Chelsea Waite

Feels weird for a number of reasons. Totally. Take your dad's experience and then compare it to sort of how you described your experience, and I think that's a great representation of what changed from maybe the 1950s to 70s all the way to the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, where there was really this recognition that we actually need to sort of push for college as the North Star for every student.

Now, fast forward to sort of where we are now. There has been a lot of reckoning about how pushing every student to go to college and take on the cost of college without necessarily being really clear about what they want it to do for them

Now, fast forward to sort of where we are now. There has been a lot of reckoning about how pushing every student to go to college and take on the cost of college without necessarily being really clear about what they want it to do for them

Now, fast forward to sort of where we are now. There has been a lot of reckoning about how pushing every student to go to college and take on the cost of college without necessarily being really clear about what they want it to do for them

means that we have a lot of students across the board who enroll in college and then never complete a degree, take on a ton of debt, and generally kind of like struggle to make college really work for them as a jumping off path to the rest of their career.

means that we have a lot of students across the board who enroll in college and then never complete a degree, take on a ton of debt, and generally kind of like struggle to make college really work for them as a jumping off path to the rest of their career.

means that we have a lot of students across the board who enroll in college and then never complete a degree, take on a ton of debt, and generally kind of like struggle to make college really work for them as a jumping off path to the rest of their career.

So where we are now, I led a study for the Center on Reinventing Public Education on high schools in New England specifically, but I've heard from many other high school leaders across the nation that our findings really resonate with them too. What we were trying to learn is in this post-pandemic landscape, has the purpose of high school shifted at all?

So where we are now, I led a study for the Center on Reinventing Public Education on high schools in New England specifically, but I've heard from many other high school leaders across the nation that our findings really resonate with them too. What we were trying to learn is in this post-pandemic landscape, has the purpose of high school shifted at all?

So where we are now, I led a study for the Center on Reinventing Public Education on high schools in New England specifically, but I've heard from many other high school leaders across the nation that our findings really resonate with them too. What we were trying to learn is in this post-pandemic landscape, has the purpose of high school shifted at all?

Like how do you define success for high school students? And we talked with administrators, teachers, parents, and students in six high schools over the course of two years. And what we found is that the vision that they painted was that they want every single student in that school to have a pathway to a good life. And what a good life means is defined on their own terms.

Like how do you define success for high school students? And we talked with administrators, teachers, parents, and students in six high schools over the course of two years. And what we found is that the vision that they painted was that they want every single student in that school to have a pathway to a good life. And what a good life means is defined on their own terms.

Like how do you define success for high school students? And we talked with administrators, teachers, parents, and students in six high schools over the course of two years. And what we found is that the vision that they painted was that they want every single student in that school to have a pathway to a good life. And what a good life means is defined on their own terms.

Some of it's from students themselves. Students are genuinely questioning if college is worth it and if college is really the right thing for them, knowing what they know about themselves. What we're hearing from students is that choosing to go to college brings financial risk.

Some of it's from students themselves. Students are genuinely questioning if college is worth it and if college is really the right thing for them, knowing what they know about themselves. What we're hearing from students is that choosing to go to college brings financial risk.

Some of it's from students themselves. Students are genuinely questioning if college is worth it and if college is really the right thing for them, knowing what they know about themselves. What we're hearing from students is that choosing to go to college brings financial risk.

There's an emotional toll that students describe where college is really high pressure or it can feel really high pressure. There's kind of social pressure and social dynamics that students are not sure that they really want to take on, especially, again, coming out of the pandemic. Some students didn't even get a real full high school experience.

There's an emotional toll that students describe where college is really high pressure or it can feel really high pressure. There's kind of social pressure and social dynamics that students are not sure that they really want to take on, especially, again, coming out of the pandemic. Some students didn't even get a real full high school experience.

There's an emotional toll that students describe where college is really high pressure or it can feel really high pressure. There's kind of social pressure and social dynamics that students are not sure that they really want to take on, especially, again, coming out of the pandemic. Some students didn't even get a real full high school experience.

And they described to us not necessarily feeling ready to just sort of jump into the college experience. And I think it's really a testament to students knowing what they themselves need when they're able to kind of look at the thing that most people might see as like the best path and say, look, I don't know if that's my best path.