Beyond college for all: policies and practices to improve transitions into college and jobs. (Special issues: career development and the changing workplace).

In the past two decades, changes in the U.S. economy have altered the requirements for both college and work, with important implications for school counselors whose job it is to provide information and guidance to students with regard to personal, academic, and career options. The unfortunate tendency has been for educators to assume that the changing economy simply requires more education, resulting in the misguided belief that all students should attend college. At the same time, the dramatic increase in open admissions policies, especially among 2-year colleges, has made a college education much more accessible. The result has been a well-meaning but misguided college-for-all attitude among educators and students.

Educators have often encouraged college-for-all policies which inadvertently prevent students from (a) getting crucial information about how they are doing; (b) seeing the full range of desirable options for school and work; (c) assessing the appropriateness of these options and their likely outcomes; and (d) seeing what actions they can take to improve their educational and career outcomes. Given the potential harmfulness of the college-for-all mentality, we recommend procedures to give students and educators better information on academic and career options, allowing students to plan and act more effectively for success in school and beyond. Likewise, these recommendations will help school counselors to think about their role as academic and career advisors in a way that takes the new reality of higher education and labor markets into consideration.

BACKGROUND: REVOLUTIONS IN EDUCATION AND THE ECONOMY

Youths have always had difficulty entering adult society, but the process has become more difficult in recent decades. Over the past 40 years, three revolutionary changes have had dramatic impact on the way students become adults. First, the labor market has dramatically increased its skill demands, augmenting the earnings advantages for college graduates, but reducing the real earnings for those with less education (Grubb, 1996). Second, college became much more accessible, and community colleges--a minor factor in the prior generation--radically increased enrollments. In the past four decades, while enrollments at 4-year colleges doubled, they increased five-fold at community colleges (Digest of Educational Statistics 1999, 1999). The third transformation was perhaps the most remarkable. Community colleges adopted a revolutionary policy of open admissions. Unlike most 4-year colleges, community colleges opened their doors to admit all interested students, regardless of their prior academic achievement. Any high school graduate can now attend, even with barely passing grades. Sometimes students do not even have to be high school graduates or have GEDs to enroll.

These three revolutions have radically transformed the rules of college and the labor market. They give students remarkable new opportunities. As with all revolutions, however, such dramatic changes may be difficult to understand, and they have led to misconceptions and unintended consequences for students.

THE COLLEGE-FOR-ALL POLICY: MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE NEW RULES OF COLLEGE AND THE LABOR MARKET

Amid such dramatic change, educators have formed mistaken beliefs and pursued misguided practices. Without any public decision, American high schools have quietly adopted a new informal approach, the college-for-all policy (Rosenbaum, 2001). This new policy is based on misconceptions about the new reality of college and the labor market. To better understand the problems associated with the college-for-all mentality, and to pave the way for our proposed solutions, we first consider the misconceptions that have led to the current policy. First, six misconceptions about the desirability of college-for-everyone are addressed; then, we discuss six more about the undesirability of jobs for high school graduates.

Misconceptions about the Desirability of College for Everyone

Misconception 1: Counselors should advise all students to attend college. School counselors have traditionally been the school staff responsible for advising students on their educational plans. In the past, counselors often acted as "gatekeepers," advising low-achieving students on alternatives to college (Cicourel & Kitsuse, 1963; Rosenbaum, 1976). Recent studies, however, indicate that school counselors' practices have changed. The increased skill demands of the labor market, the vast expansion of higher education, and new open admissions policies have led many to believe that all students can and should attend college.

In the current atmosphere, counselors rarely discourage college plans or suggest alternatives. A recent study in eight diverse urban and suburban high schools found that even if students have poor achievement, school counselors do not dissuade them from attending college, nor do they warn students if they have poor chances of college success (Krei & Rosenbaum, 2001; Rosenbaum, Miller, & Krei, 1997). National data suggest that these practices are widespread. While only 32% of a national survey of seniors in 1982 indicated that their counselors urged them to go to college, 10 years later, fully 66% of seniors made the same statement (comparing High School and Beyond with National Education Longitudinal Study respondents). Indeed, 57% of seniors in the bottom half of the academic rankings reported that counselors urged them to attend college (Boesel, 2001; Gray, 1996).

Despite popular concerns about counselors being too restrictive, the opposite may be true now. Counselors who wish to warn students that they are unprepared for college feel that they lack the authority to do so (Rosenbaum et al., 1997). In the words of one counselor, "Who am I to burst their bubble?" Similarly, counselors report that when they warn students that they are unprepared for college, parents complain, and principals support the parents. Even if counselors enjoyed greater authority and administrative backing, they very often lack information about desirable career alternatives to college.

Misconception 2: All students should plan to get college degrees. The college-for-all policy has had an impact across the nation. Our own analysis of the 1992 National Education Longitudinal Study (National Center for Education Statistics, 1992) found that 84% of high-school seniors planned to get a 2- or 4-year college degree. Even many students with bad grades, low test scores, and poor high-school attendance planned to complete a college degree.

Many of these students will be disappointed. Although 84% of high-school seniors expect a degree, only 41% of high-school graduates age 30-34 actually have college degrees (Digest of Educational Statistics 1999, 1999). Similarly, the national High School and Beyond (HSB) survey found that of seniors who planned to get a college degree, only 38% actually completed a degree in the 10 years following graduation (National Center for Education Statistics, 1995). For seniors with poor high-school grades who planned college degrees, less than 14% completed a degree (Rosenbaum, 1998, 2001). For this 14%, open admissions provided an extremely helpful second chance.

For the other 86% of these students, however, their second chance was only another experience of failure. It is hard to argue that these students should count on getting a college degree. Students who graduate from high school with low achievement can have college plans but, at a minimum, they need to know about the high risk of college dropout as well as being informed of other potentially more desirable options. If they were so informed, they might revise their plans, or they might increase their efforts while still in high school.

Misconception 3: Students with college plans do not need to prepare for work. Many students who plan college degrees are almost certain to drop out of college. Indeed, about 31% of college entrants get no college credits at all, including over 52% of students with high-school grades of C or lower (Rosenbaum, 2001). Such students are really work-bound, and they surely do not benefit from the college-for-all approach. In fact, they would likely experience better outcomes if they had other plans and preparation.

Yet high schools are moving away from preparing students for work. In the Chicago Public Schools, for example, the past two superintendents have declared a commitment to getting all graduates into college, and they have systematically reduced vocational programs. Similar reductions have been seen in high schools in six different Chicago suburbs over the past decade (Rosenbaum, 2001), and there are reports of similar policies across the U.S.

Misconception 4: Open admissions allow all students to enter college classes. Open admissions allow all students to enter college, but that does not mean that they will be taking college classes. Many "college students" are actually in remedial courses, which offer high-school level material (or lower), and confer no college credits (Deil-Amen & Rosenbaum, 2002).

The best national estimate of the extent of remedial education comes from a careful analysis of college transcripts from a national survey of students in the class of 1982. The study shows that when they enter college, about 46% of students are in at least one remedial course, and among those entering community colleges, 64% are in remedial courses (Adelman, 1985). A more recent national survey finds that many students take three or more remedial courses, and this doubles the chances of dropping out (Deil-Amen & Rosenbanm, 2002).

These figures may even obscure the extent of remediation in colleges as well as its impacts. In an effort to reduce students' feelings of inferiority, college advisors often downplay the fact that courses are remedial. As a result, many students do not even realize the nature of their coursework (Dell-Amen & Rosenbaum, 2002). This has two implications. First, students' reports of the incidence of remedial course-taking in national surveys are likely to be underestimates. Second and more importantly, since the courses often carry no credit, students' plans for 2-year or 4-year degrees cannot be achieved in the time they have scheduled.

Misconception 5: College plans lead to increased school effort. It is often assumed that college plans make students more motivated, giving them reason to work hard in high school. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many students. For many decades, work-bound students have believed that high school achievement will not influence their future careers (Stinchcombe, 1965), but now many college-bound students also hold this belief. In a survey of over 2000 seniors in 12 urban and suburban high schools, researchers found that almost 40% of college-bound students believe that school effort has little relevance for their future careers (Rosenbaum, 1998; cf. Steinberg, 1996). Since anyone can enter college, no matter how poorly they do in high school (because of open admissions), students believe they can wait until college to exert effort. Not surprisingly, national data show that students who hold this belief show much less effort in high school, even after controlling for other student attributes and beliefs (Rosenbaum, 2001).

Misconception 6: High schools should focus on academic preparation, instead of warning students about their college prospects or providing other career options. Since students' college plans are often inconsistent with their preparation, either their plans must be reduced or their preparation increased. The usual response is to urge schools to redouble their efforts to improve students' achievement. This seems to be a noble and uncontroversial goal. But with many high school students 2, 3, or more years below grade level in achievement (Murnane & Levy, 1996; National Center for Education Statistics, 1999), it seems unlikely that schools can close the gap in the last 2 years of high school, even if institutions increase their efforts. Indeed, improved academic instruction would probably be better directed at the early years of elementary school since the gap tends to grow over the school career, and early prevention is probably more effective than intervention after the problem has become severe (Farkas, 1996).

While high schools should continue trying to improve students' academic achievement, such efforts should not serve as an excuse for withholding information about students' likely college prospects. The college-for-all policy gives students the mistaken impression that low high school achievement is not an obstacle to their plans. That is exactly the wrong message if the intent is to raise students' effort and achievement.

Misconceptions about the Undesirability of Jobs after High School

As the last institution that nearly all members of society attend, high schools have the obligation to prepare young people to become productive, self-sufficient members of society. Open admissions community colleges already guarantee that the college option will remain open, but that does not mean that college is necessarily one's best choice. High schools must provide students with multiple options, in case college does not work. Unfortunately, the means to do this are widely misunderstood. Specifically, changes in the labor market have led to six misconceptions about the nature of the jobs students can get after high school.

Misconception 7: All good jobs require a college degree. Although the labor market requires higher skills than in the past, many good jobs do not require college education. There has been a large increase in the need for strong high-school level skills--math, reading, and writing at a 9th grade level (Murnane & Levy, 1996). The problem is that even in 12th grade, over 40% of high-school students lack 9th-grade math skills, and 60% lack such reading skills (Murnane & Levy). Youth achievement needs improvement, but the skills that are needed can be provided in high school; they do not require college.

When asked what jobs they recommend to students who seek employment after high school, school counselors report that they either give no advice, or they advise students to take jobs in fast food or small retail shops--jobs which offer little or no career advancement opportunity (Rosenbaum, 2001). Counselors often believe that young people cannot get good jobs without college degrees. When asked the same question, however, vocational teachers report that many good jobs are available to high school graduates (Krei & Rosenbaum, 2001). Jobs that lead to rewarding careers exist in a wide variety of fields, including construction, trades, clerical and administrative support, technical specialties, printing, graphics, financial services, and social services. Unfortunately, few school counselors know about such jobs or their requirements; they are too busy with other duties to gain and share up-to-date information on labor markets, and high schools do not assign career advising to any other staff (Rosenbaum).

Misconception 8: High school achievement is irrelevant to job outcomes. Many high school teachers believe that academic achievement is not important for students' employment or earnings (Uscem, 1986). As noted, counselors advise students to take jobs in fast food or retail. But since many high school students already have such jobs, they might rightly infer that the diploma is irrelevant to job outcomes. In fact, much research shows that employers do not consider high school achievement a great priority in hiring entry-level workers (Bills, 1988; Bishop, 1993; Crain, 1984; Shapiro & Iannozzi, 1999). The mentality of school counselors, students, and employers in this situation is extremely problematic. In the short-term, it serves as a disincentive for students, and in the long-term, it is simply wrong.

Although high-school grades and test scores may have little relationship to immediate short-term outcomes (college admissions--which are often open--or earnings right after high school), they strongly predict important long-term outcomes (Altonji & Pierret, 1997; Miller, 1998; Murnane, Willette, & Levy, 1995; Rosenbaum, DeLuca, Miller, & Roy, 1999). High-school grades predict students' ultimate educational attainment, and these relationships remain significant after many controls (Miller; Rosenbaum, 2001). They also strongly predict long-term earnings, even after controlling for educational attainment. A rise of one letter grade--from C to B--is associated with a 12.8% earnings gain at age 28 for youth who get no college degree (Rosenbaum). Unfortunately, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for high school teachers or counselors to sec what happens to most of their graduates 9 years after high school, so they may not realize the long-term importance of high-school achievement.

Misconception 9: Noncognitive behaviors in high school are irrelevant to job outcomes. It is often assumed that the increased skill demands of the labor market mean that employers primarily need academic skills. Yet employers say their greatest needs are soft skills, like good work habits and social competence (Rosenbaum, 2001; Shapiro & Iannozzi, 1999). Moreover, soft skills are sometimes the best predictors of job performance. In an assessment of a large corporation's selection process, researchers found applicants' soft-skills ratings were better predictors of job performance than performance on a cognitive test (Murnane & Levy, 1996; cf. Houghton & Proscio, 2002). Similarly, analyses of the national HSB data indicate that students' earnings 9 years after graduating from high school are significantly affected by their noncognitive behaviors in high school--their sociability, discipline, leadership, and attendance--even after controlling for background characteristics and academic achievement (Rosenbaum, 2001).

What is more, youth must learn these behaviors before entering the labor market. Employers report that they do not know how to train for soft skills (Miller & Rosenbaum, 1997), and most job training programs focus on academic or job skills, given that soft skills training is difficult, expensive, and very time consuming (Herr, Wagner, & Halpern, 1996). If students do not learn soft skills before entering the labor market, they probably will not be given a chance to learn them later.

Misconception 10: Career and technical education is irrelevant to job outcomes. Many studies find substantial employment benefits from career and technical education (CTE) courses immediately after high school (e.g., Arum & Shavit, 1995; Campbell, Basinger, Dauner, & Parks, 1986; Kang & Bishop, 1986). A comprehensive review of research on vocational education concluded that "the strongest, most consistent finding throughout the literature [on vocational education] is that improved earnings do accrue in situations where vocational training is directly related to job tasks" (Boesel, Hudson, Deich, & Masten, 1994, pp. 137-139). This means that CTE programs must offer skills in areas that are in demand in the labor market, and it may also mean that programs need to assist students in finding appropriate jobs.

Career and technical courses have other benefits as well. They contribute to academic achievement in mathematics (Wirt, Muraskin, Goodwin, & Meyer, 1989); they can reduce high school dropout rates (Boesel et al., 1994); and they may even lower teen pregnancy (Beattie, 2001). Moreover, CTE does not preclude college enrollment. In 1980, 12.6% of CTE graduates obtained a 1- or 2-year degree in the 6 years following graduation, and over 20% of CTE graduates from business and health programs obtained college degrees (Digest of Educational Statistics 1991, 1991). Indeed, 18% of students in distributive education programs and 15% in health programs go on to attend 4-year colleges.

Misconception 11: High school teachers and counselors cannot help students get better jobs. Unlike secondary schools in places like Germany and Japan, American high schools have no responsibility for helping students get jobs after graduation. Recent research has discovered, however, that American high schools do help some students get jobs. Over 8% of work-bound high-school graduates obtain their jobs after high school primarily through help by their schools' teachers and counselors (Rosenbaum, 2001). Furthermore, high schools do not merely help students who are already favored in the labor market: females and minorities are significantly more likely to get school help than white males, and low-income students are equally helped (after controlling for achievement). In addition, students who got jobs through school help had better career trajectories--9 years after graduating, they had 17% higher earnings than students who got jobs through direct applications (Rosenbaum).

In addition, interviews with high school CTE teachers reveal that many vocational teachers have developed strong contacts with employers, and they use these contacts to help students to get jobs (Rosenbaum, 2001). Although these teachers' job placement efforts are not formal job duties and are not widely known, they provide important career benefits to some students.

Misconception 12: Society can wait to address students' employability until after high school. The United States prides itself on offering second chances, and the open admissions policies at community colleges are a prime example. Yet some doors have already begun to close after students leave high school. Poor preparation in high school can lead to a bad start in the labor market, which can be harmful to later careers. If students get their start in dead-end jobs, if they have many periods of job turnover and unemployment, or if they wander into crime or drugs, these records may stigmatize their future employment prospects. Even society's efforts to help youth may backfire. In a random assignment experiment, a job-training program that offered good training led to significantly lower earnings than a control group, presumably because it stigmatized participants as having poor employment histories (Bloom, Orr, Cave, Bell, & Doolittle, 1992; Cave & Doolittle, 1991). As such, high school may be the last chance that many students have to fix problems before they confer a durable stigma. Realistically advising students while they are in high school allows them to get preparation and help while it is still available and non-stigmatizing. If they were not deluded by the college-for-all approach, educators could prevent many problems with job preparation and job placement assistance.

THE NEW RULES OF THE GAME

These 12 misconceptions reflect a lack of understanding about the changing economy and the demands it places on educational institutions. Since the playing field has drastically changed in the worlds of education and labor markets, new "rules of the game" have arisen. Students and educators--including school counselors--should know these rules, but they probably do not. The new rules of college and the labor market can be summarized succinctly:

* All students can attend college, but low-achieving students should be warned about remedial courses and their own likely prospects.

* All students can plan to get a college degree; but, if they are unprepared, they must be willing to repeat high school courses in college, spending the extra time and effort in non-credit remedial courses, with higher risks of failure.

* Even if students have college plans, they must still prepare for work. All career plans should include multiple options, particularly for students who have poor likelihood of completing college.

* College plans require increased school effort. If students delay their effort until they get to college, the delay will make degree completion take longer and be less likely.

* Policies to improve college preparation do not remove the need to provide information about students' college prospects or to provide other options.

* Many good jobs do not require a college degree, and high school graduates can actually get such jobs.

* Students can improve their chances of getting good jobs by having better academic achievement, having better noncognitive behaviors, taking vocational courses, and getting job placement help from teachers.

Finally, it is important to note that students' employment prospects can best be improved before they leave high school. As such, school counselors can play a critical role in providing students with information and resources to help them make choices that will support their own long-term goals before it is too late.

PROPOSALS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

This review indicates an urgent need for policy action. As long as policymakers, education practitioners, parents, and students hold these misconceptions and misunderstand the new rules of college and the labor market, they will make decisions that poorly meet their own needs, each other's needs, and societal needs. School counselors in particular should have a clear understanding of the changing demands of college and the labor market, as both academic and career counseling are requirements of their positions. We recommend three areas for improvement in the policies and practices of education professionals who seek to aid students in their transition into college and careers.

Policy Proposal 1: Provide guidelines on school and work.

Instead of imposing proscriptive rules, guidelines inform students about their options, assist them in making choices among those options, and help them to understand the steps they can take to improve their educational and career outcomes. These guidelines should provide four kinds of information: desirable options, actual requirements, procedures for increasing access, and likely outcomes. School counselors, teachers, and even school administrators share responsibility for offering students such guidance.

First, school counselors and educators need to inform students what options exist, including paths that are not generally recognized. Students need to know that college is not the only option, and it is not necessarily the best option for many students. If students face the prospect of an 86% failure rate at college, guidelines should warn and advise them to have alternative strategies. Guidelines need to include information on the different types of postsecondary schools and the different programs they offer as well as the many types of jobs that are available and the likely advantages and disadvantages of each.

Next, students need to know the requirements for the various options. This includes not only college entrance requirements, but also the requirements to succeed in various college programs as well as for entry into and success within a given field of work. Students should know not only about the long-term importance of grades, but also about the levels of effort that will be required and the role of non-cognitive skills.

Third, students need information about the steps they can take--especially while still in high school--to increase access to the various available options. Some curricular programs and some types of school help can assist students in obtaining a good job or in gaining access to appropriate college programs.

Finally, school counselors and other education professionals should inform students about probable outcomes for various education and career options, given the individual student's personal achievements, including both strengths and weaknesses. If this information is provided early, it can stimulate students to make greater efforts. Later, it can guide students to select several desirable options, at least some of which they have a high probability of attaining.

If used appropriately, guidelines will not constrain students, but rather, will inform them of their full range of options, and allow them to adjust their behaviors to maximize those options. Guidelines can also give counselors critical information on the skills students need for higher education and work. But counselors also need the authority to advise students about alternative options. In many schools, counseling which encourages high expectations is less criticized than offering realistic options, yet students will ultimately suffer the consequences. Guidelines can authorize counselors to warn about illusory options, correct students' misconceptions about the relevance of high school achievement, and inform them of alternative desirable job options.

Policy Proposal 2: Provide useful evaluations aligned with college and work requirements.

For high-achieving students, the United States has a clear procedure for making the transition into selective colleges, a procedure that provides student evaluations (either the SAT or ACT) and trustworthy communications channels linking high schools and colleges (high school visits by college recruiters and even some personal contacts). For students entering work or less selective colleges, however, the United States has not developed an explicit system, and the result is poor alignment of requirements.

High schools need to provide evaluations of students that are useful to colleges and employers as well as to the students themselves. Unfortunately, normed tests and exit exams rarely do this; instead, they are often used to penalize students, teachers, and schools. More useful evaluations must convey information about students' qualifications for college and/or jobs. Such exams would give students a better sense of their options, the potential for success in each, and the length of time in which they can realistically plan to achieve their goals.

Grades are one evaluative measure that actually does predict labor market success, but students, educators, and employers rarely recognize this. If all three groups had a better understanding of the predictive power of grades, employers could use them in the hiring process, which would give teachers and counselors more authority and students more incentive to exert themselves.

Furthermore, society and the labor market have other important needs besides academic skills. If teachers and schools were to adopt evaluations of students' preparedness for employment, students could learn the demands of the job market and be motivated to work on soft skills. Students could also be encouraged by learning that they are employable for reasons beyond academic performance.

Given school counselors' responsibility for guiding students with respect to their personal, academic, and career choices, they are in a unique position to clarify relative importance of and the linkages between these three spheres. But evaluations that are aligned with academic and work requirements need to be available and counselors need to know about them.

Policy Proposal 3: Provide trusted communication channels.

Informal personal contacts have always been an effective way to get good jobs (Granovetter, 1995). While this procedure may seem unfair, it has a compelling logic. Employers are willing to trust the recommendation of a friend or associate because they trust that the person would not jeopardize their relationship by recommending a risky applicant. By relying on personal contacts, employers obtain trusted information that they cannot get in other ways. If high schools had trusted relationships with employers, they could help their students get good jobs.

Some high schools already have such relationships with colleges. Contrary to the common belief that elite preparatory schools help their students merely by giving them status advantages, research shows that they convince selective colleges to admit their students by providing dependable evaluations of students' positive qualities (Persell & Cookson, 1986). These contacts are especially useful to lower achieving students and students from lower social class backgrounds--students who look less good on paper or in brief interviews. Since work-bound students tend to have poor academic records, connections would seem to be especially helpful in getting them jobs.

Unfortunately, such linkages are rare. Nationally, only about 9% of seniors get jobs through school help (Rosenbaum et al., 1999), and only 5% of employers hire through schools (Holzer, 1995). The task for school reform is to find ways to encourage these relationships and make them more generally available among school counselors, teachers, and administrators in the schools.

Additional support might come from chambers of commerce, which can provide valuable information about employers' needs and the opportunities available in local industries. Chambers of commerce have difficulty, however, in providing stable institutional support over many years, so they cannot maintain linkages themselves.

School counselors, and especially career coordinators, can provide further support for relationships with employers. In one study, some career coordinators were shown to be active in reaching out to employers (Rosenbaum, 2001). Coordinators brought back information to CTE programs, and considered whether the high school could be of service and how to prepare students. The coordinators' outreach efforts built upon and extended CTE teachers' pre-existing contacts. The CTE teachers were still the main source of contacts, but in new occupational areas, coordinators sometimes became the primary contact. Other career coordinators played a more passive role, and they became the source of job counseling for the weakest students (who CTE teachers felt were unprepared) and the worst jobs (e.g., fast food, retail).

CONCLUSION

As the last societal institution attended by almost all youth, high schools must prepare all youth for adulthood. If they fail, young people may have difficulty becoming self-sufficient adults. The labor market is often a cruel teacher, and if young people have bad early job experiences, their later prospects may be harmed. While college-educated reformers think that college is necessary to get good jobs, and they often urge that all high-school seniors should have the chance to become doctors and lawyers, these are not realistic options for all seniors, and they are not the only good jobs in society.

The real goal should not be the unrealistic vision of everyone becoming a doctor, but rather the elimination of the all too common outcome of youths facing dead-end jobs and unemployment as their only options. While educators worry that career-related education reduces college options, research indicates that many vocational education students get college degrees, and "college and career" programs may prepare students to do even better. Educators may also worry about premature career decisions, but high school is not too early for students to begin assessing what they have accomplished and what their best career options might be. A new approach would allow students to make more informed decisions. We propose policies and practices to encourage high schools to provide information and guidelines, useful student evaluations, and help in assessing multiple options. These policies include helping students plan for college, but they also provide a safety net that makes it less likely that students will face unrewarding jobs or unemployment.

In the past, school counselors have played the role of gatekeepers, discouraging certain students from attending college. Currently, well-meaning but misguided college-for-all attitudes may prompt counselors to encourage all students to attend college, even when this is probably not the student's best option. The policies and practices proposed here suggest a more productive role for school counselors, who are in a unique position to see, understand, and promote the connections between students' personal, academic, and career-related success. Attention to all three areas will be necessary if students are to make appropriate choices as they transition from school to work.

In stressing these reforms, we do not deny the need for other kinds of change. New instructional materials and curricular standards could better prepare students for their goals. Yet while our proposals may not be sufficient, they are probably necessary prerequisites to effective change. Before any instructional improvement can be made, the proposed policies can identify discrepancies between students' achievements and plans, give them compelling reasons to make greater efforts, and clarify areas of deficiency for both students and schools.

The college-for-all approach is a form of denial. It creates complacency among students and educators alike. In clarifying the problem with the college-for-all approach and suggesting alternative policies for the school-to-work transition, we point to one path toward more relevant schooling and better career outcomes for students. The first step along this path is for counselors and other education professionals to understand the new reality of college and the labor market. Only then can they provide guidance that informs students of their options and compels them to exert the appropriate level of effort to realize their aspirations.

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James E. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is professor of Sociology, Education, and Social Policy at the School of Education and Social Policy and the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. E-mail: JamesRosenbaum1@ yahoo.com

Ann E. Person is a doctoral student in Human Development and Social Policy and a graduate research fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.