Grant Helps Career-Connected High Schools See Early Success

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction was awarded a multiyear grant from the U.S. Department of Education as part of its Career Pathways initiative, Unlocking Career Success, in January 2024 and, since then, grant coordinators have started to see some success.

Wisconsin’s grant project, titled Unlocking Pathways Wisconsin, supports 17 pilot schools matched with 17 mentor schools (see table below) that enables them to “unlock” the state’s existing programs, resources, and partnerships connected to the Academic and Career Planning (ACP) program and the Regional Career Pathways (RCP) approach to prepare their students to move into a career of their choice—whether that career takes them through college, the military, or directly into the workforce. The pilot schools were chosen because they are rural or have a high percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students (or both).

The goal of the grant work is for the under-resourced pilot schools to build with the objective of increasing the proportion of their students who graduate with these four keys that will unlock their career success:

• Key 1: Career Advising Navigation
• Key 2: Dual Enrollment
• Key 3: Work-Based Learning
• Key 4: Workforce Credentials

“We’re really working to identify a capacity-building model that schools throughout Wisconsin that are small, rural, and have a high percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students can replicate,” says Beth Kaminski, State Director of Regional Career Pathways and coordinator on the grant.

Early Successes

Luck High School implemented an advisory homeroom structure. “This has helped with connections, accountability, and school culture.”

Boscobel High School has also developed an advisor/advisory program for next year, and Lincoln is implementing 9^th grade individual conferences for the first time in 12 years and are incorporating more ACP and career-readiness work in core areas.

North Crawford High School has significantly changed how they meet their students’ career-readiness needs. “With this grant, we have taken a much more team-centered approach to helping students align their academic and career plans for the future. Until this grant, we never had a formal ACP time.” Today, they are digging deeper into Xello for the data they can get and the lessons they are asking their students, grades 6-12, to work through twice a month.

Beloit Memorial High School is revamping their pathway presentation and course selection process with students. They are working toward more “student-centered” pathway courses. North Crawford is also “taking the time to evaluate our class offerings to provide as many pathways for students as possible.”

Some pilot schools have been able to increase their career and technical education (CTE) offerings. For example, Winter High School has increased the number of students taking Early College Credit, and Boscobel is now offering two new industry-recognized credentials. Ashland reports that they have increased dual-credit courses in agriculture and at least two dual-credit courses through Chippewa Valley Technical College. Gresham shared that they have gone from one student in Youth Apprenticeship to two Youth Apprenticeships and seven internships. When your high school population is only 87, that’s a big deal. Bayfield is also reporting some success in expanding its work-based learning opportunities.

Finally, Ashland has created a Welding Academy, one of only three in the state. Suring has made progress on understanding how to report WISEdata correctly in relation to CTE courses, and Hamilton, with help from mentor school Case High School in Racine, held its first-ever career day for it 10^th grade students.

The mentor schools have leaned into supporting their respective pilot schools—from meetings between the two and discussing possible IRCs, dual-credit offerings, and work-based learning options to sharing lessons, strategies, and resources to help pilot schools build out their programs.

“It is so encouraging and exciting!” adds State Director Kaminski.

Photo by Guille Álvarez on Unsplash