Family & Community Students & Families SSCE
College and Career Readiness

Additional College and Career Readiness Supports and Initiatives

EarlyCollege Designs
Early College Designs includes a number of collaborative initiatives to encourage simultaneous enrollment in post-secondary and secondary education through initiatives such as the Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Program, Early College High Schools, the Gateway to College program, concurrent enrollment and individual district-higher education articulation agreements. The effort also includes support of STEM Early College High Schools funded from the Massachusetts Race to the Top (RTTT) federal grant award.

Your Plan for College
YourPlanForCollege (YPFC) is an initiative of MEFA (the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

YourPlanForCollege allows students to create a secure personal portfolio, search for college and career information, apply to colleges and universities online and have a solid college and career plan. If you are interested in getting your school or student involved please visit YourPlanForCollege.org

MCAS, Educational Proficiency Plan and the Competency Determination
Students in the class of 2010 and beyond now need to either reach proficiency, or demonstrate through an Educational Proficiency Plan (EPP) that they have taken steps to get there, before earning their Competency Determination (CD) required for high school graduation.

On-Line Courses and Modules
In 2010 and 2011, ESE awarded federal technology grants for projects that work collaboratively with the Department to create, implement, and evaluate online courses/modules for underserved high school students in alternative education, credit recovery, or credit acceleration programs. The Department is currently in the process of collecting all of their final products (courses, modules, etc.) on to our MassONE Moodle server.

Alternative Education Pathways
Alternative Education is an instructional approach under the control of a school committee that is offered to "at-risk" students in a nontraditional setting. "At-risk" students may include those who are pregnant/parenting teens, truant students, and suspended or expelled students, returned dropouts, delinquent youth, or other students who are not meeting local promotional requirements.

Pre-AP
The intent of this Race To The Top project is to provide training and technical assistance for middle and high school teacher teams, thus promoting equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) and other college level coursework for all students and increasing the number of high school graduates prepared to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing coursework in college.

This pre-AP teacher training is high quality professional development designed to assist vertical teams of teachers in developing curricula, instruction, and performance expectations that prepare students for AP coursework. Vertical teams of teachers in a content area will have the ability to vertically align curriculum, and create more rigorous, standards-based curriculum.

Career Vocational and Technical Education (CVTE)
The Office for Career/Vocational Technical Education administers Commonwealth of Massachusetts' General Law (M.G.L.) Chapter 74 governing vocational technical education programs in public school districts. The Office also administers the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 P.L. 109-270 (Perkins IV), and the federal Guidelines for Eliminating Discrimination and Denial of Services on the Basis of Race, Color, National Origin, Sex, and Handicap in Vocational Education Programs 34 CFR, Part 100, Appendix B (Civil Rights Guidelines).

Dropout Reduction/Prevention
Dropout reduction and prevention involves Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery. The Department recognizes that dropout reduction is not about one single program or initiative. Dropout reduction is very complex and does not lend itself to easy or quick fixes. Effective dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery must be seen as an adaptable and ongoing process. Significantly reducing the number of students who drop out of school takes a combination of systemic efforts at the community, district, school, classroom, and individual student levels.