Personalizing and Guiding College & Career Readiness

Personalizing and Guiding College & Career Readiness
Originally published May 2014, updated and re-released Summer 2015
Authored by Mary Ryerse, Carri Schneider & Tom Vander Ark
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In partnership with: Digital Learning Now, Foundation for Excellence in Education

This paper is one of nine in the DLN Smart Series – a collection of interactive papers that provides specific guidance regarding the adoption of higher standards and quality assessments focusing on the shift to personal digital learning.

Implementing higher and more clear expectations in core subjects is a big step forward for education, but it will require more robust guidance and support services. There is an emerging opportunity to customize and better support individual students success:

• Motivation– building sustained relationships with students, exploring areas of interest and related careers, addressing barriers to school attendance
• Customization – helping students set short and long term goals, track progress, and experience success in class, in job settings, and in community services
• Equalization – broadening exposure to college and career options, providing high touch/high tech decision support for postsecondary planning for all students

This Smart Series paper offers details on processes, existing tools and current examples of best practices for creating a next-generation system of student guidance and support. The authors describe the opportunities and challenges, and explain how more robust guidance systems can play a critical role in tracking progress, boosting college and career readiness, and empowering better choices.

With rapidly expanding online choices, better guidance systems will be critical to ensuring that self-blends and customized pathways add up to better preparation—a key to equity and excellence, and a necessity if we are to graduate a new generation of students equipped to thrive in college and career.

Download “Personalizing and Guiding College & Career Readiness“