Making a Four-year Academic Plan
Your student will soon be asked to create a four-year career and academic plan for high school, if it hasn’t already happened. While certain subjects will be required, your student may have options when it comes to individual courses and electives.
Why It Matters
- It’s required.
Iowa legislation requires that all eighth graders have an individual career and academic plan (ICAP) that ensures students meet standards that will prepare them to enter the workforce or an education or training program after high school. To see if your state has a similar requirement, head to your state’s department of education website. - The plan provides a blueprint.
Creating a specific plan based on the offerings at your student’s high school will make it easier to know which classes to enroll in for each new academic term. - Classes build upon one another.
Depending on whether your student has been placed in a specific track for certain subjects and the course options available at the high school, classes taken in eighth and ninth grades can affect whether your student will be able to take corresponding advanced classes in future years. This is important when it comes to your student’s ability to earn college credit as a high school student.
What Your Student Can Do Now
- Understand the options available in high school.
Generally course catalogs are available online or from the high school counseling office. While some offerings may change, a current list of available classes can act as a guide for the sequential nature of classes in the same track and the majority of courses available. The high school counseling office should be able to provide additional guidance as needed. - Think about personal interests.
Many high schools offer a range of classes, including Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses that allow students to earn college credit, career and technical education classes that provide hands-on exposure to skilled trades, fine arts options, and core courses in math, science, language and social studies. Your student should consider possible careers that may be of interest and how best to learn about and prepare to enter those careers through high school coursework. - Plan for contingencies.
While making a four-year plan, your student should consider back-up classes if one or more are not offered at the right time in your student’s high school career. Availability of qualified instructors, student interest, a change in the school’s financial resources, and changing technologies and partnerships can all affect what classes are offered each academic term.
What Your Student Can Do Later
- Continue to explore careers.
As your student experiences different types of potential careers through coursework and experiences outside school, potential career plans can change. Your student should be able to connect the skills and strengths required by different careers and his or her own possibility of being successful in those fields. - Refine the plan.
With changing interests, your student will most likely have some changes to the career and academic plan developed in middle school. Academic success in individual classes may also result in changes as high school progresses. Each term, your student should thoughtfully consider the options available and refine the plan rather than just taking the same classes as friends or signing up for whatever seems easiest. - Consider alternatives.
If your student is interested in earning college credit in high school, exploring a skilled trade or pursuing something else but class options are limited, alternatives may be available. AP tests can be taken after self-study if your student is motivated and capable. Community colleges often offer dual-enrollment classes for high school students that satisfy high school graduation requirements while providing college credit. A sharing agreement with another district may allow your student to take classes at a different high school. The school counseling office is the primary resource for these paths.
What You Can Do
- Discuss your student’s four-year plan.
Encourage your student to share topics of interest and help connect those interests to available classes in high school. How closely does your student’s four-year plan correspond with the things that your student is interested in? Research high school course offerings together and discuss the options. - Clarify information.
Sometimes middle and high school students don’t understand all the information given to them, hesitate to ask questions, or prefer to listen to friends who don’t have all the facts. If your student feels frustrated or says a desired path is not possible, ask questions and encourage further investigation. - Be your student’s advocate.
Your student should lead any discussions with teachers, school counselors and administrators about scheduling conflicts and class availability. However, you can support your student by understanding the options and limitations, researching possibilities and accompanying your student to any meetings with a rational and calm attitude. - Look ahead.
The best preparation comes with setting the goal and planning the steps to reach it. Envisioning your student on graduation day with unlimited opportunities ahead is the culmination of knowledgeable planning during high school, starting now.
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Next Steps
Be sure to complete the survey questions at the end of this article to be entered into the 529 deposit giveaway!
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