Fewer high school students are taking the traditional four-year college route, but how are school counselors deciding which students are career-ready? A new survey shows the answer is complicated.
While a strong majority of school counselors (90%) reported increased student interest in non-degree pathways, only 47% say student awareness of those pathways is a part of how their school measures career readiness. Overall, there’s no clear consensus among school counselors on how to define and measure career readiness success.
The American School Counselor Association and Britebound, a nonprofit focused on preparing students for success in academic and career opportunities, surveyed 600 school counselors between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, 2025.
“We only look at grad rates and college-bound; there needs to be a way to measure trades, workforce, military,” said a high school counselor in Nebraska, who participated in the survey.
High schools tend to still focus on students visiting four-year colleges, when increasingly, more students want work-based learning opportunities, internships, or apprenticeships to prepare for their life after high school. But the survey found that there’s a gap in how schools gauge that interest.
More than half (57%) of the counselors surveyed said their school or district is effective in measuring students’ self-discovery and career exploration interests. These respondents cited the use of student surveys when forming specific workforce- or college-centered programming.
The rest (44%) noted challenges like limited quantitative measures about students’ career interests and a lack of follow-through on data that was collected.
Counselors believe career readiness should start early
Career readiness for non-degree pathways should start earlier than high school, counselors said.
Sixty percent of middle school counselors want to introduce curriculum that highlights skilled trades and technical careers. In addition, 59% of middle school counselors said they want support for organizing career fairs, job shadowing, or site visits.
But there is a big disconnect between CTE programs in middle schools and those in high schools. One middle school principal previously told Education Week that even though some middle schools offer CTE courses, they don’t always connect to more advanced ones in high school, which in turn affects pathway completion.
"[We need] ways to help teachers integrate career into their curriculums and strategies for counselors to support after,” said a middle school counselor in Colorado who participated in the survey.
Elementary school counselors also said there’s a growing need for career exploration for younger students. A lot of the focus in early grades is around students’ academics and behavior, but younger students would also benefit from early career exposure, counselors said in the survey.
Education Week reported on one elementary school in North Carolina—considered to be the first of its kind in the nation—that offered students gaming and robotics pathways starting in 2025.
Finally, while there is a larger focus on CTE at the high school level, the survey found counselors still need additional support to make these opportunities real for students.
Sixty-one percent of high school counselors said they would benefit from more information about local workforce opportunities, and another 58% said they wanted professional development around emerging career pathways and credentials.
They also expressed (45%) wanting more time with career specialists, who work with counselors to help students navigate their career development journey. But some schools or districts do not have designated career specialists, or these professionals do not have the time to work collaboratively with counselors, according to the survey.