High School Wasn't Built for Every Kid

Beth Callaghan
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Education

Why smart, capable teenagers struggle in traditional classrooms — and what actually works when the environment fits the kid. Host Beth Callaghan (PhD, former Dean at Taejae University, founding curriculum designer at Minerva) is joined by co-hosts Maggie Hagen and Anne Hand to dig into the actual research behind why bright kids disengage, get labeled "lazy" or "unmotivated," and burn out in a system built in the 1890s and barely changed since. Each episode takes on one piece of the puzzle: the myths (learning styles, GED stigma, the four-year timeline), the psychology (learned helplessness, ADHD, anxiety, gifted underachievement), and what the research says actually works when you match the environment to the kid instead of the other way around. New episodes weekly. If you've ever wondered whether the problem is your kid or the system they're stuck in, start with Episode 1.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    09: Is School The Wrong Fit?

    We’re back! After a short hiatus, High School Wasn’t Built for Every Kid is returning with a new episode and more conversations designed to help parents understand what happens when traditional school simply isn’t the right fit. We’re excited to be back and to continue exploring practical, research-informed ways to help teenagers learn, grow, and thrive in environments that work for them. What if “What’s wrong with my child?” is not the most useful question? A teenager may be bored or disengaged, experiencing a possible clinical concern, or paying a significant cost because the current school environment is a poor fit. Those situations can look similar from the outside, but they call for different next steps. In this episode, Beth Callaghan and Anne Hand discuss emotionally based school avoidance, the difference between a passing rough patch and a repeated pattern, and how parents can look at attendance, trajectory, and whether difficulties are contained or spreading beyond school. They also discuss Christopher Kearney’s functional model of school-avoidance behavior and explain why the same outward behavior can have different underlying functions. The conversation closes with a careful look at College Onramps as one possible educational fit for some students. The program is new and building its first cohort, so its design principles should not be confused with years of program-specific outcome data. In This Episode Emotionally based school avoidance — Why newer language can shift attention from blame or assumed choice toward the emotional needs and circumstances behind non-attendance.Three questions for parents — How to distinguish ordinary disengagement, a possible clinical concern, and a meaningful mismatch with the current environment.Attendance, trajectory, and breadth — Three practical patterns to observe when a student’s difficulties may be escalating or spreading beyond school.Kearney’s functional model — Four possible functions of school-avoidance behavior and why the same behavior may require different questions and responses.College Onramps as one possible fit — How autonomy, competence, relatedness, flexible pacing, mentoring, and community-based connection inform the program’s design, without claiming established outcomes. About the Hosts Beth Callaghan, Ph.D. is President & COO of College Onramps. She holds a PhD in English, taught at USC, and was a founding curriculum designer at Minerva University. She served as Dean of the School of Innovation Foundations at Taejae University in South Korea for three years and has spent a decade working in the science of learning. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and the science of learning. Anne Hand is Chief Quality Assurance Officer at College Onramps. She has over twenty years of experience in research, instructional design, education, and international development. She holds a degree from McGill University and an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Learn More Visit College Onramps (https://collegeonramps.org/). Bibliography / Cited in This Episode Hrynowski, Z. (2024, August 20). “K-12 Schools Struggle to Engage Gen Z Students.” (https://news.gallup.com/poll/648896/schools-struggle-engage-gen-z-students.aspx) Gallup.Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being.” (https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68) *American Psychologist, 55*(1), 68–78.Yang, D., Chen, P., Wang, H., Wang, K., & Huang, R. (2022). “Teachers’ Autonomy Support and Student Engagement: A Systematic Literature Review of Longitudinal Studies.” (https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925955) *Frontiers in Psychology, 13*, 925955.Eccles, J. S., Midgley, C., Wigfield, A., Buchanan, C. M., Reuman, D., Flanagan, C., & Iver, D. M. (1993). “Development During Adolescence: The Impact of Stage-Environment Fit on Young Adolescents’ Experiences in Schools and in Families.” (https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.48.2.90) *American Psychologist, 48*(2), 90–101.Kearney, C. A. (2001). *School Refusal Behavior in Youth: A Functional Approach to Assessment and Treatment*. (https://doi.org/10.1037/10426-000) American Psychological Association.U.S. Department of Education. “Chronic Absenteeism.” (https://www.ed.gov/teaching-and-administration/supporting-students/chronic-absenteeism)National Institute of Mental Health. “Depression.” (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression)American Academy of Pediatrics. “School Avoidance: Tips for Concerned Parents.” (https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/emotional-problems/Pages/School-Avoidance.aspx)Connolly, S. E., Constable, H. L., & Mullally, S. L. (2023). “School Distress and the School Attendance Crisis: A Story Dominated by Neurodivergence and Unmet Need.” (https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1237052) *Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14*, 1237052.Halligan, C., & Cryer, S. (2022). “Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA): Students’ Views of What Works in a Specialist Setting.” (https://doi.org/10.5334/cie.38) *Continuity in Education, 3*(1), 13–24.

  2. Sep 7

    08: Is Dual Enrollment Worth It for Your Teen?

    Can taking college courses in high school give your teen a meaningful head start—or add more complexity than they are ready to manage? Dual enrollment is growing quickly: 2.8 million high school students took dual-enrollment courses in 2023–24, and 71% of them studied through community colleges. [1] For some students, it can create a powerful runway into college. Maggie shares how dual enrollment and AP coursework helped her complete college in three years. But one successful story is not a guarantee. National outcome data show strong results for dual-enrollment students, including high rates of immediate college enrollment and completion. Those figures are descriptive comparisons, however, not proof that dual enrollment alone caused the outcome. [2] [3] In this episode, Beth and Maggie look at the opportunity, the trade-offs, and the questions families should ask before deciding whether dual enrollment is the right fit. In This Episode Dual enrollment vs. AP — why taking a college course is different from earning credit through an AP exam.What the national data show — how dual enrollment has grown and what outcome research can, and cannot, tell us. [1] [2]Transfer credit, major requirements, and transcript risk — why accepted credit may not always advance a specific degree plan.Workload and access — what it means for a teenager to manage college-level expectations alongside high school, activities, and logistics.A different sequence at College Onramps — why the program is not dual enrollment: students complete the GED first, then pursue partner-university coursework through an optional, conditional pathway. [5] Dual enrollment can be a strong option for a student who is ready for both the academic work and the logistics. The better question is not simply, Will this help my teen get ahead? It is: What will these credits count for, what will this path require, and does it fit my teenager right now? About the Hosts Beth Callaghan, Ph.D. is President & COO of College Onramps. She holds a PhD in English, taught at USC, and was a founding curriculum designer at Minerva University. She served as Dean of the School of Innovation Foundations at Taejae University in South Korea for three years and has spent a decade working in the science of learning. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and the science of learning. Maggie Hagen has a master’s degree in cell and molecular biology and works across pedagogy, curriculum development, educational technology, and AI in education. Links & Resources College Onramps: https://collegeonramps.org/Community College Research Center: https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/National Student Clearinghouse Research Center: https://nscresearchcenter.org/ Bibliography [1] Fink, J. (2025, September 30). High school dual enrollment grows to 2.8 million. Community College Research Center. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/high-school-dual-enrollment-grows.html [2] Velasco, T., Fink, J., Bedoya-Guevara, M., & Jenkins, D. (2024; revised 2025). The postsecondary outcomes of high school dual enrollment students: A national and state-by-state analysis. Community College Research Center. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Postsec-Outcomes-Dual-Enrollment-Students-Revised-2025.pdf [3] National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. (2026, March 18). Tracking transfer. https://nscresearchcenter.org/tracking-transfer/ [4] Community College Research Center. (2026, February). Understanding dual enrollment. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/understanding-dual-enrollment-fact-sheet.html [5] College Onramps. (n.d.). The high school years, done right. https://collegeonramps.org/

  3. Aug 31

    07: The Best Study Technique Nobody Uses

    Why does rereading a chapter feel productive—yet fail you a week later? And why can trying to answer questions, even when you get some wrong, lead to stronger memory? This episode explores the testing effect, also called retrieval practice: trying to produce information from memory after you have studied it. Beth and Maggie explain why low-stakes retrieval is different from high-stakes testing, how it can strengthen longer-term retention, and why rereading and rewriting notes can create an illusion of fluency. The goal is not more tests or more grades. It is a simple shift in how students practice remembering. In This Episode Rereading versus retrieval practice — why short-term confidence can differ from long-term retentionThe testing effect — what happens when students close the book and try to recall what they learnedWhy the effect holds without feedback — the original study gave no corrective answers between tests, and retrieval still wonTest format and effort — why producing an answer yourself beats picking one out of a listConceptual learning — how retrieval practice performed in a science-text study involving inference questions and concept mappingHigh-stakes versus low-stakes testing — why frequent, no-stakes retrieval reduces test anxiety instead of adding to it, and how that shows up in classroom and College Onramps course design About Your Hosts Beth Callaghan, Ph.D. is President & COO of College Onramps. She holds a PhD in English, taught at USC, and was a founding curriculum designer at Minerva University. She served as Dean of the School of Innovation Foundations at Taejae University in South Korea for three years and has spent a decade working in the science of learning. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and the science of learning. Maggie Hagen has a master’s degree in cell and molecular biology and works across pedagogy, curriculum development, educational technology, and AI in education. Links & Resources College OnrampsActive Learning Sciences Cited in This Episode [1] Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). “Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention.” Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x [2] Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). “The critical importance of retrieval for learning.” Science, 319(5865), 966–968. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408 [3] Agarwal, P. K., D’Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., McDermott, K. B., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). “Classroom-based programs of retrieval practice reduce middle school and high school students’ test anxiety.” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2014.07.002 [4] Kang, S. H. K., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger, H. L. (2007). “Test format and corrective feedback modify the effect of testing on long-term retention.” European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4–5), 528–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/09541440601056620 [5] Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). “Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping.” Science, 331(6018), 772–775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327 Further Reading [1] Agarwal, P. K., Bain, P. M., & Chamberlain, R. W. (2012). The value of applied research: Retrieval practice improves classroom learning and recommendations from a teacher, a principal, and a scientist. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 437–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9210-2 [2] Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003 College Onramps: How We Teach College Onramps is a new program building its first cohort. Its retrieval checks, adaptive learning, and team projects are design features; program-specific outcomes will be evaluated as data become available.

  4. Aug 24

    06: Online High School vs Homeschool: Which Is Better?

    If traditional high school isn't working, which alternative actually fits your teenager better—online school or homeschooling? In this episode of High School Wasn't Built for Every Kid, host Beth Callaghan and co-host Anne Hand compare two of the most common alternatives families consider when conventional school stops being a good fit: online school and homeschooling For each one, they start with what it actually gets right — the problem it solves and who it genuinely fits — before getting into where it falls short. Online school offers structure, but the personalization it promises often doesn't hold up. Homeschooling offers real personalization, but it asks a lot of a parent: time, subject knowledge, and deliberate effort on the social side a school would otherwise handle by default. The goal isn't to declare one path universally better. It's to give parents a clear-eyed look at both, strengths and complications included, so they can figure out which one actually fits their kid. The system isn't broken for every kid. But it was never designed for every kid either. For families choosing between online school and homeschooling, this conversation offers a different question to consider: instead of asking which is universally better, what problem does your student actually need their educational environment to solve? In This Episode What problem online school actually solves, and for which families it clearly worksWhy programs like Florida Virtual School and Stride/K12 are not niche options, and what scale means for qualityWhere personalization claims fall short in many online programs, and how to tell the differenceWhat homeschooling actually asks of a parent, and why it requires more than just curriculum selectionHow College Onramps combines adaptive content with mentor coaching to sit between the two About the Hosts Beth Callaghan, Ph.D. is President & COO of College Onramps. She holds a PhD in English, taught at USC, and was a founding curriculum designer at Minerva University. She served as Dean of the School of Innovation Foundations at Taejae University in South Korea for three years and has spent a decade working in the science of learning. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and the science of learning. Anne Hand is Chief Quality Assurance Officer at College Onramps. She has over twenty years of experience in research, instructional design, education, and international development. She holds a degree from McGill University and an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Links & Resources College OnRamps: https://collegeonramps.org/Active Learning Sciences: https://activelearningsciences.com/Florida Virtual School: https://www.flvs.net/ Cited in this episode [1] National Home Education Research Institute. (2026). How Many Homeschool Students Are There in the United States During the 2024-2025 School Year? https://nheri.org/how-many-homeschool-students-are-there-in-the-united-states/ [2] National Home Education Research Institute. (2026). Research Facts on Homeschooling. https://nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/ [3] Florida Department of Education. (n.d.). Virtual education. https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/virtual-edu/ [4] Stride, Inc. (n.d.). Company materials on cumulative registered learners served across its managed public schools, private schools, and learning solutions.

  5. Aug 17

    05: What Colleges Actually Care About (It's Not What You Think)

    Will colleges take a student seriously if they earn a GED, homeschool, or follow another nontraditional path? This episode introduces Anne Hand, Chief Quality Assurance Officer at College Onramps, who joins Beth to tackle what admissions offices actually weigh—and how nontraditional students can build a credible file. Most admissions readers work fast. At high-volume institutions, they spend roughly eight minutes per application. That speed creates a real problem for nontraditional students: if your file doesn't read quickly, it reads as a red flag. The goal isn't to make a nontraditional student look traditional. It's to make their preparation clear, credible, and easy to understand. In This Episode How long admissions officers actually spend per application and what that means for strategyWhat "holistic review" really means once you get past the phraseThe thin-file problem: Why a GED or homeschool transcript tends to read thin, and what fixes itWhat colleges actually weigh: Grades and curriculum strength remain central, but the record around the credential matters more than the credential itselfHow College Onramps addresses this: A partner university pathway plus a student portfolio that travels anywhere About Your Hosts Beth Callaghan, Ph.D. is President & COO of College Onramps. She holds a PhD in English, taught at USC, and was a founding curriculum designer at Minerva University. She served as Dean of the School of Innovation Foundations at Taejae University in South Korea for three years and has spent a decade working in the science of learning. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and the science of learning. Anne Hand is Chief Quality Assurance Officer at College Onramps. She has over twenty years of experience in research, instructional design, education, and international development. She holds a degree from McGill University and an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Links & Resources College Onramps: https://collegeonramps.org/Active Learning Sciences: https://activelearningsciences.com/NACAC Factors in College Admission: https://www.nacacnet.org/factors-in-the-admission-decision/GED Testing Service: https://www.ged.com/ Cited in this episode: [1] Korn, M. (2018, January 31). Some elite colleges review an application in 8 minutes (or less). The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-elite-colleges-review-an-application-in-8-minutes-or-less-1517400001 [2] National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). (2023). Factors in the Admission Decision. Fall 2023 survey data. https://www.nacacnet.org/factors-in-the-admission-decision/ [3] GED Testing Service. (2024). Can You Go to College With a GED? https://www.ged.com/blog/can-you-go-to-college-with-a-ged.html [4] Heckman, J. J., & Rubinstein, Y. (2001). The importance of noncognitive skills: Lessons from the GED testing program. American Economic Review, 91(2), 145–149. Further reading [1] Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., & McPherson, M. S. (2009). Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America's public universities. Princeton University Press. [2] Heckman, J. J., Humphries, J. E., & Mader, N. S. (2010). The GED (NBER Working Paper No. 16064). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w16064 [3] Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T. (2012). Hard evidence on soft skills. Labour Economics, 19(4), 451–464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2012.05.014

  6. Aug 10

    04: Why Getting It Wrong Can Help You Learn: The Science of Desirable Difficulty

    What if getting something wrong before you learn it could actually help you remember it better later? It sounds backward, but research in the science of learning reveals an important gap between how learning feels and what actually produces durable knowledge. In this episode of High School Wasn’t Built for Every Kid: The College OnRamps Podcast, Maggie Hagen and I explore the concept of desirable difficulties: learning conditions that may make performance feel harder in the moment while strengthening learning over time. We start with a surprising finding from research on pretesting. In certain studies, learners who attempted questions before studying, even when their initial answers were wrong, learned more from the material that followed than learners who simply received additional study time. Why? We explore unsuccessful retrieval, the critical role of corrective information, and the difference between short-term performance and long-term learning. We also look at a classic experiment involving children practicing a beanbag-throwing task. Surprisingly, students who practiced at varied distances later performed better at the target distance than students who had practiced only at that exact distance. Then we tackle a familiar problem for students: rereading notes, highlighting chapters, and cramming can create a powerful feeling of familiarity. But feeling familiar with information is not necessarily the same as being able to retrieve and use it later. Finally, we explain how these ideas influence the design of College OnRamps, including adaptive learning, active practice, feedback, mentorship, and mastery-based progression. The takeaway is not that struggling is always good. Difficulty has to serve learning. But when a student says, “This feels hard,” that feeling alone does not mean something is going wrong. Sometimes productive struggle is exactly where deeper learning begins. 🔗 Links and Resources: Learn more about College Onramps

  7. Aug 3

    03: How Some Students Finish High School in One Year and Prepare for College

    Can some students really finish high school in one year and still be prepared for college? In this episode of High School Wasn’t Built for Every Kid: The College OnRamps Podcast, Maggie Hagen and I move from diagnosing what may not be working in traditional high school to exploring what an alternative can actually look like. We start with a fundamental question: What does it really mean to be college ready? Research suggests that high school GPA predicts on-time college graduation better than standardized admissions tests in part because grades capture more than academic knowledge. They also reflect qualities related to self-regulation, including managing time, sustaining effort, and navigating academic demands. The good news is that metacognitive and self-regulation strategies can be explicitly taught. We explore why the traditional four-year high school timeline is tied to a time-based system that dates back to the Carnegie Unit, and what decades of research into mastery learning can teach us about measuring progress by what students actually know and can do. Then we tackle one of the biggest questions parents have about accelerated pathways: the GED. Can you go to college with a GED? How widely is it accepted? Why have GED graduates historically had weaker college outcomes as a group? And what additional preparation does a college-bound student need beyond simply passing an equivalency exam? Finally, we introduce College OnRamps, a new alternative pathway designed specifically for capable students who are deeply mismatched with traditional high school. We explain how the program approaches durable skills, foundational knowledge, personalized and self-paced learning, mentorship, social interaction, GED preparation, and pathways into college. This is not an argument that every student should leave traditional high school or try to finish early. It is about recognizing that four years in one educational structure may not be the only path to becoming ready for what comes next. If traditional high school is not working for your student, there may be another way forward. 🔗 Links and Resources: Learn more about College Onramps

  8. Aug 3

    02: Your Child Isn’t Lazy: What’s Really Behind Their Lack of Motivation

    Why does a smart, capable teenager suddenly seem lazy or completely unmotivated in school? In this episode of High School Wasn’t Built for Every Kid: The College Onramps Podcast, Maggie Hagen and I challenge one of the most common labels attached to struggling students: lazy. Calling a student lazy may describe what we see, but it does not explain why the behavior is happening. We explore what can sit underneath disengagement, including fear of failure, mental health challenges, executive-function difficulties, and the experience commonly described as learned helplessness. We also look at decades of research into controllability and what happens when people repeatedly experience situations in which their actions do not seem to change the outcome. Maggie returns to the story of her brother, who grew up believing he was simply a “bad student” despite being highly intelligent and having ADHD. His experience raises an important question: what happens when a student internalizes years of academic struggle as a judgment about who they are? We also discuss gifted underachievement, why intelligence can sometimes mask attention or executive-function challenges, and why motivation can change dramatically depending on the environment. Finally, we explore three elements that may help struggling students reconnect effort with progress: appropriate pacing, meaningful engagement, and opportunities to see genuine progress. The goal is not to remove accountability or make excuses for students. It is to ask a better question. Instead of simply asking, “Why won’t my child try harder?” what if we asked, “What is making it difficult for their effort to turn into progress?” Because “lazy” is not much of an explanation. Understanding what is generating the behavior gives us somewhere more useful to start. 🔗 Links and Resources: Learn more about College Onramps

  9. Aug 3

    01: Why Smart Kids Struggle in School: When the Environment Is the Problem, Not the Student

    Why do some smart, capable kids struggle in school even when everyone around them knows they have the potential to succeed? In the first episode of High School Wasn’t Built for Every Kid: The College Onramps Podcast, I’m joined by Maggie Hagen to challenge a common assumption: when a teenager disengages, earns grades that do not reflect their abilities, or struggles to stay motivated, the problem must be the student. We start with one of education’s most persistent ideas, learning styles, and look at what research actually says about matching instruction to visual, auditory, or kinesthetic preferences. From there, we examine how the traditional high school structure developed, including the Carnegie Unit and the long-standing practice of measuring education partly through time spent studying a subject. Then we explore what can happen when a capable student and their educational environment are simply a poor fit. Maggie shares the story of her brother, a highly intelligent student with ADHD whose academic performance did not reflect his abilities. We also discuss why some students thrive when they are genuinely interested and challenged but disengage in a conventional classroom, and how repeated struggles can shape the way a young person sees their own potential. We also talk about patterns parents can watch for: a teenager who is intellectually engaged at home but shuts down at school, grades that consistently fail to reflect demonstrated ability, intense interest-driven learning outside the classroom, or distress that becomes noticeably stronger around school. The goal is not to argue that traditional high school fails every student. It does not. It is to ask a more useful question when a capable teenager is struggling: What if we stopped asking only, “What is wrong with this student?” and also started asking, “Is this environment helping this student learn?” If you know a parent who needs to hear this conversation, share this episode with them. 🔗 Links and Resources: Learn more about College Onramps

  • 9 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Why smart, capable teenagers struggle in traditional classrooms — and what actually works when the environment fits the kid. Host Beth Callaghan (PhD, former Dean at Taejae University, founding curriculum designer at Minerva) is joined by co-hosts Maggie Hagen and Anne Hand to dig into the actual research behind why bright kids disengage, get labeled "lazy" or "unmotivated," and burn out in a system built in the 1890s and barely changed since. Each episode takes on one piece of the puzzle: the myths (learning styles, GED stigma, the four-year timeline), the psychology (learned helplessness, ADHD, anxiety, gifted underachievement), and what the research says actually works when you match the environment to the kid instead of the other way around. New episodes weekly. If you've ever wondered whether the problem is your kid or the system they're stuck in, start with Episode 1.

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