The Commission on Purposeful Pathways is a national initiative aiming to help young people successfully transition from high school to careers. Launched in 2025 and facilitated by Education First, the commission consists of national experts—leaders, practitioners, and researchers from K–12, higher education, and workforce—as well as young adults. For the past year, the group has been developing an agenda-setting report that synthesizes existing research and identifies how to provide students with the experiences they need to be successful after high school.
The finalized report was published in early March and does a commendable job explaining why this work is necessary. For starters, an estimated 15 million young adults are currently either “unemployed, churning through low-wage jobs, or working in roles beneath their educational attainment.” Clearly, the current system didn’t work for them. And it doesn’t seem to be working for the students still in school, either. More than two-thirds of Gen Z students say they believe it’s important to determine career plans before graduation, but only 13 percent actually feel prepared to do so. And while the media loves to celebrate sky-high graduation rates, a high school diploma isn’t what it used to be. In just five years, experts predict that 85 percent of professions that put earners in the middle class—so called “good jobs”—will require a bachelor’s degree or other industry-recognized credential.
Today’s students need more than a traditional high school education to be successful in adulthood. To ensure they get what they need, the Commission calls for communities to offer purposeful pathways that begin in high school, continue after graduation, and include three key components.
First is high-quality advising, which refers to consistent support for students that helps them make informed decisions about their future. A range of strategies fit the bill, including traditional one-on-one meetings with a school counselor, tech-enabled tools, or partnering with an organization like OneGoal.
Second is accelerated coursework, defined as “a sequence of coherent college and career acceleration courses culminating in transferable college credits and/or industry-recognized credentials at little or no cost to students.” Dual enrollment, AP, and IB programs all meet this standard, though the report emphasizes that these options should be organized into coherent sequences aligned to postsecondary pathways to avoid “random acts of dual enrollment.” Other options include progressive sequences of CTE courses and innovative school models like early college high schools, P-TECH, and state-designated STEM schools. Regardless of the delivery model, coursework should lead students to credentials of value that are aligned with high-wage, in-demand careers.
Third is career-connected learning, an umbrella term that refers to a continuum of experiences that connect classroom instruction with real world applications. These experiences include career awareness (learning about work through opportunities like field trips and career days), career exploration (learning for work through things like job shadowing and mock interviews), career preparation (learning through work via training programs and simulated experiences), and career training (learning at work through experiences like internships and youth apprenticeships).
Part of what makes purposeful pathways different is that they aren’t siloed or disjointed like many of the current offerings available to students. Under this new framework, the big-three of advising, accelerated coursework, and career-connected learning wouldn’t be optional or isolated. Instead, they’d be “a coherent set of experiences” that every student encounters “early enough and consistently enough to shape real choices.” To further boost their effectiveness, the commission argues that purposeful pathways should also cultivate three specific mindsets in students: purpose (they feel empowered and motivated), belonging (they feel supported by adults and are encouraged to seek help as needed), and social capital (they have access to and the ability to leverage relationships that further their goals).
The report closes with four recommendations. The first two advocate for communities to follow the Commission’s blueprint to provide all students with purposeful pathways, and to “hardwire” those pathways with the three mindsets. A heavy lift, to be sure. But the remaining two are arguably even heavier: moving the goalposts from a high school diploma to economic mobility and ensuring that student transitions are a shared responsibility across K–12, higher education, and workforce.
To help leaders across these systems implement their recommendations, the commission published three action guides: one on high-impact practices, a second on enabling conditions, and a third that deep dives into measuring success. Even with these helpful resources at their fingertips, enacting the vision laid out by the Commission will take considerable effort and resources. But sticking with the status quo—one where the majority of kids aren’t prepared for what comes after high school—isn’t an option.
SOURCE: “A Launchpad for Life: A Vision for Purposeful Pathways for All Students,” The Commission on Purposeful Pathways (March 2026).
