The National Governors Association (NGA), chaired by Colorado governor Jared Polis, launched the Let’s Get Ready initiative to help states provide a high-quality education and ensure students can succeed in college or a career after high school. The Urban Institute’s Student Upward Mobility Initiative (SUMI) was invited to play a strategic role supporting this initiative, focused on identifying what skills students need at the end of high school. To provide that support, our team worked with All4Ed to assess how states currently measure college and career readiness and whether those measures have been robustly linked to long-term success. This blog post is one of two that shares lessons from our collaboration with NGA.

Many states define criteria or measures for college and career readiness. In a recent report, I look into the literature on 12 of these measures, focusing on the metrics several states have adopted and where there is already a research base. I reviewed more than 100 studies to identify research that demonstrates whether there is a causal relationship between these measures and economic mobility (typically, postsecondary enrollment, attainment, and earnings).

Although most measures appear to have some correlation with opportunities for economic mobility after high school, seven measures stood out as having a stronger research base at this time:

• enrollment in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes
• whemandatory ACT or SAT testing
• mandatory Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion
• academic early college or dual enrollment participation
• military enlistment
• industry-recognized credential or dual enrollment career and technical education (CTE) credential
• CTE enrollment or dual enrollment

These measures can act on future economic mobility through multiple pathways, such as by helping students understand their own skills and preparation for college (e.g., through taking the ACT or SAT) and by smoothing the pathway to college or a career (e.g., by the attainment of college credit in high school or the attainment of an industry-recognized credential).

Lessons for State and Local Implementation

Some of these measures, such as taking the ACT and SAT or enlisting in the military, are fairly standardized across states, but other measures involve experiences that are more variable across locations. For example, dual enrollment offerings might depend on nearby community college options, the value of certain industry-recognized credentials might vary across local economies, and the feasibility of offering an extensive AP course catalog could differ by the size of a local high school. Diving further into the research, I find evidence that state and district implementation of these measures could matter as much for student outcomes as which measures are chosen. The literature provides three lessons for implementation: provide sufficient support, consider local context to identify more promising coursework and credentials, and work toward whole-school implementation.

Provide support for teachers and students. The selection of college and career measures should often be paired with individualized support for students and teachers. For example, completing the FAFSA has a larger effect on student outcomes when paired with personalized assistance, and enrollment in an AP course yields substantial benefits when teachers are well trained and students are eligible for financial incentives for high scores.

Identify more promising coursework and credentials. Most college and career readiness measures aren’t prescriptive in terms of which AP courses, dual credit classes, or industry-recognized credentials students should engage in. This gives local schools and districts the flexibility to offer options that best align with student interest and regional needs. But states can provide evidence-backed guidance for districts on which courses and credentials provide better economic mobility; for example, some industry-recognized credentials carry more value in the workplace than others.

Work toward whole-school implementation. Some of the strongest economic mobility returns come from high schools that have implemented measures at the school level. This type of investment allows students to develop experience and skills. Early college high schools tend to produce stronger results than schools where dual enrollment is optional, and career and technical high schools yield more benefits for students than schools that offer just a few CTE courses. This approach might not be feasible in all contexts, but policymakers should continually assess how to use college and career readiness measures to foster deep and meaningful skill development in high school.

Lessons for Researchers

For many of these measures, the research is still growing, and researchers should use this report to identify potential gaps in the literature. For example, for some measures, we have strong evidence on college enrollment and attainment, but we don’t yet have evidence on earnings. For other newly emerging measures, we have little to no research yet. For example, several states have started adopting apprenticeships in high school as a college and career readiness measure. These initiatives will likely produce strong economic mobility for students (in line with previous research on CTE in high school and apprenticeship for adults after high school), but research on these emerging programs is not yet available.

More broadly, issues around implementation and the need for continued research center on the goal of ensuring that college and career readiness measures continue to serve as indicators of the underlying skills and competencies students develop in high school. College and career readiness measures will move the needle on economic mobility only when they are aligned with meaningful learning experiences and skill development for students.

Data on the current evidence for college and career readiness measures can be a starting point for understanding how high schools can help promote economic mobility. Policymakers and researchers should continue to explore ways to connect students’ experiences, credentials, skills, and competencies to long-term outcomes.

To view the rest of our work in support of Let’s Get Ready, check out my corresponding literature review, an overarching summary and recommendations from Karishma Furtado and Maggie Reeves, Anne Hyslop’s 50-state scan and corresponding blog post, and SUMI’s work more broadly. Finally, the entire playbook for the Let’s Get Ready Initiative can be found here.