Using Stakeholders as Career Bridges to Advance Students' Academic Performance: How Would You Like Your Stake?.

The New Mexico Next Step Plan, a postsecondary career transition plan for grades 8 through 12, aims to enhance relationships between all educational stakeholders: students, parents/caregivers, community, and administrators. These stakeholder relationships are intended to close the achievement gap among all students, in particular, ethnic youth. Professional school counselors need to lead this charge. Qualitative feedback from a survey and a compliance audit demonstrate how the school counseling curriculum can utilize stakeholders in career development activities to promote students’ academic success. Using Stakeholders 3 Using Stakeholders as Career Bridges to Advance Students’ Academic Performance: How Would You Like Your Stake? In preparation for high school graduation, ethnic youth face factors that either impede or support their completion and postsecondary transitions (Brown & Beckett, 2007). Some of the barriers that impact the 72.6% graduation rate are family income, ethnic minority status, community economic vitality, parental involvement, and school environment (Johnston, 2005; Heyer & Pifel, 2007; Seastrom, Hoffman, Chapman, & Stillwell, 2005; Triozzi, 2005; Valentine, 2005). Methods for professional school counselors to help increase graduation rates for ethnic youth are needed because it is also common for these students to experience developmental complications preventing them from graduating (Campbell & Dahir, 1997; Hipilito-Delgado & Lee, 2007). The New Mexico Next Step Plan (NSP) is a postsecondary career transition mandate that attempts to remove educational barriers by emphasizing relationships between students and their stakeholders: parents/caregivers, school officials, and business and community members. Professional school counselors who acquire the assistance from stakeholders can enhance students’ academic and personal/social needs through culturally appropriate career development experiences. Stakeholders can be especially essential for students-of-color due to the fact that their ethnic identities can negatively impact development, school completion, and future outlook (Gushue & Constantine, 2007; Gerler & Herndon, 1993; Johnson & Kottman, 1992). For these reasons, consultation and collaboration between school counselors and other stakeholders are needed to equip students with skills necessary for successful transitions. The purpose of this Using Stakeholders 4 investigation was to review archival data from a state audit to answer the question: How were educational stakeholders involved in career planning and implementation? In order to answer the question, themes based on stakeholder involvement were developed. This paper includes an explanation of the New Mexico career plan, career-based activity variables, methods, results, and discussion with recommendations for future stakeholder involvement. Limitations of the study and future research directions are also included. Conceptual Career Programming The New Mexico Next Step Plan (NSP) is a career paradigm that provides opportunities for students to acquire 21 century skills. This legislative mandate was enacted in 2003 in an attempt to more intensely engage students in grades 8-12 in education through a career focus. The spirit of the plan is to create relationships between home and school, encourage schools to develop rigorous curricula while delivering the content in a manner that is relevant for the students, and to encourage student readiness for school transitions. The expected outcome is for all students, with stakeholder involvement, to envision and work towards achieving their future goals while gaining self-awareness. The mandate and eight-page state-suggested form (http://www.ped.state.nm.us/Humanities/NextStepPlan/index.html) comprise an interim plan for grades 8-11 (first seven pages) and a final plan for grade 12 (last page). Both interim and final career plans require students and stakeholders to collaboratively develop academic programs of studies and other opportunities to help students reach their identified goals. Using Stakeholders 5 Achieving Projected Goals The mandate requires plans be completed either at the beginning of the second semester or before the following school year, schools can engage in this process once or multiple times in the school year. Starting in grade 8 and ending in grade 12, students receive advisement from stakeholders annually. By completing the NSP, students are guided toward identifying academic and personal/social goals, course selection, extracurricular activities, continuous supports, and collaboration with systems that contribute to their educational success.