Graduation Requirements Now Include Career Planning

New Rule Called A Solution To The ‘Colorado Paradox’

By Lynn Kalinauskas

In May, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved new high school graduation requirements. It had been six years since the board had adopted the last requirements.

There was public outcry about the DPS’ proposal to drop the one-credit physical education requirement. Pressured by general outrage in the age of obesity awareness and much related media coverage, DPS revised its proposal and did not eliminate the PE requirement.

The uproar overshadowed a new DPS graduation requirement: Individual Career and Academic Plan, or ICAP. This is a new graduation guideline outlined by the Colorado Department of Education, starting with this year’s 8th graders.

Pathways to college, or not

On its website, the education department defines ICAPs as “a multi-year process that intentionally guides students and families in the exploration of career, academic and postsecondary opportunities. With the support of adults, students develop the awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and skills to create their own meaningful and powerful pathways to be career and college ready.”

The department’s Graduation Guidelines Manager Robin Russel says that ICAP emerged as one solution to the “Colorado paradox.” The state is one of the top five in the country for the number of degree holders per capita, however most of those degree holders are not homegrown. Colorado needs to better educate and graduate its students if they are to become an active part of the workforce, she says.

In 2009, Colorado passed Senate Bill 09-256 that states:

Each Individual Career and Academic Plan includes a career planning and guidance component and a portfolio that reflects, at a minimum:

1) The student’s efforts in exploring careers, including interest surveys that the student completes.

2) The student’s academic progress, including the courses taken, any remediation or credit recovery, and any concurrent enrollment credit earned;

3) The student’s experiences in contextual and service learning;

4) The student’s college applications and resume, as they are prepared and submitted; and

5) The student’s postsecondary studies as the student progresses.

The CDE then set forth the guidelines that would be implemented by school districts.

Preparing students to succeed

Locally, ICAPs were a response to local needs in the workforce. Nationally, education rhetoric also turned to work and careers. The U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top $4 billion program put in place by the Obama Administration in 2009 also focused on the workforce and securing America’s place in the world.

The program allocated funds to states that fulfilled certain criteria including, “Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy.”

Although Colorado failed to win any funds in both Phase I and Phase II of the competition, it began implementing reforms based on Race to the Top mandates and eventually won a small amount in Phase III. This was back in 2011.

Career plans in middle school

In DPS schools, students currently begin creating their Individual Career and Academic Plans in middle school. Largely administered by counselors, ICAPS are a combination of online surveys and counselor-led lessons.

Students do an online Holland Career Type survey, which categorizes people into six “types”: realistic, conventional, enterprising, social, artistic and investigative. Based on your personality type, Holland matches you with possible careers. The idea is to match personality types with potential work environments. This is followed by in-class discussions.

“The idea is to give middle school kids exposure to the simple idea of differentiation, that we all have strengths and differences,” says Becky Swenson, counselor at McAuliffe International School. “It leads to real life, deep conversations. It’s empowering information for them.”

ICAPS in high school

Although ICAPs are now a graduation requirement, they are not new to Denver public high schools. Samantha Haviland, DPS director of counseling support services, explained that the district was using ICAPs before they were mandated by the state. From freshman to senior year, students fulfill some part of the curriculum to help prepare them for post-secondary life.

When I spoke with East High School counselor Lindsey Vesceri, 9th grade academy students had just completed the “Interest Profiler.” She added that eventually, students would work on budgeting, résumé writing, and drafting a college essay in addition to exploring possible career paths.

Starting in elementary

DPS is planning to incorporate ICAPS into the elementary curriculum, from grades 1st to 5th. As students begin their scholastic journey, they will also be introduced to career exploration, creating goals and thinking about academics.

In 5th grade, Haviland noted that students would be introduced to the concept of financial aid, “so that all kids can feel that if they want to go to college there is a way to afford it.”

Storing the data

At the high school level, DPS uses the Naviance software program as a platform to store the data from ICAPs. The middle school information – surveys and career matches – is stored on CollegeInColorado. Information does not roll over from one system to the other. CIC is hosted by the Colorado Department of Higher Education, while Naviance is a private company.

Within high schools, Naviance has become an important tool beyond ICAPs. Vesceri explained that counselors use it to send transcripts and letters of recommendation to a student’s chosen schools.

According to Haviland, the district will be moving to using Naviance exclusively. Thus all the data will be stored on one system.

I asked Haviland if Naviance, which is owned by the technology company Hobsons, could share any of the data with a third party. Her answer: “None, absolutely no one.” She added that DPS is really careful to safeguard students’ privacy. There is clearly a protocol in place to ensure that counselors are only releasing specific information to colleges after students have signed a FERPA waiver and made a written request.

Haviland specifically noted that, “The focus is on development, not tracking kids, so that students can make more informed decisions.”

Indeed, from the Colorado Department of Education down to individual counselors, everyone I spoke to about ICAPs emphasized that the focus was students exploring different avenues, understanding potential choices, and aligning course work with ones college and career goals. And everyone also noted that these could change several times between middle and high school.

The resources available on both CollegeInColorado and Naviance are plentiful, guiding students and families from potential career choices to the multitude of colleges and opportunities for financial aid. Well-used, these are tools that help all those involved navigate difficult and complex choices.

The million dollar question

There is nonetheless a fine line between showing students their choices and ensuring that students are not tracked or pushed in certain directions, even in subtle ways.

For example, the order in which one’s “matched careers” appears on the screen may influence one’s choice.

Another case in point, the CollegeInColorado’s “Browse Careers” screen is divided into two sections, “Careers with Videos” (which feature a video detailing specific jobs) and “Military Careers.” However, the jobs listed under the latter are not military-specific. For example, one can find accountant, biologist dentist, and interpreter, under “Military Careers.” Perhaps this is a way of showing the array of possibilities within this sector. But then why not also show “Private Sector Career” and “Non-profit Sector Careers,” etc.? Be it obvious or subliminal, the screen display carries a message.

Additionally, there is a push both nationally and at the state level to align educational data (from kindergarten to post-secondary) to workforce data. The million-dollar question, of course, is how will that data be used and, by whom will it be used, once it is aligned?

Even if personal student data is kept private in the future, is there a danger that larger patterns could be analyzed and then used to create new screens that would influence some in certain directions? For those who doubt that we can be influenced by what appears on our screens, just count the number of people you know who have wandered the streets searching for a Pokemon!

It is empowering to give our children the tools that will help them solve the many puzzles thrown at them, that will help them chose and afford college or that will show them the range of possibilities open to them.

But let us not forget that education is not only a means to an end. It is the opening of ones mind to the joy of learning and discovery. For that spark can also guide one a long way.

Lynn Kalinauskas is the Education Chair for Greater Park Hill Community, Inc.