High school graduates with advanced math and science, good grades, and a professional license or certificate earned more than young adults with bachelor’s degrees.” I was hooked.

Reading further, I learned that Gewertz was alluding to a recently released Center for Public Education (CPE), Alexandria, VA, report titled The Path Least Taken III. A final installment in a three-part series of reports based on data collected through the U.S. Department of Education’s (Washington) long-term study of Class of 2004 graduates, it offers some food for thought for those who might have an interest in development and deployment of a highly skilled technical workforce.

In a nutshell, as Gewertz wrote, “The right combination of career and academic skills can pay off for high school graduates who don’t go to college, producing higher wages and a better chance of working full time, than their peers who earn associate degrees or leave college without earning a degree.”

To be specific, the report’s authors, former CPE senior analyst Jim Hull and CPE managing editor Naomi Dillon, found that non-college goers did much better in the labor market if they had completed high-level math and science courses, earned average to above-average grades, completed multiple vocational courses focusing on a specific labor market area (occupational concentration), and obtained a professional certification or license.

Although each of those factors seems to exert a positive effect most of the time, Hull and Dillon noted they are “especially powerful in combination.” They refer to this formula as “high credentialed,” a term they coined and introduced in the second installment of this report series.

What Hull and Dillon didn’t do at that time was distinguish between those who attended a two- or four-year institution (trade schools aren’t included in the list) or between those who obtained a degree and those who didn’t. This third and final report does, including emphasizing that, among the college-going groups, “no one enjoyed a greater likelihood of success” than four-year degree holders, who pulled in dramatically higher wages and contributed much more to retirement by the age of 26 than the average non-college goer.

These differences shrank, however, when four-year university graduates were compared against high-credentialed non-college goers, who reported similar success in many areas, i.e., job security, supervisory experience, and job satisfaction.

According to the report, the head start from high credentials helped members of the Class of 2004, no matter where they ended up in life. The greatest impact was seen in non-college goers, “who, on average, had the lowest chances of landing full-time employment, making a living wage, and receiving medical insurance.” Hull and Dillon conclude that, with rigorous, more-focused high school courses, those individuals are the biggest beneficiaries of a high-credentialed curriculum, “attaining greater levels of economic success than even those who went to college but failed to graduate.”

There are more highlights in this report than I can possibly cover in a single page. Why don’t you read it yourself? Find the entire series here.

I’ll be interested in your take on it.

jalexander@efficientplantmag.com