Individualized Learning Plans as a Promising Practice

• In Event: Translating Career Development Policy Into School Practice: National Perspective on Using Individualized Learning Plans

Abstract

Perspective & Significance
Calls from various organizations and school reform strategists to personalize and make relevant the high school experience has resulted in over 20 states enacting state policies to ensure all students create individualized learning plans (ILPs; i.e., personal learning plans). The goal of these plans is to help students make better use of their high school experiences by creating course plans that align with future career goals and increasing standards for graduation. As a component of recent calls to prepare all high school students to be college and career ready, ILPs have been a potential bridge that supports youth in seeking more challenging academic courses because the perceive the relevance between their coursework and being able to enter the post-secondary training and education pathways needed to realize their career goals.

Purpose
This presentation summarizes what has been learned from a national study of ILPs that has been sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Methods
A range of methods have been used throughout the three years including quantitative and qualitative surveys, individual interviews, policy analysis, and focus groups.

Findings
Results include:

• Analysis of 52 focus groups conducted separately with parents, teachers, and students indicated strong positive sentiment for the use of ILPs and credited their use with student’s selecting more rigorous course schedules and parents feeling stronger connections with the school and their children.
• In response to open-ended survey responses that were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, 60% of our sample (n = 1650) were deemed foreclosed in their career decision-making as indicated by being unable to describe any details their stated career interest nor the educational pathways needed to pursue the career.
• The 40% of the students responding to the open-ended survey who were classified as career decided or actively exploring reported to have been more engaged in ILPs that students classified as foreclosed.
• Using path analytic methods, students reporting more engagement in ILPs contributed indirectly to college and career readiness indicators (GPA, Career Decision-Making Readiness, and Distress) through its direct effect on goal setting, academic motivation, and academic self-efficacy, respectively.
• While multivariate analysis of variance indicated that students with and without disabilities reported similar levels of ILP engagement, path analytic methods found that engaging in ILPs did not lead to college and career readiness for students with disabilities.
• Using path analytic methods, exposure to quality learning environments that include engagement in ILPs were found to influence a number of social/emotional skills (i.e., resilience, developmental assets, self-determination) such as goal setting, career and academic self-efficacy and academic motivation which lead in turn to a number of college and career readiness indicators (GPA [students with and without disability], Distress [students with and without disability], and career decision-making readiness [students without disability only].
• Using grounded theory methods, analysis of interviews with students with disabilities yielded an array of influences and factors that contributed to their career decision-making processes.

Author

• V. Scott H. Solberg, Boston University