Graduation and Career Readiness

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2025-26 academic year will be fully available by Dec. 1 — two months later than the form’s usual debut, according to an Aug. 7 announcement from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Starting Oct. 1, the Education Department will test the new form with a limited number of students and institutions. This phased approach is aimed at ensuring complete functionality when the form fully launches, officials said in a news release. 

The delay comes after a fraught financial aid cycle. 

The Education Department released a new FAFSA form for the 2024-25 academic year in late December — roughly three months later than usual. 

Per a congressional mandate, the Education Department revamped the application with the aim of making it easier for families and students to fill out. But the rollout was plagued by chronic delays and technical issues. 

Agency officials cast the second delay in two years as a way to avoid those problems for the next aid cycle. 

During an Aug. 7 call with reporters, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona stressed that the Education Department has made recent moves to change the operations and oversight of the Federal Student Aid office, which manages the FAFSA. 

“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” Cardona said in an Aug. 7 statement. 

In June, the Education Department brought on Jeremy Singer, who is taking a temporary leave of absence from his role as president of the College Board to serve as the agency’s FAFSA executive advisor for the 2025-26 form. 

“Our team at FSA is still hard at work trying to address the issues from the past year, and we've identified areas working with this team that are going to be different as we move into the new year,” Singer said during a call with reporters. “In particular, we've learned there is a lot that we can do to improve testing.” 

When the form launches, Singer said, “key features will be available on day one.” 

That means students will be able to submit FAFSA forms and colleges will be able to receive their applicant data — information that is key to creating financial aid packages. Students and colleges will also be able to immediately make any corrections needed to their FAFSAs. 

This past aid cycle, the Education Department didn’t start sending FAFSA applicant data to colleges until March — sharply compressing the time colleges had to compile aid packages. This data is usually available shortly after the FAFSA opens on Oct. 1. 

Many institutions wound up pushing back the traditional student commitment deadline of May 1 because of the delay. 

Students also couldn’t submit corrections to their FAFSA forms until April. 

And delays have continued late into the aid cycle. Just last week, the Education Department told colleges they wouldn’t be able to submit batch corrections for the 2024-25 FAFSA, meaning officials would have to submit them manually for each form. 

It made that move to focus its resources on the 2025-26 FAFSA, a senior department official said during the call with reporters, adding that the agency realizes that this put an extra burden on colleges. 

For the 2025-26 FAFSA, batch corrections still won’t be available by Dec. 1.

However, the Education Department will add features such as batch corrections for institutions during regular releases sometime after the form is fully live, an agency spokesperson said in an Aug. 7 email.

The testing period for the 2025-26 FAFSA will begin with hundreds of students on Oct. 1, before progressing to tens of thousands of students in November, Singer said. Those submissions will trigger deliveries of FAFSA data to colleges. 

“This will surface bugs and issues that we will be able to address before the application is open to the full public,” Singer said. 

The Education Department will work with colleges, high schools and other organizations to invite students to participate in the testing process, a senior department official said. 

The news was met with mixed reactions from higher education groups and lawmakers. 

Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that an Oct. 1 debut would have been ideal. 

“But given where we are in the process, and the challenges that have plagued this year’s rollout, we would rather wait until December 1 to allow time for the necessary testing to ensure a functional system,” Maglione said. 

Catherine Brown, senior director of policy and advocacy at the National College Attainment Network, echoed those comments.

“This delayed release date is not what we had hoped, given that in years past, 50% of FAFSAs were filed prior to the end of the calendar year,” Brown said in an announcement. 

But Brown noted that the move is consistent with an earlier recommendation from NCAN and other higher education groups. Those organizations, which included NASFAA, urged the Education Department to “conduct the necessary testing” on the new form — even if that meant moving the release to "as late as" Dec. 1. 

Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House education committee, panned the announcement, blaming the delay on the Education Department’s efforts to cancel student debt.  

“Ensuring a working, timely, and accurate FAFSA should have been the Biden-Harris administration’s priority from day one,” the North Carolina Republican said in a statement. “Instead, it has continually shown that illegal debt transfer schemes are far more important than ensuring low-income students can afford college.”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently advanced a bill that would mandate the Education Department to release the FAFSA by Oct. 1 each year. Currently, the agency has until Jan. 1 to make the form available but has historically released it Oct. 1. The bill awaits floor action in the House.

California became the 26th state to require a personal finance course for high school graduation with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of AB 2927 in late June.

The law requires districts to offer a stand-alone, semester-long course in personal finance at every high school starting in the 2027-28 school year. Districts may also choose to require a full-year course.

The measure was backed by California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who will also lead the content and structure of the new curriculum requirement.

Personal finance requirements have ballooned from just eight states in 2020 to 26 states this year, according to Next Gen Personal Finance, which advocates that all high schoolers be required by 2030 to take at least one semester-long finance course before graduation.

“Financial literacy is a critical tool that pays dividends for a lifetime," said California Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire in a statement when the financial literacy agreement was announced on June 27.

"There’s a wealth of data about the benefits of learning these valuable lessons in high school, from improving credit scores and reducing default rates to increasing the likelihood that our future generations will maintain three months of savings for emergencies and have at least one kind of retirement account,” McGuire said.

The California Council on Economic Education said it was "thrilled" Newsom signed the new requirement into law and that it was "hugely consequential for our nation."

However, the organization expressed disappointment that students would be able to substitute a personal finance course for preexisting economics requirements. 

"Economics prepares students to improve all decisions, not simply those that pertain to finance," CCEE said. "It is an integral part of social studies, helping prepare a literate and civically-engaged electorate."

A 2014 study published by the Federal Reserve found students who had a financial education requirement had higher relative credit scores and lower relative delinquency rates than those in states without such a requirement.

According to a study by Intuit, a financial software company, 85% of 2,000 high school students randomly surveyed in March 2024 said they were interested in learning about financial issues in school, and 95% of those who learned about finance reported finding the curriculum helpful. Students said they would primarily like to learn about how to become wealthy, save money and avoid debt.

While there is interest in financial education, results from the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, show that American students scored about average on the subject. In 2022, the average financial literary score of 15-year-old students in the United States was not significantly different from the average score a decade prior in 2012.

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By Project Lead the Way

Over the years, college and career readiness has become a core factor in success after high school—and for good reason. Skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are in high demand globally. In the U.S. alone, jobs in STEM careers are growing twice as fast as non-STEM careers and in 2030 more than 11.2 million positions will be available. Educators want to make sure students are prepared to enter a future driven by STEM, but students, parents, and teachers say schools aren’t meeting the need according to a 2023 survey.

As administrators seek to implement transformative programs and pathways that give students an advantage after graduation, they should consider three priorities: vertical alignment from PreK-12, the availability of curricular pathways, and access to career-connected learning.   

Access to STEM Education from an Early Age

Many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue. In addressing this trend, though, it is important to avoid assumptions around younger generations’ digital skills. Digital literacy and fluency are integrated into all grade levels in Project Lead The Way (PLTW)’s curriculum, giving learners across all grade bands an advantage—not just those who enter computer science courses in high school.

In fact, PLTW Launch elementary students begin learning the concepts of coding in Rosie’s Runtime. This unplugged computer science activity helps students build social-emotional learning skills and introduces the idea of finding and fixing “bugs” in their program. All materials for the activity are free to download in English and Spanish, making the curriculum more accessible to English language learners (ELLs).

Pathway-Driven Learning Opportunities

All students need access to knowledge and skills that prepare them to succeed in a STEM-driven future. One-off activities and projects can’t showcase the breadth and depth of opportunity within STEM fields such as computer science, engineering, or biomedical science.

In Texas, a recent study showed that PLTW Biomedical Science high school students were nearly twice as likely to enroll in college than their peers who took similar non-PLTW biomedical science courses. Those same PLTW students were also 32% more likely to major in STEM in college and 32% more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. As many schools in Texas have done, curricular pathways that integrate academic knowledge, social-emotional learning (SEL), and technical skills better prepare students to start their career or enter secondary education, regardless of the field they choose.

Career-Connected Classroom Experiences

Understanding the vast career possibilities available in STEM is a catalyst for the paths many students choose after graduation. As shown in this comparability study, PLTW high school courses help students integrate key thinking strategies, content knowledge, learning techniques, and transitional skills that prepare students for college and career success. Alongside internships and job shadowing, educators can use interdisciplinary activities and collaborative projects to help unlock real-world skills related to specific fields of study.

For example, high school students in PLTW Engineering are exposed to a range of disciplines such as aerospace engineering, architecture, computer-integrated manufacturing, and environmental sustainability. These learning experiences give students the opportunity to solve engaging and challenging real-world problems like creating a natural relief center system, programming electronic devices, or exploring algae as a biofuel source. 

For many high school students, choosing what they’ll pursue after graduation creates a high level of stress. But when schools create strong programs that focus on career and college readiness, students build the confidence to pursue the future they see themselves in. Through learning pathways like those from PLTW, all students gain an advantage that sets them up to thrive in whatever path they choose to take.

WASHINGTON — In a large window-filled engineering classroom with high-tech equipment, King Muhammad, a rising 12th grader at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School, jots over to a desk and picks up a mini home construction model. The foot-high stick structure seems simple, but then Muhammad points out the subfloor, the insulation, the arches and sheathing.

The model, which Muhammad created alongside classmate Lania Lake, who is also a rising 12th grader, is one of many memorable projects he's completed as a student at the 320-student District of Columbia public school. For the past three years, he's learned STEM skills and how that knowledge relates to careers in civil and mechanical engineering, as well as other professions.

What's been more rewarding, he and a handful of other rising seniors said, is how their lessons and projects have expanded their awareness of how their modern career and technical education studies relate to family members' well-honed and more traditional professions.

For instance, Muhammad's late grandfather was a jeweler, which inspired him to study blacksmithing, or the skill of shaping metal into objects like tools.

"I have the interest in blacksmithing, but engineering has things in the curriculum that you can take and put on blacksmithing, like structural analysis [and] project management," Muhammad said. He explained that for a lesson on bridges, he learned that the metal used can help the structure's durability.

Lake's grandfather owned a construction company, which has influenced her passion for designing buildings and doing hands-on projects. De'Arra Parkinson's grandfather also owned a construction company, fueling her curiosity of careers in architecture and engineering. Ne'vaeh Akoto's uncle worked on HVAC systems, and Akoto enjoyed a class he took at Phelps where he learned about heating and cooling systems.

As the students prepare for their last year of high school and pick senior capstone projects, they say they are inspired by their personal connections to traditional careers and the ways those careers are being modernized by technology.

"It helped deepen my passion for overall what I want to do in the future," Muhammad said.

Students finding their career interests

Olatundun Teyibo, director of the NAF engineering and IT academies at Phelps, said the CTE program helps to expose students to various career paths, including learning about different jobs that they are and are not interested in — either through their studies, hands-on applications of what they've learned, or from professionals in that field.

NAF is a national education nonprofit that brings schools and businesses together to help students prepare for careers, college and the future. 

Connections with local employers is a "win-win" for students and for employers, because students can learn about job experiences, and employers can learn from students about their interests and challenges, Teyibo said.

"Many times, the students can either see themselves in those fields, do more research about it, or go into a different pathway," she said. "CTE programs, I think, allow students to know what they want, so when they get to college, they don't keep on changing fields and incurring more debt."

She later added in an email that the federal government should ensure that CTE programs continue to be adequately funded to provide access to all students, especially those in underserved communities. She also suggests overall college debt would be lower if students were exposed to high-quality CTE programs in middle and high schools. 

As an administrator, Teyibo says she's inspired by the students' persistence, academic growth, risk-taking and adaptability. "What energizes me is they're passionate about learning."

Making hard work pay off

While the students say they have enjoyed their studies and have a growing appreciation of the connections between professions in their families and modern careers, the work has been difficult at times.

"You miss one thing, and you could fall way behind," said student Bryce Simmons.

Student De'Arra Parkinson said that while the engineering studies are challenging, they've actually helped with preparing for physics classes and honing comprehension skills.

For the next school year, the students are preparing for their capstone projects, which are lengthy in-depth studies about their passions. Among the topics being considered are aerospace, cooking, music and blacksmithing.

The students credit the school's pre-engineering teacher Teresa Broadnax for creating study packets and fun review games, as well as providing snacks and study support. 

"She'll repeat a lesson, too, if the students really don't know," said Simmons. "She really makes sure you got everything you need." 

Broadnax, who has taught at Phelps for 10 years, deflects the attention back to the students. She said the students are "the reason why I come to work every day, because they're very detailed, they're very focused, and it's never a boring day, and they know what they want to do. I'm just happy to be able to be a part of that.”

When administrators from four Pittsburgh-area school systems learned about a California school district's career-focused curriculum that was exposing students as young as 5 years old to a variety of professions and skill sets, they knew they wanted to bring that model to the East Coast.

And although the student populations and demographics of the four school districts vary, the district leaders made a unique pact to collaborate in uniformly developing and implementing the K-8 curriculum.

Starting last school year, the school districts of South Fayette Township, Duquesne City, Avonworth and Elizabeth Forward started phasing in the World of Work academic framework in their elementary and middle schools. Modeled on a career-focused curriculum from Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon, California, the four Pennsylvania districts co-created grade-specific lessons that could be integrated into core-subject areas. 

The lessons use inquiry and play-based learning to expose students to professions in the western Pennsylvania region. The lessons also help students better understand their own personal characteristics and interests and how those attributes can be a launching point to explore professions.

Michelle Miller, superintendent of South Fayette Township School District, said it was a "mammoth" task for the four school districts to jointly adapt the Cajon Valley curriculum for all K-8 students in the region. 

"We asked the question, how do we divide this work in meaningful ways so that there's consistency in all of our buildings, there's consistency with design, there's consistency with expectations?" Miller said. 

Miller and the other district leaders said the answer to that question was collaboration and coordination between all levels of educators, including superintendents, principals and classroom teachers.

There were "people working together, because it's just so important," Miller said.

Another priority for the districts was to allow teachers flexibility to create experiences for students at different grade levels not just in the four school districts, but in the greater western Pennsylvania region and beyond, Miller said.

Exploring careers

To help students better understand their individual skills, strengths and interests, the World of Work framework is built around a survey students take called RIASEC, which measures possible career interests across six categories: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. 

The exercise helps students match their interests with career learning. For example, a student who enjoys art may want to explore careers as a musician, a comic book writer or architect.

Teachers in all four districts created the 54 units of study. In 4th grade, for instance, lessons about enterprising careers would include exploring the job of a real estate agent. In kindergarten, a study about realistic careers would highlight the roles of police officers. In 8th grade, investigative career lessons would hone in on the work of forensic scientists. 

The districts were intentional in including a wide spectrum of careers, some of which require postsecondary education and others that do not, Miller said.

To help students roleplay and have hands-on experiences in these careers, the school districts have created spaces in classrooms and other areas to model forensic labs and farmers markets and construction workbenches. 

"First and foremost, it builds a positive culture of belonging and self awareness for our learners," Miller said. "I think that is probably the foundation for so many other things to grow and be nurtured."

Working across districts

Training teachers in this model is also a collaborative effort and is being led by Ashli Detweiler, who previously was a teacher and is a current Duquesne City School District employee. Her temporary role of regional coordinator for World of Work in the Pittsburgh area is supported through a grant from The Grable Foundation, a Pittsburgh-area nonprofit that supports children and youth. 

Although Detweiler reported to four different superintendents who oversaw 15 principals, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. The level of commitment from each really helped support the work of teacher training and collaboration and the roll-out of the framework, she said. 

"When you give teachers the space and the opportunity to connect and share experiences, best practices, reflection time — it moves mountains, and I don't feel that we do that enough," Detweiler said. 

She also said the program has made a positive impact on students. For instance, one chronically absent student would come to school on days where lessons focused on career exploration. The student told their teacher that if school was like that every day, they would attend more often, Detweiler said.

Each district is phasing in the curriculum as it works best for their communities. 

Sue Mariani, superintendent of Duquesne City School District, said that while implementing the framework may be "free to little cost" for districts, there would be expenses if schools want to create career centers in classrooms.  

Duquesne City School District used grant money to create spaces in a Carnegie Library branch attached to a school for students to explore professions of veterinarians, bankers, fitness studio employees and more, Mariani said.

"We really have an opportunity to show our kids that, you know, living in Duquesne is great, but there's a whole world out there that you don't know, and if you want to come back and give back someday, that's perfect. But let me show you what else is out there," Mariani said.

Students see value in themselves

In Avonworth School District, Superintendent Jeff Hadley said one of the aspects of the program that excites him is the career curriculum's connections to what students are already learning in classrooms. 

"It helps students, even at a young age, start to realize they're actually learning this stuff for a reason," Hadley said. 

That understanding and knowledge will build, so when students reach the high school level, they'll be more informed about what courses they might want to take, what careers they might be interested in, and what path they might want to pursue beyond high school, he said.

The superintendents said the framework is not pressuring young students to pick a career at an early age and only stick to that path. Rather, it helps students better understand their own strengths and the strengths of their classmates.

"I see the huge value in how it's helping kids see the value in each other and the value in themselves, and that has transformed, I think, culture in classrooms and culture in the buildings," Hadley said.

While there are many ways to develop career and technical education programming in a school district, experts say it’s important that what students learn dovetails with growing demands in the job market. 

Looking to community organizations and local government bodies like city councils can help identify partners who can teach and train students while they’re still in school, said Alisha Hyssop, chief policy, research, and content officer for the Association for Technology and Career Education.

Hyssop added that students can also be a resource in finding avenues to pursue. “Involving students themselves and elevating learner voice is an important strategy,” said Hyssop. “Often, students see needs in their communities that might not be as visible to schools or individual teachers.”

Home-grown CTE opportunities can bring training to students while also benefiting the local community — even when it comes to installing solar paneling for a school site. Some growth areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics, however, may also require investments in equipment and partnerships with groups like chambers of commerce, local business organizations and community nonprofits.

As examples, Hyssop pointed to student groups that work with Habit for Humanity and high school students in Renton, Washington, who worked to provide academic and emotional support to elementary school peers.

Hyssop also noted that CTE programs can’t be cookie-cutter. First, they should be aligned to curriculum and standards so what students learn outside the classroom matches with what they learn in their broader studies. Then, schools should look at the ACTE framework for developing a work-based learning experience, Hyssop said.

It’s key, she added, that schools find opportunities that work for them — and even fit best for each student.

“There is value in many different work-based learning experiences,” Hyssop said. “Which is the right fit for a student, program or school really depends on a number of different factors like the educational goals, skills needed, availability of placements, employer needs and more. There is significant value in providing students with a range of work-based learning experiences across the continuum.”

Less than half (47%) of public schools rated themselves as doing a "very good" or "excellent" job preparing students for college, according to a nationally representative survey released by the National Center for Education Statistics on March 19.

Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods were less likely than more affluent schools to say they did an "excellent" or "very good" job at college preparation. Schools with higher populations of students of color, those in high-poverty neighborhoods, those in rural areas, and those with fewer than 1,000 students reported offering fewer AP courses on average.

Nearly 90% of high schools align their graduation requirements to admissions requirements at public colleges or universities, and just 62% include college and career milestones in their graduation requirements. A higher percentage of high schools said they did a "good" or better job preparing students for the workforce (86%) than for college (77%).

The data was gathered in January by the U.S. Department of Education's research arm from more than 1,600 participating public schools from every state and the District of Columbia.

“One noteworthy finding is that a lower percentage of schools in high-poverty neighborhoods give themselves the highest marks, ‘excellent’ or ‘very good,’ in preparing students for college, when compared with the national population of schools," said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr in a statement. "I hope these data will spark important conversations that lead to improved opportunities for all students.”

The survey findings come on the heels of a report released by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in February that found colleges face enrollment challenges stemming from less prepared high school graduates and a declining pool of students.

Last year, a separate report from ECMC Group and Vice Media found that while current high school students value education after high school, they are increasingly interested in alternatives to traditional four-year postsecondary options.

According to that report, a quarter of students considered attending a community college in 2023, up from 20% in 2020. Students considering career and technical education increased from 15% in 2020 to 19% three years later.

Although CTE programs have numerous benefits for schools and students — including boosting graduation rates and student engagement — CTE experts say their reach is limited by a lack of funds, teacher shortages and outdated stigmas.

Some 8.3 million high school students participated in CTE programs during the 2020-21 school year, according to the Association for Career and Technical Education.

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship is pushing for the passage of a proposed bipartisan reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which currently allows students to have access to work-based learning programs like apprenticeships, leadership development activities, adult mentoring and entrepreneurial skills training. 

The proposal, A Stronger Workforce for America Act, is pending in the House and promotes activities focused on developing skills like creativity, digital literacy, critical thinking, collaboration and persistence. NFTE said those five skills are among the top 10 that employers are increasingly seeking, per a 2023 World Economic Forum survey.

The global nonprofit is also calling for entrepreneurship programs to be required by federal law, rather than just permitted, in workforce development efforts. Entrepreneurship programs cut across industries and should be viewed as a key part of career-readiness, NFTE said.

Entrepreneurship education programs help students develop a mindset or collection of skills that help them take risks, recognize opportunities, learn from mistakes, and better communicate, NFTE said. The nonprofit relies on the Entrepreneurial Mindset Index as a tool for building awareness and boosting skills that prepare students for future careers. 

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization found entrepreneurship education and training programs can improve the likelihood that students will launch a business and earn a higher income compared to their peers who didn’t participate in a similar program. 

Other nonprofits have found teaching entrepreneurial mindsets to middle and high school students to be extremely beneficial for helping marginalized students succeed in the modern workforce, considering historic barriers they have faced when trying to participate in the economy. 

For instance, the national nonprofit Build provides programming to high school students in underserved communities. Build’s curriculum helps students design, develop, market and pitch their own business ideas.

Overall, states are increasingly zeroing in on passing and expanding career and technical education policies. In 2023, Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education found 47 states enacted 115 CTE-related laws. Industry partnerships and work-based learning were the top policy areas addressed by state legislators for the second year in a row. 

The U.S. Department of Education has also kept its eye on improving career-readiness. In 2022, the agency announced that it’s using a portion of the $121.9 billion from the American Rescue Plan and funding from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to expand skills-based learning and training pathways into certain industries like advanced manufacturing, automotive and cybersecurity.