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2023-24 Career Readiness Community of Practice

Module #8:

Formal ACP Process

Academic & Career Planning and Education for Employment

Wisconsin Legislative Statute PI26

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Let’s Take a Few Minutes to Share Out . . .

  • How often and in what contexts do students have purposeful, and meaningful career conversations in each grade level?
  • Who do they have these career conversations with?

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Learning Objectives

Learning objectives of this training session include:

  • Describe the formal process for connecting pupils to teachers and other school staff for assistance with development and implementation of each student’s Academic and Career Plan

  • Identify the importance of creating a formal process (such as advisory program) that connects students with educators who can advise them on the ACP process

Refer to the Module #8 Session Guide for Districts

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Learning Objectives

Learning objectives of this training session include:

  • Understand importance of providing professional development for educators participating in the mentoring or ACP advising to equip them to be successful

  • Identify and describe how your district implements the recommended Career Readiness practice of students participating in regular career conversations to discuss their interests, academic goals, and postsecondary plans with an adult.

Refer to the Module #8 Session Guide for Districts

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Learning Objectives

Learning objectives of this training session include:

  • Identify and describe how your district implements the recommended Career Readiness practice of teachers in ALL subject areas help students in their classes understand how the content they are learning connects with various careers and career readiness skills.

Refer to the Module #8 Session Guide for Districts

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Learning Objectives

Learning objectives of this training session include:

  • Recognize benefits of utilizing your ACP software tool to track students’ academic and career plans as they develop

  • Recognize benefit of students presenting the final ACP plan (i.e., capstone project) at completion and consider benefits of having the student present to employer or industry partners from same career pathway they intent to pursue

Refer to the Module #8 Session Guide for Districts

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Academic & Career Planning – PI26

Recap of the WHY behind Wisconsin Academic & Career Planning (Legislative Statute PI26):

“The purpose of ACP services is to assist pupils with planning and preparing for opportunities after graduating from high school.

These opportunities may include postsecondary education and training that leads to careers.”

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Academic & Career Planning – PI26

Recap of the ADDITIONAL requirements of ACP embedded into the Education for Employment (E4E) statute that spans elementary, middle and high school grade levels. School districts must:

  • Prepare elementary and secondary pupils for future employment.
  • Ensure technological literacy; to promote lifelong learning.
  • Promote good citizenship.
  • Promote cooperation among business, industry, labor, postsecondary schools, and public education.

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Academic & Career Planning – PI26

Engage with

Area Employers

Engage with

Families

Encourage Input from

Students

Recap of who needs to be at involved in the Academic & Career Planning process to best serve students in your school district. Best practice is to bring the following groups to the table, along with members of your school district career readiness team . . . and Why?

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Formal ACP Process

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WI Youth Voice in Career Readiness Project

What findings from the Youth Voice in Career Readiness project relate to the Formal ACP Process?

  • Most students learn about career readiness activities from teachers, but they go to family for help. (Finding #1)

  • The career readiness activities recent high school graduates report as the most interesting are: Career & Technical Education courses, Work-based learning opportunities (including internships, Youth Apprenticeships and working in a school store), Project-based learning

(Finding #2)

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WI Youth Voice in Career Readiness Project

What findings from the Youth Voice in Career Readiness project relate to the Formal ACP Process?

  • Students need teachers to be engaged, excited, and encouraging during career readiness activities. (Finding #3)

Software tools and curriculum can help guide the ACP process.

They cannot replace the learning that takes place when students talk about their academic and career plans with adults and peers.

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Encouraging Students to Provide Input is Key

Quote from Participants of the Student Voice Project

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WI Youth Voice in Career Readiness Project

What findings from the Youth Voice in Career Readiness project relate to the Formal ACP Process?

Current high school students say their school is doing well when it comes to Dedicated Time for Academic and Career Planning (ACP) - A regular period of time that is dedicated ACP, whether that be in workshops, advisories, homerooms, etc.

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Tips & Strategies: Student-Centered Focus

ACP Should be Student Centered with Strong Adult Relationships:

Schools are encouraged to develop an ACP process that is founded on relationships with educators, dialogue with peers, and mentoring from employers, postsecondary, and community partners.

Design your ACP activities to meet students where they are at and truly engage them in exploring what interests and is important to them. Integrate universal design for learning concepts into your ACP scope and sequence of activities to personalize the process for each student.

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Tips & Strategies: Keep Equity in Mind

Keep Equity at the Forefront:

Keep in mind that ACP and E4E are for all students. Therefore, we encourage districts to identify your essential ACP activities and implement them in a way so that all students will be able to participate. For example, if it is a goal to have every student graduate with a resume, you would want to embed resume writing activities into courses that all students are required to take or into an advisory period in which all students participate in.

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Tips & Strategies: Keep Equity in Mind

Keep Equity at the Forefront:

In addition, students from some populations may need additional support and assistance in overcoming barriers to academic and career success. Think about how you can connect these students to the supportive services they need and how you can remove any barriers to success. Partnering with local youth serving organizations, higher education institutions, and workforce development boards is a great place to find out about supportive services that can support your students!

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Tips & Strategies: Keep Equity in Mind

Keep Equity at the Forefront:

Your school district report card provides data for career readiness indicators. You can also work with your district’s data specialist or your CESA ACP Coordinator to help analyze your career readiness data and disaggregate it by special populations.

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Tips for NOT Creating MORE Silos!

Don’t Create More Silos:

Here are a few suggestions that will ensure your ACP/E4E Plan becomes part of the fabric of your district in order to create a culture of career readiness.

 

  • Your ACP/E4E Plan should be led by your district’s Career Readiness TEAM. If you do not have a Career Readiness Team (sometimes called an ACP Team) in your district, this is the perfect opportunity to create one!

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Tips for NOT Creating MORE Silos!

Don’t Create More Silos:

  • Include your ACP/E4E Plan as a part of your district’s continuous improvement process and ESSA/strategic plan. Creating the plan in a vacuum will likely result in a siloed and fragmented approach that will frustrate both students and staff.

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Tips for NOT Creating MORE Silos!

Don’t Create More Silos:

  • Both your ACP/E4E Plan and your Perkins Plan (if you receive Federal Perkins funding for Career and Technical Education) are based on labor market information and should include district staff and community partners. As you conduct your Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment every two years, broaden the scope to also evaluate your ACP/E4E Plan. You may update your ACP/E4E Plan in between CLNA processes as needed.

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Tips for NOT Creating MORE Silos!

Don’t Create More Silos:

  • By including Youth Apprenticeship (if offered by your school district or public charter school) and information on the Early College Credit Program, Start College Now Program, and other dual enrollment opportunities in your district as a part of your ACP/E4E Plan, your district is also meeting part of the statutorily required Notice of Educational Options.

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Top Career Readiness Resources in WI

ACP Implementation: District Self-Assessment Tool - This easy-to-use tool will help your district career readiness team reflect on your ACP infrastructure, develop an ACP Graduate Profile, and map out your ACP components while identifying which components all students should access before graduating. Then you will be ready to set goals related to your ACP implementation that you can share with your CESA ACP Coordinator to receive a customized ACP professional development plan for your district! Note: the document downloads into Microsoft Word and may require slight reformatting.

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Top Career Readiness Resources in WI

Equity in Academic and Career Planning - This resource provides short activities that can help ACP or career readiness teams and leaders encourage their stakeholders to learn more about what equity means, how to explore who they are, what beliefs and assumptions they hold, identify their values, and consider how all of this can impact the learners and families they serve. The goal of each activity is to help educators learn a little more about their students and themselves and to leave with one simple action step to improve equity within their district.

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ACP Best Practice & Reflection

Questions:

  • Does your district have a formal ACP advising model/schedule?

  • Does your district use ACP mentors, academic mentors and/or employer mentors with students?

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Resource: Meaningful Career Conversations

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Resource: 8 Components of CCR Counseling

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Resource: Kansas Career Advising Model

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Resource: ACP Final Capstone Projects (WEC)

Questions:

Does your district include an Academic & Career Planning (ACP) Project capstone project?

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DPI Webinar & Resources: ACP Final Project

Question:

Have you explored the DPI Community of Practice webinar resources for ACP Final Projects?

Consider taking time to do so, as there are TONS of great examples!

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DPI Webinar & Resources: ACP Final Project

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DPI Webinar & Resources: ACP Final Project

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DPI Webinar & Resources: ACP Final Project

Question:

Does your district utilize project-based learning components to connect personal financial literacy to Academic & Career Planning?

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DPI Website – District ACP Plan Exemplars

  • Luxemburg-Casco - highlights how ACP is a collaboration of stakeholders: students, parents, staff, and businesses

  • Milwaukee Public Schools - includes ACP for elementary grades

  • Northwestern Maple School District - great video of their manufacturing products and a planning map

  • School District of New Berlin - includes ACP for elementary grades

  • Superior School District - includes ACP for elementary grades.

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Share Ideas & Celebrate Successes

  • Share ways in which the required component reviewed in this training session is being implemented in your district
  • Help brainstorm together additional ways to expand implementation of this component in districts
  • Consider sharing resources with additional staff members in your district
  • Remember to CELEBRATE the implementation successes in your district

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District Work Time

Consider working in teams to on the following:

  • Complete the follow-up questions on the module session guide for districts

  • Review your current district ACP/E4E Plan to determine ways to improve and/or add aspects of this component to your current plan

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Follow-Up Questions from Session

  1. Does your district have a formal ACP advising model/schedule?
  2. Does your district use ACP mentors, academic mentors and/or employer mentors with students?
  3. Does your district include an Academic & Career Planning (ACP) Project capstone project?
  4. Have you explored the DPI Community of Practice webinar resources for ACP Final Projects?
  5. Does your district utilize project-based learning components to connect personal financial literacy to Academic & Career Planning?
  6. What will be the next steps your district/team will take on this topic?

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Group Sharing and Q & A

Please share out with the group:

  • Next steps our district will take to on this required component
  • Questions, comments or concerns

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Consider Staying Connected Via Listserv

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Helpful Resources