LHS Career Preparation

As we do each year, the counseling department is happy to share about career preparation and readiness at Lakeland. (If you are already very familiar with Smart Futures, feel free to skim this!)

Smart Futures is a one-stop-shop website that helps us ensure that all Lakeland students are meeting PA Career Education and Work (CEW) Standards. It has a range of activities, self-assessments, etc. that students complete, adding evidence of career exploration and readiness to their portfolios as they go.

Each grade has specific activities to complete so that by graduation, they have completed everything they need to meet state requirements. An email went out this morning with specific instructions for 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. We also hope that these activities are more than just checking a box, and that they are helping our students think carefully and personally about entering the world of work.

You can use the Smart Futures platform at any time this year -- if you ever want to incorporate a Smart Futures activity into your class, have at it! -- but we're also providing guidance as to how we incorporate Smart Futures strategically.

As always, feel free to reach out to us with questions.

Cheers,

Dawn & Ellie

Smart Futures is a program that we really believe in. Here are a few reasons we use it:

• It's fully aligned with the PA Career Education and Work (CEW) Standards. It was actually built by a teacher from Pittsburgh in cooperation with the state.
• It provides our district with a portfolio option that helps us follow the PDE requirements for Career Prep. (It makes career readiness audits painless and quick.)
• Smart Futures provides programming for all required grade bands, carrying over from elementary to high school! It also transfers with them if they move to another district.
• Students can effortlessly log in with Clever.
• No need to "assign" activities to students. They are assigned based on class year and location. (Fun fact: Smart Futures actually uses zip code data to populate activities based on local resources.)
• Each time a student logs in, they're automatically taken to their next available lesson.
• Students can go back to any previous activity and do it again.
• Progress monitoring is easy at the individual, grade, and school levels.

There's so much more, and we encourage you to check it out for yourselves if you haven't already!

Just like teaching standards, there are standards that we strive to meet as school counselors. In particular, the PA Career Education and Work (CEW) Standards are enforced by the state and audited in the same way that PSSA & Keystone testing fidelity are. Many of you are already aware of the CEW Standards and the importance of our students meeting them, but please bear with us as we provide a brief overview.

• Career Awareness and Preparation
• Career Acquisition (Getting a Job)
• Career Retention and Advancement
• Entrepreneurship

The state requires that each of the four areas listed above is addressed in some way within each grade band (PK-3, 3-5, 6-8, 9-11), and that students are able to present at least two pieces of evidence that they have progressed through these areas in each grade level (i.e. two in 9th grade, two in 10th grade, etc.). Additional requirements exist at the Benchmarks for grades 5, 8, and 11:

• a minimum of 6 pieces of evidence must be collected between grades K-5
• a minimum of 6 pieces of evidence must be collected between grades 6-8, including an individualized career plan
• a minimum of 8 pieces of evidence must be collected between grades 9-11, including 2 pieces of evidence that demonstrate career plan implementation

One of our favorite parts of Smart Futures is that every activity within the program is accompanied by a reflection statement. That means that for everything that a student completes, they are required to reflect upon it, and thus accumulate evidence.

*If you are already doing anything that falls under the CEW Standards, we would encourage you to check out these reflection statements and utilize something similar in your classrooms! Students can then upload this evidence as part of their career portfolio (more below).

The number one reason for sending all of this info out to you is to advertise the coolest part of Smart Futures: The Student Portfolio.

In Smart Futures, students have the ability to upload documents to a portfolio that follows them. Resumes, interest inventories, job shadow documents, you name it and they can add it to their portfolio. PLUS, as they add to their portfolio, they are prompted to complete a reflection statement about the activity. It is all just so streamlined.

This is where you all come in. You don't have to add in anything, or do anything different (unless you want to). We just ask that moving forward, if there is a CEW-related activity going on, you assign students to make a note of that in their portfolio in Smart Futures. Field trips, activities, whatever it is can be helpful as students keep thinking about their future.

The portfolio is something that students will have access to even after they graduate, so the more they have access to, the better they will be able to choose their future paths. After all, this really is all about our students and how we can benefit them the most.

Seriously, thank you for taking the time to go through all of this and complete the forms. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't be afraid to ask. We, and our students thank you!

-Dawn & Ellie

Classes of 2026, 2028, & 2030

Click Here to Make an Appointment

Mrs. Wengert - ewengert@lakelandsd.org

Classes of 2027, 2029, & 2031

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Location: 1355 Lakeland Dr, Scott, PA 18433

Email: lhscounseling@lakelandsd.org | Phone: 570-254-9485

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