ICAPS: INDIVIDUAL CAREER & ACADEMIC PLANS Benefits to Students (of all ages)

 Best student financial aid package in existence = no longer paying for courses that don’t interest the student. Attend college as an ‘informed consumer’ instead of ‘wandering’.  *Consider this now as the Federal Stafford loan interest rates double this coming year.

 When students have a ‘plan’ in place they obtain access to concurrent enrollment college level credits while in high school. This could mean that a student can graduate HS with a certificate or credits close to a completed Associates degree.  *This would be at no charge to the family = financial aid! That is, unless the student gets a D or below in the course.

 Please consider labor market data. Jobs for our Middle School students don’t even exist yet.  ICAP processes allow students to obtain the information they need earlier to be prepared for what their future job and employment outlook will look like. Please also note that these jobs might not be in your own community. The opportunities to be exposed to different career paths, various career fields and options is a possibility when beginning an ICAP process as early as 8 th grade.

 ICAP is always flexible. It is an evolutionary document. It’s not simply an online form or requirement or template. It’s a breathing, living document that students can continue to build, delete, add too and share their entire life.

 ICAP activities will be assessed through the statewide assessment: TCAP. To not support your students or your students’ school ICAP process is to also not support their state assessment endeavors.

 We won’t always be there for our student in their decision making process. Having access to and assistance with developing an ICAP will offer our students the tools they need in their ‘toolbox’ to become successful adults and more importantly, Postsecondary Workforce Ready (PoWeRful).

 Similarly, students now can be found eligible for automatic admissions to our moderately selected colleges because of the work they’ll be doing in their ICAP process. They might be granted a PWR endorsed diploma which communicates to our 6(ish) moderately selective colleges that they are ready.  *This is a good thing and it looks good on a resume!

 When students as early as middle school have the opportunity to learn about their strengths and interests, their investment in school and investment in themselves increase. This sets the stage for healthy developmental growth and decreases the chances of suicide, self-mutilation, substance abuse and other ways with which students cope with not feeling confident and lost throughout their adolescent years. In a way, ICAP could possibly save lives.  Done properly as a process, not a product; that is.

 On the same note, when students have access to ‘seeing their future’ all throughout a school year, they are more apt to see relevance in attending class, relevance in graduating HS and in turn increasing our statewide graduation rates, decreasing our statewide dropout rate and increasing our statewide college enrollment rate.

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