What is Academic and Career Planning?

1. What is Academic and Career Planning? • An ongoing process to actively engage a student : • in his or her instructional and learning opportunities both in and out of school • in career development opportunities that incorporate self-exploration, career exploration, and career planning and management activities. • A product that documents and reflects a student’s: • coursework, learning, and assessment results • post-secondary plans aligned to career goals • record of the student’s college and career readiness skills. 

2. Why Academic and Career Planning? • RESEARCH! Students with a future focus show: • improved motivation, engagement in school, academic performance, relevant course selection, understanding post-secondary options; and • engage in decreased risk-taking behaviors. • ACPs are identified as best practice in the WI comprehensive school counseling standards & in the WI Digital Learning Plan. • Academic and Career Planning adds relevance to other initiatives (i.e. personalizing learning, PBIS, RtI, Dual Enrollment, Youth Options). • WI Statute 115.28(59) supports Academic & Career Planning Student Learning Plans: Supporting Every Student's Transition to College and Career Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, June 2011. School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009.

3. Wisconsin Statute 115.28(59) • Includes $1.1 million in 2014-2015 funding for software technology and professional development supporting statewide implementation of ACP.  • Authorizes DPI to create administrative rule with requirements for ACP services for all students in grades 6-12 by 2017-18.

4. Governor’s Council on College and Workplace Readiness recommendations: • Who should have an ACP? • When should it start? • How often should an ACP be updated? • Who should lead the ACP process? • How should school staff be engaged in ACPs?

5. All Wisconsin students should have an ACP beginning in 6th grade; exposure to career opportunities and interest surveys occur in elementary grades. At a minimum, ACPs must be updated through formal, ideally student-led, conferencing with parents/guardians and school staff once a year. Districts should require parents/guardians to attend. However, when possible, ACPs should be updated through formal, ideally student-led, conferencing with parents and school staff twice a year. In addition to formal conferencing, the subgroup recommends that all students must have an opportunity to review and update their ACPs informally on a more frequent basis, such as once a week, through district developed protocols (i.e. in career courses, homeroom periods, core content classes, etc.) The subgroup recommends: • the establishment of school and district leadership teams to help support effective ACPs, • that school counselors play an integral role in the leadership team while other school staff (subject area teachers, homeroom advisors, coaches, etc.) should be engaged to support the student • that DPI, in partnership with Wisconsin educators, develop and provide guidance to school districts specifically addressing best practices from around Wisconsin and the country regarding engagement of all school staff, • that specific district-led professional development be undertaken to ensure that all school staff are involved, supported, and positively engaged in a school’s ACP process.

6. ACP Task Force State Plan Priorities • Development and implementation of intensive professional development systems, including training modules • Development and implementation of a communication and marketing campaign • Development of an ACP evaluation system NOT tied to school report card • Selection of statewide web-based career development platform

7. Software Feature Recommendations • Student Portfolio • Personal profile page • Collection of meaningful work and experiences • Interest inventories and records • Space for academic, personal, and career goal-setting and revisions • Storage space for: • Transcripts • College and career readiness assessment results • Recommendation letters • Resumes

8. Software Feature Recommendations • Education Plan • Intentional sequence of courses toward graduation • High school course information connected to student’s post-secondary path • Program of Study (clusters and pathways)

9. Software Feature Recommendations • Career/Post-Secondary Plan • Career aptitude assessments linked to career cluster information • Career interests and goals • Post-secondary education admission requirements for all institutions • Up-to-date labor market information, including: • DWD information about in-demand jobs on a regional, state, and national basis • Searchable database of employment opportunities

10. Software Feature Recommendations • Accessibility • Internet-based program that is age-appropriate and user friendly and integrated with student information systems to greatest extent possible • Capacity to serve all students in the state • Support for students with disabilities (including compatibility with IEP/PTPs and 504 Plans) and ELL students • Transferable as students move to other schools • Compliant with privacy/confidentiality laws • Online technical assistance • Parent portal

11. A Shift

12. ACP Process Components:Know, Explore, Plan, Implement • KNOW • Self awareness • Exploration activities • Individual goal-setting • EXPLORE • Career awareness assessment • Career research

13. PLAN • Connect a student’s middle and high school instructional activities with the education and preparation needed to successfully enter a particular field of interest. • Work-based learning opportunities • Extra-curricular and community-based learning experiences • Postsecondary training options • Financial plan to cover cost of postsecondary training • IMPLEMENT • Update Quarterly • Adapt/Modify Intentional Sequence of Courses • Adapt/Modify Personal Goals • Adapt/Modify Career Goals • ACP Conferencing

14. ACPs and Career and Tech Ed (CTE) • CTE teachers are career prep experts • CTE provides relevance and opportunities • ACPs direct students to most appropriate opportunities • ACPs are another element of CTE planning • Current Labor Market Info

15. ACP Product Contents Include:

16. Select ACP Resources ACP Resources In Development

17. Quality Academic & Career Planning • Includes and reinforces strong relationships between students and the mentors/adults in their lives • Increases the connections between student self-awareness, daily instruction, and career/college goals • Shows positive outcomes—students are more engaged and autonomous in school • Enhances student resiliency to overcome challenges & changes • Provides qualitative and quantitative data regarding college and career readiness paths

18. ACP Navigation Goal All students understand themselves, explore their world, establish goals for their futures, and create a plan to achieve their goals; while realizing that alternative routes or temporary roadblocks can mean that a re-calculation is necessary on one’s journey.