Turning the Tide in 2026: Preparing Students for Lives of Caring and Purpose
JUNE 2026
College admissions, schools, and parents play critical roles in preparing students to strengthen the United States and mend the fractures that divide the country.
Making Caring Common’s latest Turning the Tide report makes the case for a key shift in college admissions: College admissions should elevate the key ethical and civic capacities at the heart of repairing what divides us, our democracy, and our collective well-being.
The report outlines the critical role of college admissions leaders, high schools and parents in preparing teens to be ethical community members and citizens. Drawing on conversations with dozens of college admissions deans, the report also makes the case that colleges, parents and high schools shouldn’t expect teens to have a single purpose or passion but should instead help teens clarify what they find meaningful and how their values are connected to their college choices.
“We are in a moral free fall in this country,” says Dr. Richard Weissbourd, Faculty Director of Making Caring Common. “Americans struggle to engage constructively across differences, often retreating into division and demonization. There’s too much hostility in our public life and unchecked self-interest is too common. And our research shows ‘34% of teens and 51% of young people ages 19-25 report lacking meaning or purpose or both.’ That’s a huge problem, but one we believe college admissions leaders, schools, and parents can do a lot to address.”
The report, Making Caring Common’s fourth in the Turning the Tide series, describes the urgent need to help young people develop six moral and civic capacities: caring across differences, humility, curiosity, valuing the truth, upholding principles of human rights, and a sense of collective responsibility.
The report also provides college admissions leaders with action steps they can incorporate into their admissions process in order to better assess and weigh these capacities when considering prospective students.
Authored by Richard Weissbourd and Trisha Ross Anderson in collaboration with the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) Center for Innovation in College Admission
“A student’s academic journey should do more than just prepare them for careers. It should also prepare them to be engaged community members, critical thinkers, and compassionate leaders. That’s why we are excited to collaborate with Making Caring Common on this important report.”
Introduction to the report
In 2016, Making Caring Common, in collaboration with over 150 college admissions leaders across the country, released a report underscoring the importance of meaningful ethical and academic engagement in high school students. We made the case that today’s culture sends young people messages that elevate personal success over concern for others and the common good (Konrath et al., 2011; Putnam, 2014; Weissbourd & Jones, 2014) and that the college admissions process–a rite of passage for many students and a major focus for many parents–is powerfully positioned to send different messages to young people about what colleges, and by proxy, society value. These messages should focus on the importance of young people’s authentic interest in learning; their being caring, honest, and fair day-to-day; and their sense of responsibility for their communities and their country.
Since that initial report, troubling trends that have long simmered in American life have come to a boil. Research shows that far too many of us are unwilling or unable to talk constructively across our differences (Lloyd et al., 2021; Making Caring Common, 2020). Fueled by the daily shout shows and nonstop social media hostility, we retreat into corners, and cartoon and demonize those with different political and moral views. Democrats and Republicans increasingly see members of the other party as lazy, unintelligent, immoral, dishonest, and closed-minded (Pew Research Center, 2022). Community and political leaders are paralyzed by partisan divides that threaten our ability to solve dire, urgent problems, whether election integrity, mass shootings, or health care costs.
These trends demand that we think hard about what we have prioritized in educating our children and what we should prioritize going forward. Perhaps as much as any time in our history, we need to cultivate in young people the capacities to treat one another with decency and generosity; to approach others not with righteousness but with curiosity; to consider multiple perspectives; to care for others across differences in race, class, culture, and political and religious orientation; to honor human rights; and to find the humanity in others when it's challenging. Just as important, we should expect teens and young people to focus not only on their own well-being but also on our collective well-being. We should also assure that young people understand why the truth is so important and are able both to discern what is true and to find common ground based on facts–piecing together the shared reality that is the foundation of a shared morality. These commitments and capacities are fundamental to preparing young people to be ethical, engaged citizens; professionals; and community members who will mend the fractures that divide us, safeguard our democracy, and build a fairer society.
This report, drawing on conversations with scores of college admission leaders over several years, underlines the importance of valuing these moral and civic capacities in admissions. It seeks to both lift up the importance of these capacities for teens themselves and to encourage schools, community organizations, parents, and caregivers to focus on cultivating them in teens.
Further, this report seeks to respond to other troubling trends. Since our last report, mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, have spiked among both teens and young adults. Escalating achievement pressure appears to be a main culprit (Ducharme, 2023; Gallup et al., 2026; Steare et. al, 2023; Xiang et. al, 2024). Alarming numbers of teens and young adults also appear to lack energizing direction and struggle to find meaning day-to-day. A whopping 34% percent of teens and 51% of young adults report experiencing little or no meaning or purpose in their lives (Gallup et al., 2026). These problems have complex roots and no single solution, but high schools, parents, and the college admissions process are central to reducing achievement pressure and helping teens find meaning and purpose. This report also makes the case, though, that too many teens feel pressure to articulate a single purpose or passion in the admissions process and that the goal should not be that teens identify a single purpose but are instead able to articulate what they value and how those values relate to their higher education choices.
This report proceeds as follows: We first take up the main moral and civic commitments and skills that we view as important to develop in high school students. We then share thoughts about how high schools and parents can help teens distill what they care about and find meaningful. Finally, we offer a few key strategies for mitigating damaging achievement pressure.
“We’ve seen some encouraging progress over the past ten years. But there’s so much more to do—both for college admissions leaders, high schools and parents of college-bound students—and the work is more urgent than ever.”
