Nearly a decade ago, state leaders banded together to announce Ohio Attainment Goal 2025, a statewide objective for 65 percent of adult Ohioans to have a degree, certificate, or other postsecondary credential of value by 2025. According to the most recent state report, we’ve made significant progress since then. Ohio’s overall statewide attainment rate of 52.3 percent is its highest since data collection efforts began. But it’s also nearly 13 percentage points short of the 2025 goal and 2 percentage points lower than the national average.
In the recently passed state budget, lawmakers called for a new attainment target to be set by December 31. As state officials debate where to set this new benchmark, they’ll need to consider how Ohio plans to meet it so we don’t fall short again. One source of untapped potential is Some College No Credential (SCNC) adults. Ohio, for example, has a SCNC population of nearly 1.4 million. That’s more than the estimated 1.3 million adults who needed to earn credentials to meet the state’s initial 2025 goal.
Investing in and improving outreach and education programs aimed at helping these adults obtain credentials would be a great place to start. But addressing the root causes of why so many Ohioans start but don’t finish postsecondary education is the only way to permanently fix the problem. Academic readiness—or, rather, the lack thereof—is likely the biggest contributing factor. Boosting student achievement, especially in reading and math, will help improve attainment. But there are other contributing factors, too. And one of the easiest to address is how many Ohio students graduate without a well-thought-out plan for their next step after high school.
Each year, thousands of students graduate with no idea how to pursue their interests or even what they’re interested in. They know little, if anything, about careers or the job market. Many don’t realize that earning a postsecondary credential doesn’t have to mean a traditional four-year degree. Those enrolled at a college or university can take advantage of the career services offered by their institutions. But high school graduates who go straight into the workforce don’t have that option, and neither do the students who drop out and become SCNC adults. If Ohio did a better job of offering in-depth career exploration and guidance to students before they graduate from high school, then tens of thousands of Ohioans would be better off.
To his credit, Governor DeWine has attempted to address the lack of career exploration and guidance available to Ohio’s secondary students. When he released his budget recommendations in February, he included a requirement for students’ graduation plans to identify career goals and align students’ high school experiences to those goals. This would have been a huge step forward. Unfortunately, the proposal wasn’t included in the final budget. An updated attainment goal did make the cut. But if policymakers actually want to meet that goal, they need to take career exploration in middle and high school seriously.
Other states certainly are. In Utah, college and career awareness is a required middle school course for students in seventh or eighth grade and is taught by career-tech teachers, school counselors, and work-based learning coordinators. Idaho also requires seventh and eighth grade students to complete one or more career exploration courses. Students in Washington have “high school and beyond” plans that are informed by a career interest and skills inventory that’s administered by seventh grade and informs eighth grade course-taking. And in neighboring Kentucky, students develop an Individual Learning Plan within the first ninety days of sixth grade that includes exploring careers and identifying which ones match their skills and interests.
The Kentucky Department of Education notes that its plans are “changing how students prepare themselves for their future.” To keep up with other states—and to do right by students and families—Ohio needs to change how its students prepare for the future, too. Lawmakers should revisit Governor DeWine’s proposal for incorporating career planning into students’ graduation plans. And to ensure those plans aren’t just box-checking exercises, lawmakers should also require a career planning course in middle school.
Like the old adage says, there’s more than one way to cook an egg. But if Ohio leaders actually want to meet the state’s attainment goal this time around, they should probably get cracking on career exploration.
