States try all kinds of approaches to try to ensure their students’ college and career readiness (CCR). The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) has previously featured Illinois’ Postsecondary and Career Expectations (PaCE) framework, and some states have statewide GEAR UP programs to try to deliver CCR readiness at scale. Mississippi brings us another approach, which requires a college and career readiness course for high school graduation.
 

The graduation requirement went into effect for the high school class of 2022, but the course curriculum existed and been piloted for about four years. The course was developed to “support the vision and mission of the Mississippi Department of Education that all students who graduate from high school are prepared for college, career, and active citizenship” and “outlines the knowledge secondary students should obtain and the types of skills relevant for a successful transition to postsecondary and the workforce.”

Units in the 2023 course curriculum include:

1. Introduction to College and Career Readiness
2. The Student Portfolio and Exhibit
3. College Selection
4. Applying for Financial Aid
5. Preparing for a Career and Internship
6. Financial Literacy
7. Community Service
8. Digital Literacy and Citizenship
9. College Transition/ Summer Melt

Each of the units includes competencies and suggested objectives.

Mississippi’s Department of Education has built a fair amount of flexibility into the sequencing of the CCR course. For example, it can be taught in for sequences: senior year only, junior year only, one semester in the junior year with the remaining semester taught in the senior year, or one semester in either freshman or sophomore year with the remaining semester taught in junior or senior year.

Additionally, the requirement can also be satisfied with these substitutions:

1. Career and technical work-based learning course
2. Dual credit SmartStart
3. JROTC III and IV
4. Advanced Placement Capstone: Completion of both AP Seminar and AP Research or equivalent International Baccalaureate and Cambridge International courses
5. Freshman, sophomore, junior and senior college and career readiness seminar courses for early college high schools

The course is also collaborative, and the department maintains a Canvas course statewide where instructors can access and share lessons, activities, and more.

Developing the CCR course was a collaborative effort between the Mississippi Department of Education, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, the Woodward Hines Education Foundation (an NCAN member), and others. Kierstan Dufour, WHEF’s Director of External Training and Partnerships, was involved with the development of the curriculum from the very beginning.

“We were all in when this course was first shared as an idea from the Director of P-20 Partnerships, Heather Morrison,” says Dufour. “While it was our first-time doing curriculum writing, we knew how critical this course would be for Mississippi students, so we learned new skills quickly. A key to the uniqueness of this course is the cross-collaboration of the development of the curriculum, there were many different stakeholders and subject matter experts that were brought to the table to draft this.” 

Dufour credits Morrison’s leadership “in bringing in external and field expertise, which ensures Mississippi students really are getting the best content to prepare them for their next step plans.”

Mississippi does very well with FAFSA completion rates for high school seniors. The state consistently ranks within the top 10 by percent of seniors completing the FAFSA. Some of that success has to be laid at the feet of WHEF’s indefatigable efforts, but the CCR course as a graduation requirement will also likely be a contributor moving forward. That’s because some of the objectives in unit nine, College Transition/Summer Melt include achieving an in-depth understanding of financial aid and completing the FAFSA:

1. (Seniors Only) Complete the FASFSA at studentaid.gov between October 1 and March 31 or complete a mock FAFSA via the Federal Student Aid FAFSA Demo site.
2. (Juniors Only) Complete a mock FAFSA via the Federal Student Aid FAFSA Demo site.
3. (Seniors Only) Complete the Mississippi Aid Application (MAAPP) at msfinancialaid.org between October 1 and March 31.

“The general opinion in Mississippi is that our approach has been highly effective, because we aren’t just requiring FAFSA completion as an isolated action that students may not complete or be able to replicate on their own in future years,” says Dr. Jennifer Rogers, Director of Student Financial Aid and Executive Director of the Mississippi Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board at the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid. “Instead, we are achieving high rates of FAFSA completion by including it as part of the student’s larger college readiness plan.”

The FAFSA-related objectives set forth in the CCR course are different from the full-blown universal FAFSA approach implemented by five states and counting across the country, but they pull in the same direction. Other states looking to focus on college and career readiness but for which universal FAFSA isn’t right, or who want to go beyond just FAFSA completion, topically should take a page out of Mississippi’s book and consider including coursework like this in students’ high school experience.

“This course has created a space for every student to access college and career planning conversations that previously may not have been available to individuals who didn’t have the resources to schedule and travel to one of our centers,” explains Dufour. “They now have a teacher and a full course devoted to providing that individual support to developing that student’s next step plans.”

For future questions about Mississippi’s college & career readiness course, reach out to Heather Morrison, P-20 Director (hmorrison@ihl.state.ms.us).