High School Indicators of Postsecondary Success

Standardized test scores don't always indicate a student's college readiness. This resource can help set expectations to ensure postsecondary success.

This report examines to what extent having high school students participate in career cluster programs, participate in workplace learning experiences, and earn a credential impacts their college readiness.

Standardized test scores do not always accurately indicate if a student will succeed after high school. Administrators need other indicators to assess student readiness to succeed in college or in the labor market.

This report reviews research on the connection between high school students who participate in career cluster programs, those who participate in workplace learning experiences, and those who earn a credential and postsecondary success.

Encourage students to concentrate in a career cluster

Students who concentrate (i.e., take three or more credits in one career cluster) increase the odds they will enter the labor market after high school. If career cluster concentrators do choose to attend a postsecondary educational institution, they are more likely to major in their career cluster concentration.

Students who take three or more classes in the same topic area and enter the labor market after high school instead of pursuing secondary education earn, on average, 34 cents more an hour than all non-college-bound high school graduates.

By offering career clusters, administrators allow students to test potential majors and careers in high school, where the cost of changing one’s mind is relatively low. Additionally, career cluster concentrators who enter the labor market after high school instead of pursuing postsecondary education earn, on average, 34 cents more an hour than all non-college-bound high school graduates.

Help students improve academic and non-academic skills with work

Students who work…