Inside the schools trying to break America’s college obsession

When Sam Johnson said he didn’t want to go to college after graduating from high school, his teachers didn’t blink.

That’s because Upton High School’s guiding philosophy is that college isn’t for everyone. Instead, the Wyoming school helps students tailor their education to one of three paths: college, military, or workforce. Since implementing the model eight years ago, school leaders are pleased to see that the focus on college is diminishing.

In Upton’s 2025 graduating class, nine students chose a four-year university, two chose a two-year community college, three chose trade school, four entered the workforce, and one entered the military. That’s a wider variety of paths compared to six years ago, when none went to trade school.

To prepare for his future, Johnson’s career counselor helped secure him an apprenticeship with a hunting guide — his chosen occupation — so that he could work toward obtaining his license.

“She called until somebody said yes,” Johnson said of his counselor. “I’m super, super grateful, because now I know what I’m doing after high school.” Now 18, he’s completed the necessary steps for certification. “I’m going in headfirst after high school into that job,” he said.

School districts across the US are radically rethinking the college pipeline as student debt remains high, private education options are on the rise, and more young people are choosing to forgo the standard four-year college experience. Business leaders have also been increasingly questioning the value of college. Mark Zuckerberg said college isn’t preparing students for the job market, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp said “no one cares” about elite education at his company. Peter Thiel’s fellowship program offers $200,000 to “young people who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom.”

The Trump administration is also taking on the issue, calling for increased investments in trade schools. The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a May interview with Fox News: “Apprenticeships, electricians, plumbers, we need more of those in our country, and less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard University. And that’s what this administration’s position is.”

Still, 63% of recent high school grads enrolled in college in 2024, and that route is proven to lead to higher earnings. Upton, like other schools that spoke to Business Insider, isn’t eschewing college altogether. In fact, part of the shift to personalized learning involves finding creative ways to ensure that students can still compete academically despite the school’s rural location, said Superintendent Clark Coberly. For example, it partners with an outside education company for additional AP classes. Coberly said he “wanted to be able to have those doors open for post-secondary education.”

“We really wanted to commit to doing something that is more reflective of what society looks like today,” Coberly said.

Sophie Louderbeck was a 2024 Upton graduate who took advantage of the college path, but not before she got some real-world work experience. She was able to adjust her high school class schedule so she could work at a day care during the day to prepare to pursue her interest in elementary education.

“They do such an amazing job where, if you want to go down one path, they’re going to make it happen,” Louderbeck, 19, told Business Insider. “And if you change your mind, they’re going to make that happen.”

Business Insider is exploring how America is rethinking education as technology and job demands shift. Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]. Read more about how Upton High School is reshaping the college conversation:

• Gen Zers don’t face college pressure at this rural high school. I was surprised at the career opportunities it opened up for them.
• I’m a principal at a high school that doesn’t push college. Our model was a hard sell to parents — but it paid off.

And read more on how education is changing in America:

• Trump rolls out his vision to reshape America’s schools
• Gen Z is the new threat to the American college experience
• The new ‘one-room schoolhouse’: Millions of kids are joining America’s microschool movement

‘We had to reimagine what our system was about’

Inside Darian Samuelson’s science classroom at Upton on a recent Wednesday, a freshman was filling out a worksheet on chemical properties while a sophomore rubbed a balloon on his classmate’s head to demonstrate how static electricity works. A physics student was outside, working on designing his own project, and two anatomy students were sitting on a couch with their headphones on, reviewing their study materials.

Samuelson said that she provides students with the standards that they need to learn, and it is up to them how they want to practice the lesson — a core feature of Upton’s personalized learning model.

“It’s not about me. It’s not about what I like. It’s about the kids,” she said. “And we’ve seen the success, especially with the kids who don’t fit the traditional mold.”

In one North Dakota school district, Cory Steiner couldn’t be more thrilled with the shift away from traditional learning. He has worked for years to convince teachers, students — and most crucially, their parents — that success after high school doesn’t have to mean college, and he said he has seen college enrollment plunge from 90% to 65%.

“We had to reimagine what our system was about,” Steiner, the former superintendent at Northern Cass School District, said. He referenced a student who leveraged an internship working on HVAC systems into a job after graduation.

“That kid’s going to be making $75,000 a year in two years, and that’s what he wants to do,” Steiner said, “That’s a perfect kind of scenario.”

Still, selling parents and teachers on a proficiency-based grading system instead of traditional A’s and B’s was a big hurdle — especially when it came to scholarships and college acceptances. Most parents say they want their kids to go to college, and employers’ desire for a bachelor’s degree is unlikely to change in the coming years. Plus, data shows that a degree continues to pay off, with degree holders earning about $33,000 more in annual wages than high school diploma holders, per an analysis from The New York Federal Reserve.

“We had a lot of work to do,” Steiner said, adding that Upton converts its proficiency-based evaluations to a standard GPA that colleges accept. “That was a really, really difficult time.”

Back in Wyoming, Upton principal Joseph Samuelson — who is married to science teacher Darian — said that one mistake the school made early on was transitioning to an online curriculum they thought would help individualize lessons. Because of it, some parents withdrew their kids from the school. Just four teachers who were on staff before the switch remain.

“Parents saw that our kids’ teachers aren’t teaching,” Joseph said, adding that another mistake was rushing the transition without communicating with parents properly or giving teachers enough training.

Nick Johnson, Upton’s high school social studies teacher and Sam’s dad, recalled looking around his classroom at that time and seeing every student staring at their computers.

“I was thinking, ‘God, this isn’t it. We’re not doing anything good,'” Nick said. He started experimenting with different types of lesson structures and projects, like having dedicated periods when students could choose how they want to practice their lessons in ways that align with their interests and life goals.

Other teachers followed suit. Karla Ludemann, Upton’s computer science teacher, for example, prioritizes helping her students find opportunities for community involvement. One student built a website for a local woman who sells jewelry, and another student used his drone to take aerial photos for the town’s social media.

“The community members are good knowing that they’re not professionals, they’re kids, and they’re learning,” Ludemann said. To help prepare them for the workforce, her students are evaluated on their work ethic, including whether they show up on time. She said one of her past students graduated with a full-time job at a company he worked for while in high school, and it paid for his online college.

Now, Upton’s model is attracting new students. Joslyn Pischke, 15, transferred from a neighboring district and wants to go to college to study equine science. Joseph remembers when Pischke arrived as a freshman and asked to leave school early some days to compete in rodeo. His gut instinct was to say no.

“But then I thought, ‘This girl has done extremely well. Her test scores are through the roof,'” Joseph said. “She’s missed a good chunk of school, and it hasn’t shown. It’s coming down to this invisible wall, an invisible barrier. Why wouldn’t I let her change her schedule?”

Steiner, who left his position at Northern Cass for a leadership role at a different North Dakota school district, hopes that the personalized learning model will catch on at more schools and empower students to pursue what they’re actually interested in.

“Shifting a system is hard work,” Steiner said, adding that it was worth it because it “completely just shifted who we are and what we believe about teaching and learning.”

‘College isn’t the way of the world anymore’

While college enrollment is up slightly this year over last, it declined roughly 15% in the decade before the pandemic.

One main obstacle to picking the right path after high school graduation is a lack of awareness of the alternatives, said Maria Flynn, president and CEO of nonprofit Jobs for the Future. A recent survey from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found that while more than half of surveyed parents know “a great deal” about bachelor’s degrees, up to 58% of parents said they know “only a little” or “nothing at all” about non-college pathways like starting a business or pursuing an apprenticeship.

Flynn said the key is educating people that associate’s degrees, licensures, or trade schools can “add the same type of economic value and economic advancement as the traditional path.”

Public schools in rural areas are at the forefront of the trend to shift away from college as the primary focus. Teachers in the area largely attribute the shift to the nature of local job markets. In Wyoming and North Dakota, agriculture dominates the economy. Aric Keller, Upton’s welding instructor, said that he has at least six former students who now work in the welding industry — another prominent field in rural Wyoming. In urban school districts, local job opportunities may lean more toward finance, logistics, or aerospace, which are still more likely to require a degree. Nationwide, the share of jobs that require a college degree fell from 51% in 2017 to 44% in 2021.

At Oakes Public School in North Dakota, an alternative learning model helps differentiate the school amid growing competition from private and charter schools. Anna Sell, superintendent of Oakes, said that changing education needs for parents and students pushed her school to reconsider its model.

“We knew we needed to do things differently because our customers were not buying what we’re selling,” Sell told Business Insider. She added that the school voucher movement in North Dakota, like in over a dozen other states, has been especially strong, with more parents opting to use publicly funded vouchers to homeschool or send their kids to private school. It’s created a greater need for public schools to prove to families that there’s value in what they are offering, especially with enrollment declining nationwide.

“Our focus was to get kids ready to go to college, but college isn’t the way of the world anymore,” Sell said. Whatever postgrad path students choose, Sell said the school will work with them to provide relevant courses and workforce opportunities to ensure they excel.

Jayden Reinert, an 18-year-old recent graduate of Cherry Creek Innovation Campus in Colorado — a college and career preparedness facility for local high school students — said she worked with counselors to fit a job at a car dealership into her high school schedule. While she’s planning on going to college in the fall to study mechanical engineering, she wants to continue working at a dealership to further her skills.

“It’s a really great way to get into the workforce without being full-time committed to it and get an understanding of what the job is, and if it’s something that you would want to commit to when you’re out of school,” Reinert said.

It’s hard to imagine an America where college isn’t prioritized; it’s been a core feature of the American dream for decades. But the economy and labor market demands are changing, and Sell said it’s important that schools adjust and ensure students are equipped with the skills they need to succeed.

“More and more we’re saying this is OK, that college isn’t an option for everybody,” Sell said. “We have to start doing it differently for our kids in order to prepare them for their future, not ours.”

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