In 2024 voters prioritized the economy as the single most critical issue facing our nation. When we look beyond the very real short-term concerns over the skyrocketing prices of eggs and unaffordable rent, what we’re really talking about is building economic opportunities — and that requires real investment in our K-12 education system.
Education and economic success are two sides of the same coin. If we want to build strong economic opportunities, we must focus on making education more relevant, accessible and career-connected beginning as early as elementary school.
The average American student spends roughly 15,000 hours in school between kindergarten and 12th grade. That’s well above the 10,000 hours needed to achieve mastery in almost anything according to Malcolm Gladwell’s research. It's a priceless opportunity to shape a young mind. With a little innovation and conviction, these hours can prepare the next generation of leaders in any field.
The connection to the economy is not just clear; it's critical. K-12 education uniquely holds the keys to cultivating a skilled workforce and knowledgeable citizenry capable of tackling society's most pressing problems, including economic challenges. Career-connected learning, which integrates real-world skills and experiences into curricula, is proving to be a powerful tool for economic development and workforce preparation.
At Transcend, we’ve worked with schools across the country that have launched career-focused innovation through “community-based design journeys,” a process that gets the entire school community involved in listening to student needs and building new strategies to meet them. Communities can build new options or redesign an existing school to provide robust career-centered experiences for students. The old 20th century version of school doesn’t have to be the reality for our kids and school communities often implement changes faster than you might think.
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Take The Brooklyn STEAM Center, which set out to transform the “school to prison pipeline” into “school to career.” Eleventh and 12th grade students from across the borough spend their afternoons “learning by doing” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard — a robust industry ecosystem with over 400 businesses. Students engage in professional work and develop robust industry networks. 83% of STEAM’s first graduating class earned a credential in one of six high-demand industries, 100% had a fully-developed post-secondary plan, and 95% enrolled in a 4-year college.
These schools aren’t anomalies. Career-connected learning can take root in any community —red or blue, urban or rural — willing to come together to design learning that responds to the demands and opportunities of the 21st century.
In Rugby, North Dakota, education and community leaders are partnering to design new experiences that pair the authentic challenges that local businesses are facing with projects that guide young people to solve them. And in Denver, Colorado, students at micro-middle school Embark work out of a coffee and bicycle shop to meet unmet demand and experience learning that is grounded in their broader community. Students developed the second highest-selling seasonal drink at North Denver’s Pinwheel Coffee, with the lemon lavender latte now a constant fixture in the spring menu.
American students are in the midst of an absenteeism crisis. More than a quarter of students missed 10% or more of the past two years of school. When we ask students, they tell us why: school isn’t challenging, relevant or engaging. At Transcend, we recently surveyed more than 100,000 students; nearly two thirds said that school feels irrelevant and offers them few opportunities for agency and choice.
Disengagement from school is often accompanied by disengagement from employment systems and narrowing life opportunities. Career-connected learning changes the game by infusing school with learning experiences students want to show up for. That’s one of the big shifts we need to make for our children. We need to provide school experiences that get them excited about learning and building toward their future career.
Whatever economic or social issues we care about, the 55 million young people in schools across this country will one day determine how we solve them as a society. Keeping them in school is the bare minimum. If we want them to thrive in and transform the world, we must reimagine education with career, community, and young people’s passions at the center.