Preparing for Academic and Career Planning (ACP) in Your School

by Joe Schroeder, PhD, Associate Executive Director, AWSA

As you are likely aware, beginning in the 2017-18 school year, all Wisconsin school districts will be required to provide a comprehensive process to help 6-12th grade students develop, plan, and achieve goals for post-secondary education and careers.  This process, called Academic and Career Planning (ACP), will provide students with access to coordinated activities and guidance over several years.  This article is the first in a three-part series on ACP that we will be bringing to you over the course of this school year through The AWSA Update.  This first article provides basic background information and ways to get connected with the latest resources and developments about this effort.  Future articles from ACP leaders at DPI (one in the winter, another in the spring) will discuss how to set up and lead for successful implementation of ACP in your school and district.

In response to a dramatically shifting world of work and skyrocketing costs of postsecondary education, in 2013 Wisconsin lawmakers passed the legislation that establishes ACP implementation across Wisconsin’s secondary schools, beginning next fall.  The vision of ACP is to equip students with the tools to determine their skills, strengths, and interests -- while still in school -- so they can navigate their high school years as informed consumers to plan and prepare for their futures.  Specifically, the aim is to have students explore and “try on” different careers while still in secondary school to help them narrow down potential sectors of concentration and the post-high school education and training needed.  With the additional assistance of teachers, parents, and various partners (including business and industry), ACP will help students deepen their knowledge of themselves, improve their understanding of post-secondary options and labor market information, better connect their goals to educational coursework and career activities, and take part in long-term planning for life after high school.

Overall, ACP is designed to provide a systemic approach for personalizing the educational experience and connecting it to each student’s goals for his/her future.  ACP will explicitly connect a student’s middle and high school coursework with the education and preparation needed to successfully enter a particular field of interest, helping to close skill gaps.  In addition, ACP will purposefully leverage work-based learning opportunities as well as co-curricular and community-based learning experiences so they directly contribute to students achieving their goals and pursuing their future visions.  Further, ACP will facilitate students taking charge of their own futures through identification of available post-secondary training options to enter a particular field of interest and the creation of a financial plan to attain that training.

To stay apprised of current, ongoing ACP information to better equip your preparation and implementation efforts, please visit the Department of Public Instruction’s website at dpi.wi.gov/acp.  If you have questions regarding the ACP process, please contact Robin Kroyer-Kubicek, DPI career pathways education consultant, at (608) 266-2022 [email protected].  And if you wish to be part of the ongoing conversation about all that is ACP, get connected on Twitter, Google+, and/or via DPI’s ACP blog