Section 258.20  College and Career Pathway Endorsement Plan

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:

A)        Each course's name.

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.