6 Pillars of Successful Pathway Design for High Schools

Many states, regions, districts, and schools are moving toward career clusters and pathways within the high school course catalog, and it requires a strategic approach. Pathways, also called academies, are important for a number of reasons, including setting students up for success with their postsecondary goals. The problem is that pathways alone aren’t the answer to a more successful high school experience; simply offering a sequence of courses for students to take without thoughtful implementation and design doesn’t make the intended difference for graduates. 

On the other hand, setting a vision for a new way in which all students create four-year academic plans that include at least one career cluster can transform their high school experience as well as their opportunities thereafter. The following six pillars are meant to guide school leaders who are working to make these changes and chart a new course toward better outcomes for students. 

Pathway Courses

The first pillar in the successful creation of a pathway design are the specific pathway courses and the number of required credits to complete a pathway. We suggest a sequence of four courses with available options for students as they progress toward pathway completion. Some pathways will inevitably be very strict because of their required courses that are based on state level frameworks or programs of study. Other pathways can be flexible with a collection of courses from the high school catalog that are bundled in a meaningful way. 

For the first example, we might think about an engineering program that’s mapped to a state career and technical education (CTE) program. For the second example, we might build an economics and social sciences pathway that includes AP Micro- and Macro-economics, AP Human Geography, and AP Literature. These courses are likely already offered individually, but when they’re all four packaged together on the transcript, they meet the criteria for a pathway. This means that pathway creation can include CTE and non-CTE sequences.   

Accelerated Learning

Many high schools still offer the same courses for all students by grade-band. For example, all students might take English 9 because that’s the required English course in ninth grade. Some schools have moved to block scheduling and numbered courses, such as English I, which allows students to take multiple English courses in one year. This provides an opportunity for students to accelerate their learning and take more than four English courses, for example. 

Taking this a step further, some schools and districts have included upward toward 20 options in science courses, as an example of one content area. Imagine offering Biology I and II, Chemistry I and II, Earth and Space Science I and II, AP Physics I and II, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, and more. Doing so, differentiates the way a student experiences science and the sequence in which they take their courses. If four sciences are required for graduation, any number of students might have completely different transcripts based on the courses they chose to take. This means that students can accelerate their learning to gain access to upper level courses, and it lends itself to a “science pathway” if we stack a series of science courses together when building a student’s four-year academic plan. 

Advanced Coursework 

It’s beneficial for all students to have access to advanced courses such as AP, IB, and those that include college credit. When building pathways, it’s important to consider that one or more of the pathway courses is an advanced option. This can be done in a number of ways. In CTE pathways, the upper level courses are often associated with a credential or a course that’s offered at a local community college. In non-CTE pathways, sequencing can ramp up to an AP or IB course or a course that has an articulated agreement with an institute of higher education. In some cases, the culminating course for a pathway is an honors course with a weighted GPA. 

The point is that pathways should include a way for students to experience advanced courses that can prepare them for college and/or careers that are linked to their career cluster, and they’re often an easier “sell” than upper level academic courses in the core content because they’re typically taken based on students’ passions and interests. 

Liberal Arts Electives 

Just because pathways are specific to a career area doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t also provide students with breadth. When building pathways, educators should consider the number of targeted credits that students will earn and how many of those credits should be elective courses. Beyond world languages, which many schools, districts, and states have specified requirements for graduation, students should have access to a host of elective courses to take. 

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For example, students in a non-music specific pathway might take a music elective. One reason to add these electives to the academic plan is to allow students to pick courses that they might find fun; another reason is because broadly designed elective courses do well on the transcript when applying to college. When every engineering students’ transcript looks similar in an elite university’s admissions office, a drawing and painting class can be a distinguishing feature for a prospective student. Electives can make the difference for whether or not a student gets into their first choice school. 

Work-Based Learning

We like to see work-based learning (WBL) on a continuum, starting with exploration as early as kindergarten. That said, admissions officials and those who are hiring students right out of high school generally like to see work experiences as part of the student profile. WBL can be incorporated into and related to a student’s pathway. These can be paid or unpaid experiences and include internships as well as service learning. When building pathways, it’s critical to start with the end in mind. If we want all students to have a WBL immersion experience in their senior year, we need to define what that looks like and the number of hours necessary to earn credit.

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If we’re starting our pathways with 9th graders, we can use the first 2-3 years of their course work to build a bank of industry partners for when they matriculate into their senior year. These industry partners can help with curriculum choices as they serve on advisory boards for all of the pathways. This creates a bridge between the school and local businesses who will be preparing for students to do their WBL experience when the time comes. 

Capstone Projects 

It’s best practice with pathways for students to have a capstone project in the final course within the pathway sequence. The capstone can be a presentation of the portfolio they created throughout their experience in the pathway, including goals that they set, journal entries, multi-media representation of their work over time, projects they did, and problems they solved. Students who experience an internship can demonstrate what they did during the internship and reflect on their next steps after graduation. 

Capstone projects should point at the past, show growth over time, and incorporate a postsecondary plan so that students are reflecting on their learning journey and making connections between their acquired skills and knowledge and how to use them to shape their future. Great capstones are simply a showcase of what students know, who they’ve become, and where they want to go. 

Conclusion

Building high school pathways can be daunting, but they revolutionize student engagement in high school and their postsecondary outcomes thereafter. It’s imperative that school leaders who are building pathways start with a vision for what students will get from each pathway and how the pathways help students to reach for their dreams. 

If you’re on a journey to build pathways or need help supporting them, please reach out for a free consultation with one of our pathway experts today. Schedule time here.