New NC schools data shows success sequence at work

North Carolina has reason to celebrate. According to data from the NC Department of Public Instruction, 54% of public school graduates last year completed college-level coursework through Advanced Placement, College and Career Promise, International Baccalaureate, and dual enrollment programs. That’s a milestone worth noticing, but the story behind the numbers is even more important than the numbers themselves.

DPI Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green’s presented the data recently to the State Board of Education, along with a “historically high” 88% graduation rate. Green emphasized system-level leadership and institutional support as the key to this growth.

While coordination matters, the real engine behind these gains isn’t policy, it’s choice.

Students and families are the ones stepping up to participate in programs like Career and College Promise (CCP) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways. These innovative programs are voluntary and outside of the traditional public-school model. They require initiative, effort, and planning. Every extra course, every credential earned reflects a conscious decision and extraordinary effort by a student, along with the support of their family.

Consider the data: In 2024‑25, CCP participation reached an all‑time high with 38% of North Carolina public school graduates (≈87,000 students) enrolling in college courses, while CTE students earned a record 382,964 industry credentials, up about 6.9% from the previous year. Dual enrollment participation has surged and thousands of students are earning industry-recognized credentials and practical, job-ready skills.

My own kids participated in CCP and Dual Enrollment, and the experience was a game-changer once they got to college. The classes ended up being far more transferable than AP courses, something worth knowing if you’re helping your own high school students navigate their options.

Remember, these are opportunities that students and families actively choose to pursue.

GROWTH FOLLOWS CHOICE

The programs also reflect a principle researchers call the “success sequence,” completing high school, then gaining post-secondary skills, then entering the workforce or career training, then marrying before children. Research shows that students who follow the success sequence have more than a 90% chance of avoiding poverty as adults, compared with much lower rates for those who do not follow this sequential path.

• 97% of Millennials who follow this sequence are not poor when they reach adulthood.
• 94% of young adults from lower-income families who followed the success sequence are not poor.
• The poverty gap between college and high school graduates is small among those who followed the success sequence.

“What is interesting is that this works across all of the variables that are often cited as reasons for people to be economically disadvantaged, including race, gender, parents’ low economic status, not receiving a college degree, and being from a non-intact family,” says Mitch Prosser of the NC Family Policy Council in a recent article. “The poverty rate for adults between the ages of 32 and 38 after completing each step is well under 10%.”

The success sequence is regularly taught in many North Carolina charter and private schools, but not in public schools, a gap that needs to be closed. Students from generational poverty often aren’t shown the path out. Teaching the sequence to all students as early as middle school gives them a clear roadmap, helping them see how the right choices can break the cycle.

CCP AND CTE MAKE SUCCESS SEQUENCE OPERATIONAL

Programs like CCP and CTE put the success sequence into practice by giving students real choices that set them up for long-term success. Expanding these options could help students understand the steps to success much earlier, giving them time to make intentional choices that boost their life trajectories.

Now imagine if we expanded choice even further, making it widely available at every level of education, in every neighborhood, and for every income level? Imagine giving students the ability to explore rigorous academic and technical pathways starting in elementary and middle school, even if the programs are in privately-run institutions? The results could be transformative: academic leaps like the ones we are seeing in late high school could happen years earlier, setting students up for success long before CCP and CTE programs kick in.

Liberal, moderate, and conservative policymakers should take note of this. Acknowledge that the common variable in these success stories is that the students exercised the choices available to them. This is actually an area of policy where we can all agree.

Supporting choice in education is not a partisan issue. Expanding pathways, whether through dual enrollment, CTE, early colleges, apprenticeship programs, Opportunity Scholarships, charter schools, micro schools, or homeschools, gives students across the state the ability to shape their own educational futures. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and broadening choice is the best way to expand opportunity for all.

Donna King serves as editor in chief for the Carolina Journal and Executive Vice President of the John Locke Foundation