Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 52, December 27, 2024
A school district that implements the Endorsement must submit
an application, if applicable, and an Endorsement plan to the State Board via
an online portal. The application and plan must be submitted no later than
December 15 of the school year the district intends to award the Endorsement.
Plans will be reviewed for compliance with the Act, the School Code, and the
requirements of this Section. The State Board will notify the district of its
approval status no later than February 28 of the submitted school year. The
Endorsement plan must include the requirements outlined in this Section.
a) The school district must demonstrate that
the Endorsement is aligned with a specific career pathway. A school district
may offer multiple routes toward an Endorsement within each career pathway if
each route meets the requirements in this Section.
b)
To earn a College and Career
Pathway Endorsement, a student shall develop and periodically update an
individualized plan for postsecondary education or training, careers, and
financial aid (Section 80(d)(1) of the Act). The school district must:
1) outline how students will be supported
with comprehensive postsecondary and career planning;
2) develop a method to collect and store the
student's information regarding the individual plan; and
3) identify the various roles that are
responsible for work in the following areas:
A) career exploration and
development;
B) postsecondary
education exploration, preparation, and selection; and
C) financial aid and literacy.
c) The school district
must broadly describe the labor market or workforce needs in the career pathway
in which an Endorsement is sought.
d) The plan must be aligned with coursework
in the career pathway that is offered in one or more postsecondary institutions
in the region and the school district must list the postsecondary partner
institutions. The school district must provide the credentials that will result
from the partnerships. Eligible credentials include a bachelor's degree,
associate degree, apprenticeship, college certificate, or a combination of an
industry credential and a postsecondary credentials.
e)
To earn a College and Career
Pathway Endorsement, a student shall complete a career-focused instructional
sequence (Section 80(d)(2) of the Act).
1) The school district must develop an
instructional sequence that is a minimum of two years (or the equivalent of
four semesters) of courses, some of which must yield an opportunity to earn
early college credit equivalent to a minimum of six college credit
hours.
2) A course is required to
be aligned to a specific career pathway to be included in an instructional
sequence.
3) The plan must include
the following information about the instructional sequence:
B) The Student Information System State
course code for each course.
C)
Each course's duration.
D) Each
course's number of credits.
E) The
location of where each course will be delivered (e.g., high school, area career
center, community college, or virtual).
F) If completion of the course will result in
early college credit and the type of credit (e.g., Advanced Placement,
Articulated Credit, Dual Credit, Dual Enrollment, or International
Baccalaureate).
G) Explanation as
to how each course will teach students skills or content that are needed to be
successful in the career pathway.
H) Explanation as to how each course will
help students learn relevant technical and essential employability competencies
and how it will help the student determine if the work aligns with the
student's interests.
4)
The school district may offer multiple instructional sequences.
f)
To earn a College and
Career Pathway Endorsement, a student shall demonstrate readiness for
non-remedial coursework in reading and mathematics by high school
graduation (Section 80(d)(4) of the Act).
1) The school district's plan must offer
early college credit courses aligned with the academic components of the
Illinois College and Career Readiness Indicators, located at
https://www.isbe.net/accountabilityindicators.
The school district must certify that each student earning an Endorsement has
met at least one English Language Arts indicator and one Mathematics
indicator.
2) The plan may also
allow students to demonstrate academic readiness by successfully completing
transitional instruction coursework or other readiness measures identified by
the partnering postsecondary institution (e.g., SAT score, grade point average
threshold, or specific passing grades in English or Mathematics
courses).
g)
To
earn a College and Career Pathway Endorsement, a student shall complete a
minimum of 2 Career Exploration Activities or one Intensive Career Exploration
Experience, a minimum of 2 Team-based Challenges, and at least 60 cumulative
hours of participation in one or more Supervised Career Development
Experiences (Section 80(d)(3) of the Act).
1) The plan must demonstrate that students
will complete a continuum of work-based learning that includes career
awareness, career exploration, team-based challenges, and career development
experiences.
2) Activities taking
place in grades 6 through 12 may be included as a career exploration activity,
with at least one activity taking place within grades 9 through 12.
3) Team-based challenges may be incorporated
into the instructional sequence or designated as a separate activity.
Team-based challenges must include the following components:
A) An authentic problem or challenge that is
identified from or in collaboration with a community or business
partner.
B) Meaningful interaction
with an adult mentor who has career expertise relating to a Team-based
challenge and who is not an assigned classroom teacher.
C) Demonstration of at least one career
pathway-specific technical competency.
D) Demonstration of at least one cross-sector
essential employability competency skill.
E) Collaboration by students within a group
to solve a problem.
F) A final
product or presentation.
4) A supervised career development experience
must include the following:
A) A course
transcription and corresponding school credit for the experience or
compensation of the student's work hours for the career development experience,
or both.
B) A workplace with
authentic working conditions and tasks that include, but are not limited to,
timekeeping, evaluation of work, responsibility to adhere to safety protocols,
or adherence to the standard operating procedures of the organization. The
workplace experience must reinforce the relevant technical and essential
employability competencies.
C)
Collaboration between the school district and the community or business
partners in developing and monitoring the experiences.
D) Feedback given to the student.
E) At least 60 hours of participation
completed by the student through a single experience or across two experiences;
however, no individual experience may be less than 20 hours.
5) In addition to workplace
settings in business or community partner locations, a supervised career
development experience may include a workplace setting that is:
A) based in the school district if the
setting is authentic and the district employee serving as a supervisor is
fulfilling the role of an industry mentor or supervisor rather than the role of
a classroom teacher; or
B) virtual
if it includes authentic virtual, remote, or hybrid working conditions and a
mentor or supervisor who is an employee of the workplace's
organization.