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America’s public education system is well overdue for a strategic shift in how we help students discover their talents and navigate toward their futures. While most high school career pathways and vocational programs are well-intentioned, research consistently shows that the majority of young people start solidifying their essential identity, their interests and their sense of their own capabilities much earlier — often by middle school.

Consequently, by the time many students have reached high school, they’ve already effectively ruled out entire fields of study and career paths — not due to any lack of innate talent, but because of a lack of exposure.

It might surprise many people to hear that the U.S. military, of all things, offers a powerful example of how structured aptitude testing can guide young people toward more meaningful career paths. Prospective recruits in all the military’s branches are required to take something called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which assesses each candidate’s strengths across a range of domains — from mechanical comprehension to verbal reasoning.

Results aren’t just used to determine enlistment eligibility; they’re applied to match individuals with roles that align with their aptitudes and interests. It’s a model of personalized guidance that America’s schools could emulate — starting not in high school, but in seventh and eighth grade.

During my own time in the military, I witnessed the power of aptitude testing firsthand. As an Army artillery officer, I was continually struck by how well young soldiers, many of whom had struggled in traditional academic settings, excelled in military occupational specialties that matched their strengths. The ASVAB didn’t just measure ability; it revealed potential, which the military then developed through training, mentorship and clear pathways for advancement.

Imagine a nationwide framework modeled on the ASVAB but deliberately tailored to the civilian economy and introduced in middle school. Such a system could help students discover hidden talents in areas like coding, design, logistics, manufacturing or health care — fields they might never have considered. It could also help educators and counselors provide more targeted support and connect learning with purpose.

Other countries already do this fairly well. In Germany, students undergo aptitude assessments as part of their dual education system, which channels them into vocational or academic tracks based on strengths and interests — a model credited with supporting Germany’s robust manufacturing and engineering sectors.

In Australia, subject-specific aptitude exams help students identify suitable academic and career paths early on, especially in competitive fields like medicine and engineering. In Illinois and Texas, school systems have begun integrating vocational aptitude testing into broader educational assessments. While not yet as comprehensive as the ASVAB, these pilots reflect growing recognition of the need to align education with individual strengths.

The costs of the current misalignment are staggering. Nationally, about one in five high school students fails to graduate on time, and those who do often struggle to connect their education to meaningful work.

Among young men especially, college enrollment has declined sharply, and completion rates are even lower. Today, nearly one in ten prime-age men in the U.S. are neither employed nor seeking work — a troubling indicator of disconnection and unrealized potential. A national aptitude initiative could help reverse these trends by giving young people earlier insight into their strengths and connecting them to motivating study and career paths.

It’s an ironic reality that even as the United States leads the world in innovation — in fields from artificial intelligence to clean energy — too few students can see themselves as part of these industries because they aren’t exposed to the skills or pathways early enough.

A national aptitude and career-exposure program for middle schoolers could help close opportunity gaps by identifying talents in underserved communities, reduce dropout rates by linking education to purpose, and strengthen the future workforce by aligning education with emerging economic needs.

Of course, any approach to expanding aptitude testing in American schools should be geared to expanding opportunity, not limiting it. The goal shouldn’t be to track or label students, but to open more doors by helping every child — especially those from under-resourced communities — discover a wider range of possibilities and pathways they might otherwise never have encountered.

Done right, aptitude testing can actually decrease the likelihood of tracking by revealing previously hidden strengths and ensuring that potential, not privilege, is what guides opportunity.

If we want to prepare America’s students not just to graduate, but to thrive, we must start earlier. Let’s give them the tools to discover who they are and what they can become — before they’ve already decided what they’re not.