1. Academic & Career Planning: Engaging Youth in their Futures
Gregg Curtis
School Counseling Consultant
ACP Project Co-Lead
Robin Kroyer-Kubicek
Career Pathways Consultant

2. DPI Definition of College & Career Ready
How do we define “SUCCESS?”
DPI Definition of College & Career Ready
ALL Students are:
Academically Prepared
Socially Competent
Emotionally Competent
Demonstrated through:
Knowledge
Skills
Habits

3. “We cannot always build our future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Career-based Learning
Encore Subjects
Special Education
Dual Credit Options
Core Subjects
ESL Program
TAG Program
ALL STUDENTS IN WISCONSIN GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMICALLY PREPARED AND SOCIALLY AND EMOTIONALLY COMPTETENT BY POSSESSING AND DEMONSTRATING…
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND HABITS.
Teachers
Families
Ed. Leadership
Pupil Services
Support Staff
Extra/Co-Curricular Sponsors
Paraprofessionals
S: Welcome. Thanks for being here. Our presentation will focus primarily on the academic and career plans or ACPs. What you’ll hear today will most likely be a mixture of some prior knowledge you have about individual learning plans coupled with a twist on the new idea of ACPs.
Before we dig in too much, we’d like to find out who’s here today. By a show of hands, how many of you are school counselors, administrators, CTE teachers, CTE administrators, career development facilitators, state department of ed reps, other?
Thanks. I’m Sara Baird, Career Pathways Consultant, my colleagues—Kevin Miller, Dual Enrollment and Youth Options Consultant, and Gregg Curtis, School Counseling Consultant. We all work together at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Let’s dig in!

4. Where have we been? WCSCM has been in place since 2007.
Special Education Law requires students to have a Postsecondary Transition Plan (PTP) by age 14
Carl Perkins funding mandates that students have CTE Programs of Study
WCSCM has been in place since 2007.
Model includes standards in 3 domains:
Academic
Personal/Social
Standards contain many of the components of ACP
Career
WI Admin Code PI26
Education for Employment
Requires school districts to have career exploration activities for students in grades K – 12
Districts are required to submit their plan to DPI for approval

5. Where do we want to go? 4-Year Plan (Traditional) ACP (The Vision)
Product-based
Process-based
Some or select students (CTE, Special Ed)
All students
Acts as a 4-year plan of courses
Acts as a navigational tool for students from grade 6-12 and beyond
Career application in elective CTE classes
Career application in all classes
Career development in elective courses or not at all
Career development infused throughout all courses
Student “on own” for its development
Student-driven with collaboration
(mentor and parents)
HS Graduation = End point
HS Graduation = Check point
Career development is only the school counselor’s job
Career development is a systematic, whole-school responsibility

6. What is Academic and Career Planning?
An ongoing process to actively engage students to:
develop an understanding of his or her self
create a vision of his or her future
develop individual goals
prepare a personal plan for achieving the vision and goals
STUDENT DRIVEN & ONGOING
A product that documents and reflects students’:
coursework, learning and assessment results
post-secondary plans aligned to career goals & financial reality
record of college and career readiness skills. 
DYNAMIC & FLEXIBLE

7. The ACP Model
Mission
Empower ALL students to travel the road TO adulthood through education and training to careers!
Vision
Reimagining K-12 education to equip students with meaningful and supportive adult relationships and the ability to adapt to opportunities and challenges on their personalized journeys to successful lives.

8. 3 KEY Elements
Periodic Table of ACP Elements

9. KEY ELEMENT #1 RELATIONSHIPS!!!
Trusted and respected adult mentors/advisors
Engaged and empowered students
Engaged families
Committed school administration and staff
A supportive and engaged community
ROBIN
These are the key elements and principles of ACP.
Of course, student engagement is the holy grail of education, and numerous initiatives are aimed at increasing student engagement. The difference here is the addition of empowerment. Students must be able to determine for themselves – with guidance and assistance – what will allow them to engage in learning and then be able to advocate to get it.
ACP both requires engagement of families and is a means of engaging families. Parents are certainly one aspect, but other critical members of a student’s out-of-school support network are included here. In some cases, the biological or adoptive parents or the student’s legal guardians may not be the family members who must first be engaged. Most of us are aware of such students. Regardless, ACP provides a subject around which adult level conversations with students can be built and grown. In many cases, these will be the first such conversations parents have had with their children.
All children need an adult whom they can respect and trust and on whom they can rely for objective, honest opinions and advice. For some kids, this will be a parent, but even where a good relationship exists between a child and a parent, the parent may not be a good mentor because he or she is biased or because the child is striving to become independent from the parent. Consequently, having access to another adult mentor does become important to the full ACP process.
Academic and career planning cannot be effectively implemented if it is relegated only to counselors or a small group of school or district staff. And even if it could, the rest of the staff would miss out on the many benefits they will gain from ACP. Imagine what would happen in a classroom where a teacher continued to use traditional sage-on-the-stage instruction, as students were being deeply engaged in other classes and being encouraged to self-advocate? When students start to recognize what they need to achieve their potential, all staff members need to be ready to adapt and deliver. Of course, administrators need to both help guide the implementation and adapt their role because the environment in their schools and districts is going to change.
And finally, adopting academic and career planning will have a ripple effect through the community. As families become truly engaged in the ACP process and, subsequently, their child’s overall learning, conversations in the community will change. Rather than school dialogues being based on sports, music, drama, etc., they will be talking academics and learning experiences. As students start to become self-aware and self-advocates, they will be challenged to find all their needs met within the school, so they will begin to look outside the school for learning experiences. The community will become a much more organic part of the schools rather than just an occasional supplement.

10. “The relationship is necessary, but not sufficient, for change.”
Mental Health
Perseverance
21st Century Skills
Resources
Physical Health
& Safety
Teen Parent
Trauma
Coping Skills
Behavioral Health
Resilience
Family Issues
Bullying
Emotional Regulation
Poverty
HIV

11. KEY ELEMENT #2 Student Awareness Rkk My Career Awareness
My Awareness of Myself
My Academic, Career, Personal, and Social Goals
My Vision for the Future
My Financial Awareness
Rkk

12. Needed to Support Students
KEY ELEMENT #3
Infrastructure
Moving
Fragmented
From
Services…
Needed to Support Students
Amount of Resources
General Education
Title I
Special Education
Gifted/Talented ?
Ineligible
Intensity of Need
Rkk

13. Needed to Support Students
KEY ELEMENT #3
Infrastructure
General + Intensive Resources
General Resources
General + Supplemental Resources
Intensity of Need
Needed to Support Students
Amount of Resources
To a SYSTEM of support!
Rkk

14. What are the Benefits of ACP for Students?
Middle School
Encourages post-secondary planning
Influences career aspirations and engagement.
Influences courses taken which in turn may guide later decisions.
For example, middle school students interested in mathematics are likely to pursue and experience high achievement in mathematics related activities.
(2016)

15. What are the Benefits of ACP for Students?
High School
“Diplomas with a purpose”
Opportunity to earn industry certifications
More likely to choose majors that are a good fit based on their interests = higher GPA’s
More likely to persist in college and complete their degrees in a timely manner (less debt!)
(2016)

16. School and Administrator Support Vital!
Ensure all students have the navigation resources they need at the times they need them
Build relationships with the community and local businesses to establish or expand work-based learning programs.
Use student data to inform or enhance their navigation efforts
(2016)

17. Role of Each Educator in the School
Provide ongoing opportunities to learn about interests, values, and other aspects of the self
Make connections among academic coursework, college, and future career options
Incorporate important navigation elements into individualized learning plans
Help parents keep the importance of education and career navigation in mind throughout their children’s educational careers
(2016)

18. Stay Connected ACP webpage: http://dpi.wi.gov/acp
ACP list: subscribe at
ACP blog:
ACP on
ACP Google+ Community:
WI DPI Academic and Career Planning (ACP)-public

19. Video Resources
What Agenda 2017 Means for Students, Teachers and Parents:
State Supt. Value of ACP:
“I’m Ready” Series (students)
Why ACP Matters:
ROBIN

20. Questions? Gregg Curtis, PhD Gregg.Curtis@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-2820
Robin Kroyer-Kubicek
(608)
BOTH