Schools Plan for Universal Access
OPT schools have spent the past six months developing a course of study called the College and Career Navigation Course (CCNC), which will be implemented in the 2024-25 school year for students in grade 9. As part of a general education experience, career awareness will be a key element of the CCNC curriculum. Schools have developed the CCNC in partnership with a cross-discipline group of education professionals, including advisors, teachers, administrators, coordinators of work-based learning programs, community relations specialists, and postsecondary access and success professionals.
As they move to grades 10 and 11, students in OPT schools will enroll in dual enrollment courses and increase their participation in work-based learning programs such as internships, job shadows, and other activities through which they have opportunities to learn about careers and experience workplaces firsthand. Through OPT, schools will intentionally and actively plan for all students to engage in those three supports and explore how they work together to help students plan for the future and succeed in post-high-school work and learning. We hope to see an increase in students’ awareness of career and education options, improved articulated plans for how students achieve their education and career goals, and accelerated transitions to and through postsecondary life.
For students who are members of populations that have faced barriers that limit their access to college and career navigation supports, dual enrollment courses, and work-based learning programs in the past, OPT schools will add tiered interventions utilizing enhanced communication tools and community-based supports to ensure that students are engaging in all three elements of OPT programs. Just as students who struggle with math or English classes receive extra support, students who have difficulty accessing and/or participating in postsecondary transition activities will benefit from targeted support.
JFF and Colorado Succeeds are developing tools and resources, including a community asset map and an OPT action plan, that OPT schools can use to develop a continuum of comprehensive services that can be mobilized to increase student engagement with and persistence in the promising components of the OPT model.