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327What Is the Future of Higher Education? Conversationand education needed for them earlier in a person%u2019s schooling. By high school, students should start spending time rotating among employers and school much like they do now with college courses in dual-enrollment programs. Whether they want to go to college immediately or not, such an approach can give students a mix of hands-on learning with the academic elements of high school and early college. Depending on where they get their experiential learning, students can also earn industry certifications that can lead to a job right after high school. Finally, we need to give young adults easy on-ramps to higher education if they decide to skip the turn after high school. We can do that by offering a broader array of options that stack up to a degree. For instance, students can start in low-risk noncredit programs that teach students just enough to start a career. The goal of these programs wouldn%u2019t be to give students everything they need to know for a job like a degree would but enough to get them started. By proving their knowledge on the job, they can later apply for credit. Eventually, those credits could equal a degree. Another on-ramp could be more robust transfer agreements from two-year to four-year colleges, so that students feel their associate%u2019s degree can easily lead to a bachelor%u2019s degree when they%u2019re ready. Right now, only 31 percent of community-college students transfer to fouryear colleges, and only about half of those end up with bachelor%u2019s degrees. And we could encourage more partnerships between colleges and companies like the one forged between Arizona State University and Starbucks that helps students more easily earn a degree while working. The Higher Education Act was successful in making higher education the destination for high school students over the last 50 years. But half a century later, it%u2019s clear that it%u2019s going to take more than a single pathway to and through college to achieve Lyndon Johnson%u2019s goal of making post-secondary education available to every American student. QUESTIONS Exploring the Text 1. Jeffrey Selingo acknowledges that there is evidence to show that %u201cAmericans are losing confidence in higher education as an engine of economic opportunity and social mobility%u201d (par. 3). Why, then, does he say, %u201cThat%u2019s unfortunate%u201d in paragraph 4? 2. According to Selingo, what overarching reason encapsulates most of the criticisms against college? Using information he gathered from college presidents and from his observations of large employers, Selingo suggests that for many the future will be work, with a side of college, not the other way around. Does he critique or embrace this development? 3. What three solutions does Selingo propose to make post-secondary education more accessible and more useful? QUESTIONS 2023Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.