Using Individualized Learning Plans to Maximize College and Career Readiness Efforts

1
Using Individualized Learning Plans to Maximize
College and Career Readiness Efforts

• V. Scott Solberg, PhD
• National Collaborative on Workforce Disability
  for Youth
• School of Education, Boston University

2
Who We Are

• National Collaborative on Workforce Disability
  for Youth
• A national technical assistance center
• Focus on needs of ALL youth, including youth with
  disabilities and other disconnected youth to
• Improve state and local policy
• Strengthen workforce development service delivery
• Improve competencies of youth service
  professionals
• Engage youth and families
• Supported by Office of Disability Employment
  Policy, U.S. Department of Labor

3
Research Partners
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Questions Guiding Our ILP Research

• Should ILPs be considered a promising practice
  for developing college and career readiness?
• Are students with disabilities participating in
  ILPs?
• Should ILPs be considered a promising practice
  for college and career readiness among students
  with disabilities

5
Research Strategies

• Range of mixed methods strategies to identify
  college and career readiness pathways
• Interviews with students to identify career
  readiness processes
• Established a study group of schools in four
  states educators, families and students
  participated in surveys and focus groups
• 50-state web review of ILP purposes and
  implementation strategies
• In-depth conversations with select state and
  district/school officials

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History of ILPs

• Individualized Education Plans
• Personalized learning and school engagement
• ASCA national model
• Career and Tech Education
• Changing graduation requirements
• College and career readiness initiative

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What is a Quality ILP?

•  
• A document consisting of a students (a) course
  taking and post-secondary plans aligned to career
  goals and (b) documentation of the range of
  college and career readiness skills he/she has
  developed. 
• A process that relies on a students
  understanding of the relevance of school courses
  as well as out-of-school learning opportunities
  and provides the student access to career
  development opportunities that incorporate
  self-exploration, career exploration, and career
  planning and management activities.

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Individual Learning Plan (ILP) Components
1.
3.
2.
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(No Transcript)
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Career Exploration

Active Disengaged
Disabilities 40 60
Without Disabilities 40 60
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Disengaged Students Reported Lower Social
Emotional Learning Skills

• Lower academic self-efficacy
• Lower career decision-making readiness
• Increased psychological/emotional distress
• Increased academic stress
• Lower motivation to attend school

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Active Career Development Characteristics

• Youth who are able to
• Identify one or more careers of interest
• Clearly describe plans to pursue the careers of
  interest
• Connect career plans to personal interests,
  skills and values
• Identify how current courses relate to career
  plan
• Articulate skill and entry requirements for their
  careers
• Engage in additional learning opportunities
• Describe their needed skills future development
  plan

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Final Model General Sample
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Engaging in ILPs
General Sample GPA (std. est. .027, p lt
.001). Career decision-making readiness (std.
est. .011, p lt .000). Distress (std. est.
-.012, p. lt .000)
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Misti Ruthven

• Postsecondary Education and Success Manager,
  Colorado Department of Education
• Ruthven_M_at_cde.state.co.us

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• Effective Planning and Implementation
• Resources
• Tools
• Monitoring
• Professional Development
• State Guidance

• Partnerships
• CDE, CDHE, CIC, CCCS
• ICAP Tutorials
• CE Advisory Board
• Endorsed Diplomas
• Remediation Taskforce
• College Admission
• Data Sharing
• Early College Design

• Innovations and Individualized Learning
• ICAP implementation
• Expanded Learning Opportunities
• ASCENT
• Academic Guidance
• Career Exploration

Career College Readiness

• College and Career Preparation
• Concurrent Enrollment (CE)
• Career and Technical Education
• Colorado Standards
• 21st Century Skills

• Legislation
• CAP4Kids
• Accountability Act of 2009
• Educator Effectiveness
• School Counselor Corps Grant
• ICAP
• Concurrent Enrollment (CE) Act
• Early High School Grads
• Dropout Recovery
• Basic Skills Testing

• Tracking Results
• School Counselor Corps Evaluation
• Remediation Rates
• School and District Accreditation
• ICAP Study
• Concurrent Enrollment Reporting

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Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP)

• Decrease the dropout rates and increase
  graduation rates by assisting students in
  developing and maintaining a personalized
  postsecondary plan
• Assist parents and students in exploring the
  postsecondary career and educational
  opportunities available to the student
• Align course work and curriculum to the students
  postsecondary goals
• A way to determine if a student is on-track with
  the planning and preparation and readiness for
  postsecondary education and/or the workforce

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ICAP Data

• 85 of school counselors list ICAP implementation
  as a priority
• Limiting Factors
• Lack of funding
• Turnover in administration
• Lack of administrator support.
• Source Colorado School Counselor Corps

Source Colorado Community College System
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In what grade is your school district
implementing ICAP?
17
18
18
18
11
9
7
0
1
N400
20
Who is mainly responsible for implementing ICAPs
in your setting?
77
2
9
5
2
5
N400
21
In your district, what is your level of ICAP
implementation?
37
46
9
4
4
N400
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How are ICAPs being implemented?
ICAPs are embedded into current classroom and counseling curricula and are referred to on a regular basis. 31 7
ICAPs are being completed through classroom or counseling curricula throughout the school year. 154 35
Students complete their ICAPs in one or two settings, at a computer or with a few handouts. 138 32
Elements of ICAP are being completed, but we could be doing more. 74 17
Students are not completing ICAPs 23 5
N400
23
In what format is your district implementing ICAP?
20
67
25
4
N400
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Mindy Larson

• Senior Program Associate, Center for Workforce
  Development
• Institute for Educational Leadership
• Project Manager, National Collaborative on
  Workforce Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth)

larsonm_at_iel.org
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Emerging Promising Practices

• Begin in middle school and continue through high
  school graduation
• Provide access to online career information
  systems that use an ePortfolio for the ILP
• Emphasize three career development processes
  Self-exploration, Career exploration, and Career
  planning and management skills
• Establish whole school buy in by incorporating
  ILP activities into advisory periods
• Adopt student-led parent-teacher conferences

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State Policy Recommendations

• Est. mandates that start ILPs no later than 6th
  grade
• Est. mandates that all students are to be
  included
• Est. clear expectations that ILPs will be own by
  the whole school and not be segregated to school
  counseling alone
• Est. Task Force of key stakeholder groups
• Est. evaluation systems to determine ROI
• Est. professional development systems

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Resources on ILPs

• Policy Brief Using Individualized Learning
  Plans to Produce College and Career Ready High
  School Graduates http//www.ncwd-youth.info/ilp/p
  roduce-college-and-career-ready-high-school-gradua
  tes
• How-to Guide Promoting Quality Individualized
  Learning Plans A How to Guide Focused on the
  High School Years www.ncwd-youth.info/ilp/how-to-
  guide
• ILP Fact Sheet http//www.ncwd-youth.info/fact-sh
  eet/individualized-learning-plan
• ILP Resources Home Page www.ncwd-youth.info/ilp

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Moving Forward Three Actions to Support ILPs

•  Providing Sustainable Leadership
• Setting Voluntary Standards of Practice and
  Identifying metrics to Measure Results
• Supporting Capacity Development within Multiple
  Institutions

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Setting Voluntary Standards of Practice/Measuring
Results

• Key Strategies Include
• Developing benchmarks to meet the needs of all
  individuals using the ILP System based on the
  specific institutional requirements
• Using these benchmarks as building blocks to
  design specifications for technology platforms
  and monitoring processes

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Supporting Capacity Development in Multiple
Institutions

• Key Strategies Include
• Improving content of career information systems
• Improving staff competencies
• Providing access to evidence-based resources

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Web-based Career Information Systems

• Accessible to all individuals statewide to
  address
• Overall cost containment
• Quality control
• Transferability
• Student ownership of a portable document

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Moving Forward How National Collaborations Can
Help

• Multi-state organizations helped launch ILPs and
  can help move the effort forward.
• The following areas emerged as the most important
  to center collaborative action
• Improving access to and use of technology
• Developing common measures to track return on
  investment (ROI)
• Develop materials and tools to be shared with
  states and localities to provide professional
  development opportunities and use web-based
  resources
• Address the development or upgrading of voluntary
  standards of practice

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States Repurposing Money

• Providing services through content rich
  internet-based platforms
• Building platforms to blend information from
  multiple sources to track people and programs
• Increasing use of evidence-based research to
  drive program design and services
• substantial reliance on a national network of
  non-governmental organizations

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Recommendations for Including Family

• Develop family- friendly ILP communication
  materials
• Provide ideas for how schools can more
  effectively engage families in ILPs
• Direct web-based career information system
  vendors to enable family participation in their
  childs ILP and to allow for parallel ILP
  activities at home
• Use ILP to establish annual student-led
  parent-teacher conferences

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Recommendations for Including Students with
Disabilities

• Establish multidisciplinary task force to design
  accommodations for ILP activities and work-based
  learning opportunities to support students with
  significant disabilities
• Ensure that web based career information systems
  adhere to universal design principles
• Create advocacy policy to ensure all students
  have access to ILPs
• Design and highlight demonstration projects

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V. Scott Solberg, PhD

• National Collaborative on Workforce Disability
  for Youth
• School of Education, Boston University
• ssolberg_at_bu.edu