Academic and Career Planning

Throughout the school day, students are supported to think about how their experiences help them to grow and get closer to who and what they want to be. This is the Academic and Career Planning (ACP) Process.

MMSD is implementing Academic and Career Planning (ACP)  in grades 6-12. Check out this document to learn more about what students are working on at each grade level.

Why ACP?

The Madison Metropolitan School District has a goal for all our students to graduate with the skills and abilities to be successful in college, career and community. This goal was developed with feedback from more than 2500 students, teachers and community members. You can see these skills above in what we call the MMSD Graduate Vision. Teachers support student development of Graduate Vision skills as part of the Academic and Career Planning process.

Through Academic & Career Planning students are beginning to answer these questions:

• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• How will I get there?
• Who are we together?

Portfolios and Portfolio Presentations

Two tools that help students to answer how they have grown and what they have learned about themselves are the Portfolio and the Portfolio Presentation.

A Portfolio is a place where students put pieces of work they are proud of and reflect on assignments that have helped them to grow or learn about themselves.

Students will be putting assignments like resumes, personal statements, post high school plans, and career reflections in their portfolios.

A Portfolio Presentation is an end-of-the-year event where students pick key items from their portfolio to share the story of their growth with an adult or older student.  Madison schools recruit volunteers to interview students, and gives them the chance to showcase all they learned about themselves over the school year.

Families Matter in ACP!

We know that families have hopes and dreams for their children. Academic and Career Planning  helps family members learn and support the interests and dreams of their children as they continue to develop. Family support is one of the critical ways that young people see themselves in the world. We want families to know they matter in the ACP process. Check out this link for more family resources.

What is the community’s role in the ACP process?

From both a financial and staff perspective, it will be important to connect to other providers outside of school to ensure access to expertise and services that cannot be provided by the school alone. From occupational expertise; teacher externship opportunities; job-shadow, work-based learning, service learning and volunteer experiences; dual credit articulations; intensive social interventions; and career development support from workforce development and economic development groups, the district ACP team should leverage common goals and partnerships. Interested in providing some experiences to our students? Click here to learn more.