STRATEGIC PLANNING CHECKLIST Step 1: Become a Cluster Advocate and Develop Ownership Goal: Drive the Establishment of a Strong Career Cluster System by leading confidently and creatively to make career clusters work. Involve staff in decision-making. Delegate responsibility. Seek business and community input. Be patient but persistent. Pay attention to details, but stay focused on your larger, long-term goals. Be a visibly committed force for change. Learn from your mistakes. Take responsibility for the tough decisions. Step 2: Build Broad Community Partnerships Goal: Energize education with support from a broad base of community partners among business and industry, two-year and four-year colleges and universities, parents, teachers, counselors and social service agencies. Identify potential partners. Work to build a diverse set of partnerships. Approach potential partners personally. Seek partners’ advice and guidance. Set up an organized structure for meetings with partners. Pay attention to partners’ needs and nurture the relationship. Don’t press partners to give more help than they can comfortably give. Make it painless and convenient for partners to help out. Step 3: Provide Professional Development Goal: Organize resources to reorient faculty and staff to career clusters. Find creative ways to reorient faculty to career clusters. Train educators in-house as well as sending them to off-site conferences. Arrange schedules to cover for teachers in training. Make a solid financial commitment to professional development. Tap business partnerships to provide resources including business-based teacher internships. Make sure all staff have mastered the material they are asked to teach. Provide career advancement and financial rewards to motivate staff to participate in professional development. Motivate staff by keeping them aware of and focused on the benefits of career clusters. Step 4: Base Career Guidance on Clusters Goal: Reorganize guidance to drive career clusters implementation. Target every student in the system. Begin career education in the elementary grades and continue through all grades. Help all students create a Plan of Study. Involve parents in the planning process. Review and update plans with students each year or more often as needed. Help students arrange work-based learning opportunities. Provide professional development for counselors. Reach out to the community for support of the career clusters.
Step 5: Seek Financial Resources Goal: Mount an organized, thorough, creative fund-raising effort to set up career clusters. Treat fundraising at a high priority. Research all possible sources of support. Consider grants not expressly targeted at career clusters. Enlist business support. Use intermediary organizations to solicit business aid. Consider establishing a tax-exempt fund-raising foundation. Assess the school’s needs before seeking support. Involve staff in the fund-raising effort. Put structures in place to manage grant requirements. Step 6: Develop Extended/Work-based Learning Opportunities Goal: Realistically inventory the local job market. Create partnerships with local business and community leaders. Involve business partners in finding learning opportunities. Offer students a variety of learning opportunities. Prepare students for the demands of the workplace. Assist students with logistical needs. Intervene quickly when students are having difficulty or causing trouble. Collaborate with students, parents, and employers on a written plan. Award students official recognition of program participation Step 7: Align Career-Oriented Curricula Goal: Reorient curricula to prepare students for academic and career success. Reorganize curriculum around a career clusters framework. Create new classes as needed, but ground instruction in all classes in a career context. Involve teachers directly in curriculum development. Encourage faculty sharing of curriculum ideas. Be responsive to student needs. Make curriculum development a flexible, ongoing process. Seek community input and fit curricula with community-based learning opportunities. Work to align curricula with instruction at two- and four-year colleges. Step 8: Achieve Transition Agreements Goal: Assess geographic availabilities of business, higher education, and technical training options. Create relationships with decision makers within these institutions. Follow postsecondary schools' process for applying for articulation agreements, for example: o Articulation committee is set up with high school and postsecondary representatives. o Articulation committee reviews high school courses to determine if they meet college standards. Career cluster coordinator drafts articulation agreement based on review. Representatives of high school and college approve draft. Network with other educators in crafting comprehensive articulation agreements.