16 Schools to Pilot
“Personalized Learning Plan” Program

Sixteen schools from 12 counties will participate in the Personalized Student Learning Plan (PSLP) pilot program set to be launched during the 2009-2010 school year. Lucille E. Davy, New Jersey commissioner of education, made the announcement on June 9.

Personalized learning plans are part of the state’s high school redesign project to better prepare students for the college and the workforce. The plans help students recognize and achieve their goals by utilizing adult mentors, including parents, teachers and counselors.

The selected middle and high schools—including a charter school and a vocational school—will participate in a two-year trial to implement PSLPs at the sixth- and ninth-grade levels. The six middle schools and 10 high schools chosen for the pilot represent urban, suburban and rural districts. In three districts, both a middle school and a high school are part of the program.

Participants were chosen from among 90 applicant schools in 66 districts through a competitive process.

During the pilot, PSLPs will be studied to determine how to best use the plans to help students focus on their individual personal, academic and career development needs and goals.

Plans will be used during the first year for all sixth and ninth graders in the pilot schools. The same students will continue using the plans as seventh and tenth graders throughout the 2010-2011 school year—while new plans will be created for the incoming students in the two lower grades at each participating school.

Plans Address Three Development Areas The learning plan formats developed by the pilot districts will include at least the following three areas of development: personal, academic and career. In addition to goal setting, examples of activities that students may engage in while creating and carrying out the plans include:

Personal Development: Survey learning styles; inventory personality and interests.
Academic Development: Select courses for graduation as they relate to interests and skills; discern individual student learning opportunities (internships, and service or independent learning); utilize support services and referrals as needed.
Career Development: Survey career interests and skills; engage in career awareness and exploration to heighten understanding of opportunities available and generate interest (sixth grade); carry out career planning and preparation activities while developing academic knowledge and skill readiness (ninth grade).

NJDOE will decide after reviewing the pilot program whether to recommend that learning plans will be part of the high school redesign and used for all students from sixth grade to graduation from high school. The pilot will allow the NJDOE to identify sample formats for PSLPs and develop a process to implement the program in districts throughout the state.

Plans Compared to GPS “PSLPs offer students a framework for setting goals and mapping out their future,” said Davy. “They are like global positioning systems for students’ futures. Like GPS, the plans will be able to offer a clear path to their goals but also will be able to change course if students want to go in a different direction at some point in their academic careers.”

Participating school districts will take part in an orientation scheduled for June 25. Participating districts will be eligible to receive up to $7,500 for each year of the program to assist with related costs, including curriculum materials, Web-based programs and related evaluation costs.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia require individual learning plans for all students; another five states encourage their use and provide state support but do not have mandates in place for every student.

The participating schools are listed in the box below.

County	District	School(s)
Bergen (2)	Emerson	Villano Elementary and Emerson Jr./Sr. High School
Burlington	Northern Burlington County Regional	Northern Burlington County Regional High School
Camden	Camden County Technical Schools	Camden County Technical Schools
Essex	Bloomfield	Bloomfield High School
Gloucester	Delsea Regional	Delsea Regional High School
Hudson (2)	North Bergen	Horace Mann School and North Bergen High School
Mercer	West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District	Thomas R. Grover Middle School
Middlesex (3)	North Brunswick	Linwood Middle School and North Brunswick Township High School
	Greater Brunswick Charter School	Greater Brunswick Charter School
Monmouth	Asbury Park	Asbury Park High School
Passaic	Passaic City	Passaic High School
Sussex	Sparta	Sparta Middle School
Union	Roselle Borough	Abraham Clark High School