Develop College Readiness

Learning Plans for Students

Rationale
According to the research, the learning plan plays a key role in advising components
of a student education, and helps secondary students better focus their coursework
on individual goals as they prepare for postsecondary studies and careers. The
learning plan can also be implemented as a tool to monitor student progress, while
informing students, counselors, teachers and parents on progress towards college
readiness. Students who receive the learning plan will have a customized plan and
support system to serve as a guide as they navigate through their educational
experience in the high schools and postsecondary institutions. So, the school
counselors should develop learning plan for students that is designed to serve as a
student’s personal guide to help them set leaning goals based on academic and
career interest and become good students. This education-career learning planning
should be started early, at the middle-school level (8th and 9th grade) and act as a
continuous diagnostic guide.

Source
Adelman, C. (2006). The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to degree Completion from
High School Though College. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of
Education.
Early College High School (2009). Individual Learning Plans. Retrieved from
http://www.earlycollege.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1218997
530801
Reid, M.J., & Moore III, J.L. (2008). College readiness and academic preparation for
postsecondary education: Oral histories of first-generation urban college students.
Urban Education , 43 (2), 240-261.

Trusty, J. (2004). Effects of students’ middle-school and high-school

experiences on completion of the bachelor’s degree [Monograph]. Center for
School Counseling Outcome Research, 1, 1-46.
Operations
Based on Trusty’s (2004) findings, the following are best practices and
suggestions for professional school counselors in helping students in their long-
term educational development:

1. Develop and use an effective system for individual education-career

planning.
2. Help every student develop an appropriate, written (electronic or printed)
education-career plan. In schools where student-to-counselor ratios are
high, use guidance as a format for developing plans.
3. Pay particular attention to students’ long-term education-career goals and
the degree of consistency between goals and academic effort.
4. Inform students of various postsecondary education-career options; and
when appropriate, help students develop back-up plans (alternative
plans).
5. Include parent and teacher input into education-career planning.
6. Use students’ education-career plans as a means for helping them
become involved in rewarding extracurricular activities.

Using Carnegie Units a minimum accumulation for a high school senior

(between grades 9 and 12) (Adelman, 2006):

• 3.75 or more Carnegie units of English;

• 3.75 or more Carnegie units of mathematics;
• highest mathematics of either calculus, precalculus, or trigonometry;
• 2.5 or more Carnegie units of science or more than 2.0 Carnegie units of
core
• laboratory science (biology, chemistry, and physics);
• more than 2.0 Carnegie units of foreign languages;
• more than 2.0 Carnegie units of history and/or social studies;
• more than 1 Advanced Placement course; and
• no remedial English; no remedial mathematics.