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<p>Low-income students and their educators confront conflicting evidence about the risks and rewards of college as a financial investment. Through 80 in-depth interviews, this article examines how urban high schools define their postsecondary strategies and advise students on their future plans. First, I document that schools with vocational missions and college-for-all philosophies are converging on a message of <i>college ambivalence</i>. Their staffs are eager to support students’ ambitions but are wary that college may not always represent a reliable route to economic mobility. Second, I show how <i>college ambivalence</i> is socially produced by the student debt crisis, low college persistence rates, and a tight labor market benefiting less educated workers. Third, I find that <i>college ambivalence</i> has major implications for students’ postsecondary decisions, including how they think about the purpose of college. High schools’ turn to <i>college ambivalence</i> exposes the limits of both college-for-all and career-based education as social mobility strategies.</p>

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College AND Career Ready? College Ambivalence and the Postsecondary Strategies of Low-Income High Schools

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

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  • Joseph Sageman

摘要

Low-income students and their educators confront conflicting evidence about the risks and rewards of college as a financial investment. Through 80 in-depth interviews, this article examines how urban high schools define their postsecondary strategies and advise students on their future plans. First, I document that schools with vocational missions and college-for-all philosophies are converging on a message of college ambivalence. Their staffs are eager to support students’ ambitions but are wary that college may not always represent a reliable route to economic mobility. Second, I show how college ambivalence is socially produced by the student debt crisis, low college persistence rates, and a tight labor market benefiting less educated workers. Third, I find that college ambivalence has major implications for students’ postsecondary decisions, including how they think about the purpose of college. High schools’ turn to college ambivalence exposes the limits of both college-for-all and career-based education as social mobility strategies.