Postsecondary Planning Milestones Toolkit (2020-21)

Working alongside schools and K-16 leaders to support postsecondary access and success for every NYC public school student.

the postsecondary planning
journey begins!

We believe that preparing students for their postsecondary transition is part of the basics of a K-12 education and cannot be compromised by a challenging fiscal climate or a pandemic. Easier said than done - there are as many pathways to success as there are students!

Clearly, this is a job for a hero.

This toolkit is designed to be your superpower, as you:

1. Improve access to high quality college and career planning experiences or milestones during the school day (whether in-person, remote or hybrid) aligned with postsecondary access and success, and support equitable outcomes in higher education and workforce representation.

2. Ensure all students are well-equipped to transition into the current higher education and workforce landscape, graduating high school with a strong match postsecondary plan for the future.

how to use this toolkit

We’ve designed the toolkit for your self-guided, on-demand learning.

You can read in sequence to get an overview of the entire postsecondary planning process from exploration to transition, or skip around to the sections pertaining to the students in your current class or caseload. We've included tutorials to cover core content knowledge of the field and technical skills required, and a number of differentiation strategies for English language learners, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.

Student Postsecondary Planning MILESTONES*

EXPLORE

0-16 credits (9th/10th)

PREPARE

16-33 credits (11th)

Explore Career Pathways

Coming Soon

Future Ready Experiences
to Prepare for Your Plan

Know Your Postsecondary Education Options

1-on-1 to Prepare for Your Plan

33+ credits (12th)

Develop a Strong Match Plan

1-on-1 to Support Your Postsecondary Decision

1-on-1 to Support Your Plan and Your Applications

Make Your Postsecondary Decision

TRANSITION

33+ credits (12th)

From Postsecondary Plan
to Pathway

APPLY

DECIDE

*A milestone is an experience relevant to all students pursuing all postsecondary pathways that addresses known barriers to access and success.

POSTSECONDARY PLANNING MILESTONE

Explore Career Pathways

Suggested Cohort:
Grades 9-10/0-16 Credits

Suggested Timeframe:
Ongoing, beginning in the Fall to set the focus for the year’s career exploration efforts

Prerequisite for meaningful participation in
February Career Development Month

Career exploration is the process of

-researching and experiencing the characteristics of various careers and the training/education they require

-developing an awareness of job sector trends and opportunities, and

-aligning the knowledge gathered with one's unique interests, skills, and abilities

to ensure a best-fit future match with a viable career pathway.

ABOUT THIS MILESTONE

MILESTONE: Explore Career Pathways

1. Get to know your caseload by reviewing students’ transcripts and records and talk to students, teachers and/or counselors.

2. Situate career exploration in real-time job sector growth/viability by looking at current trends in the changing landscape.

3.Cultivate student agency and efficacy by encouraging engagement in career exploration with peers and/or families.

4. Introduce the “soft skills” of career readiness such as collaboration, problem solving, social awareness, personal mindset.

High Impact Practices for this milestone

5.Build awareness of workplace norms so students understand how to engage effectively in different workplace/career settings.

6. Leverage relationships with community organizations, vendors, partners, and family to provide meaningful experiences aligned with individual career interests (e.g., workplace tours, informational interviews, guest speaker events, etc.).

7. Document students’ career exploration activities and experiences in STARS as part of your strategy to monitor the progress of each cohort’s postsecondary planning and ensure equitable access for all students.

*High Impact Practices are best practices for individualized supports for students’ career exploration process. We’ve gathered these from our work with schools across the city. Which of these is currently part of your own practice? For which students?

MILESTONE: Explore Career Pathways

a. Consider how you will differentiate postsecondary planning support for students. Collaborate with your school’s Transition Coordinator and ELL teacher to ensure postsecondary advisement programming is responsive to the needs of Multilingual Learners and Students with Disabilities.

Suggested Activities & Counseling Resources

MILESTONE: Explore Career Pathways

Use the suggested activities and resources on the pages that follow for a step-by-step approach toward integration of these practices into your school program.

Step 1

b. Use the Career Exploration Lesson Plans, Learning about Work: Exploring Your Career Interests, or mynextmove.org to engage students in career inventories and personal assessments that will help them identify potential career interests and emerging skills and abilities and provide you with relevant info for career exploration guidance.

C.Engage students in a discussion of their career assessments.

d. Explore Career Clusters (based on students’ inventories) to highlight various aspects of a career, including job opportunities, courses of study, skills training, etc. so students are aware of myriad opportunities within one career area.

Suggested Activities & Counseling Resources

MILESTONE: Explore Career Pathways

Step 2

a. Guide students through Exploring Careers through Virtual Tours.

b. Introduce soft skills and Workplace Norms

C. Consider hosting industry/career panels with guest speakers representing 2-3 job sectors with future growth potential in NYC.