Stephanie Rivera started high school in 2021 a bit differently than other students in Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). A student who usually sat at the back of the classroom for fear of being called on joined her freshman class at Potomac High School in a new type of environment. She was an inaugural participant in the first 3DE by Junior Achievement in PGCPS. 3DE re-engineers high school education to be more relevant, experiential, and authentically connected to the complexities of the real world. She was one of five students, out of more than 100, who proudly called themselves “The Founders.”
The students were given a business challenge provided by Arby’s, a national 3DE partner, that the group dedicated six weeks to solving. The students didn’t know it then, but they weren’t simply learning business. They were experiencing a different model of education, one that would change how they saw themselves and what they believed was possible.
This summer, a Gallup poll found that Americans’ confidence in core U.S. institutions is stuck at an average of 27%, near an all-time low, and that Americans have 27% confidence specifically in public schools. This finding isn’t a partisan talking point. Confidence has eroded across nearly every major institution Gallup tracks, not just schools. And D.C.-area families are watching this erosion play out in real time, right as students head back into classrooms this fall.
As the retired superintendent of PGCPS, I’m seeing the greater Washington region students being asked to navigate a labor market and technological shift that no single classroom or single nonprofit program can prepare them for alone. I’ve observed at a systems-level from the inside that this problem needs a coordinated effort across public and private sectors. Perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking how schools can do more on their own, we should be asking how communities can do more together.
Uncertainty in our public education institutions isn’t a reason to retreat from education, it’s a mandate to reimagine the model. Student success isn’t produced by any single lever. It’s built through an ecosystem where schools, employers, mentors, nonprofits and families each play a role.
3DE by Junior Achievement was designed to answer a question every student eventually asks: why does this matter? Every day, I think about how we can better prepare students not just to graduate, but to thrive. And when I was the superintendent, I chose to partner with Junior Achievement of Greater Washington because they did what they said they were going to do. From sourcing volunteers to training educators on solving problems through practice, we’re modernizing how students learn, communities engage, and our teachers thrive.
The outcomes speak for themselves; the 4-year cohort graduation rate at Potomac High School was up 25.5 points in 2024, 85.6% compared to 68.9% pre-3DE in 2020. Reading proficiency in 9th and 10th grade went up 27.1 points and first-year college enrollment up 30.2 points.
Perhaps most importantly, there was a 20.3-point drop in chronic absenteeism. When young people see purpose in what they’re learning and can connect it to their own future, school becomes something they engage with not simply something they attend.
These aren’t isolated numbers. They’re what happens when education, mentorship, and career exposure work together instead of in silos.
Whether your child is planning on attending college or not, Junior Achievement is preparing the next workforce generation. The issue isn’t whether this works; it’s what and how much we’re willing to invest. As students go back to school this fall, there will come a time when they start questioning the value of their education and whether it’s worth it to pursue a meaningful career. Our job is to ensure that we’re creating the environment where they unquestionably want to do more, and better.
So what happened with “The Founders” and the Arby case challenge? Stephanie and her cohort went on to win the ultimate prize in the 3DE national case competition. They didn’t only succeed because of one winning idea for a project, it took a coordinated system built around them. Stephanie walked into high school afraid to raise her hand. She graduated having solved real business challenges and competed on a national stage. That transformation didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we stopped thinking of education as something that happens only in schools and started building an ecosystem of opportunity around students instead.
Dr. Monica Goldson is president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Greater Washington.
