Anchorage School District
College and Career Ready Initiative
Helping All Students Prepare for the Future
Tenth-grade students will take the PLAN assessment during the fall of the school year. Each high school will determine a test date during the fall testing window. For more information contact your counselor or career resource advisor.
“Who am I?â€
Take a realistic look at academic strengths, weakness and career-related interests.
“Where am I going?â€
Explore educational and career pathways. Engage in conversations about career possibilities and educational/training pathways.
“How will I get there?â€
Career planning is a continuous process. Continue to develop initial high school plans that meet interests and career-related goals.
Tenth-grade Emphasis:
The importance of students doing their best on the PLAN
The PLAN results contain information about work-related interests, educational plans, career goals and academic skills. Teachers, counselors, career resource advisors, graduation coaches, and parents can use PLAN results to help students make or modify plans for the remainder of their high school career and their future.
PLAN at a Glance
Educational & Career Planning Component (65 minutes)
• Career Interest Inventory – helps students explore personally relevant career options
• High School Course/Grade Information – helps evaluate course-taking patterns in light of recommended core courses
• Needs Assessment – collects information about students’ perceived needs
English Test
30 minutes – 50 questions
Usage/mechanics and rhetorical skills (punctuation, grammar and usage, sentence structure, strategy, organization and style)
Reading Test
20 minutes – 25 questions
Prose, fiction, humanities and social studies
Science Test
25 minutes – 30 questions
Biology, Earth/space sciences, chemistry and physics
(Format: data representation, research summaries and conflicting viewpoints)
Mathematics Test
40 minutes – 40 questions
Pre-algebra, elementary algebra, coordinate geometry and plane geometry
Frequently Asked Questions About the PLAN
Q: Do the PLAN results tell students what type of career they should pursue?
A: No. The results will indicate the students’ self-reported career area preference. It will also encourage students to explore specific career clusters based on student answers on the career interest inventory.
Q: What does the career interest inventory assess?
A: The personalized PLAN score report(results) encourages students to investigate careers that are consistent with their work-related interests. This information is identified on the World-of-Work Map that identifies career areas based on primary work task interests – data, ideas, people, and things.
Q: Are the PLAN results intended to determine if a student should or should not consider going to college?
A: Absolutely not. The purpose of this assessment is to identify current academic progress and career-related plans and goals. This will allow students to investigate career possibilities and identify a plan for achieving their post-secondary plans. It is not the intent to discourage students from obtaining their educational and career goals.
If results indicate that interests are stronger than skills, students should be encouraged to consider future coursework and/or strategies for improvement. With guidance from parents and school staff, students can map out a plan for obtaining their desired career-related goals.
Q: Are there additional online resources available to students and parents that provide more information on the PLAN assessment and the World-of-Work Map?
A: Yes. More information can be obtained at www.planstudent.org. Families are encouraged to investigate the quick link World-of-Work Map at the above website. This can be a helpful tool prior to and after the PLAN is administered. The quick link can provide extensive information on career areas, occupations, and specific work-tasks (annual average salary, employment size and growth, entry requirements and related occupations and majors for each career area).
Q: How can students best prepare for the PLAN assessment?
A: Students are encouraged to answer test questions to their best ability and not rush through the career-interest questions when it is being administered. The personalized PLAN score report can only be fully utilized if students answer questions to the best of their ability. In doing so, there is a much better chance that the results can be useful in future educational and career planning.
An important reminder:
Families are encouraged to save all assessment results, including the PLAN score report, that will be mailed home at the beginning of January. Because career planning is an on-going process, it will be helpful to retain the paperwork in order to refer to it throughout your child’s academic career.