Consortium to help six districts develop post-secondary planning strategies
A half dozen districts will work with the Consortium in the upcoming school year to ensure they’re helping students make the most of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s mandate to develop post-secondary education and career plans.
Under state standards, students must develop their plans in the 8th grade. The plans are intended to be reference points as students assemble artifacts documenting steps taken from 8th grade until senior year to explore and prepare for post-secondary education and careers.
But because students in the 8th grade often still have only an inkling of what they might like to do, there’s a real need to make the plans “living documents” that kids can change as their interests develop or change, said Consortium Program Director Christy Kuehn.
Participating districts will draw on ideas from the The Handbook of Career and Workforce Development–Research, Policy & Practice, as they develop strategies to keep their students engaged in a process for post-secondary education and career planning.
The author, V. Scott Solberg, PhD., is Associate Dean of Research at Boston University (BU) and Principal Investigator at the Massachusetts Institute for College & Career Readiness. A leader in the field of post-secondary preparation, he spoke last year at two workshops the Consortium hosted in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory (REL).
The Consortium’s work with participating districts is being funded with a $1,000 Ignite Grant from Remake Learning. Under the grant, participating districts will come together to organize their work at a kick off session, then reconvene twice for collaboration and professional development.
