My Journey: Personalized & Experiential Learning
Connecting every student’s goals, strengths, and interests to real-world pathways
Objective: Vilas School District will provide every student with an individualized learning pathway that connects their personal goals, interests, and strengths to real-world experiences and post-secondary success.
| Strategic Priority Two | My Journey: Personalized & Experiential Learning |
|---|---|
| Why is this important? | tudents are more engaged and invested in learning when they understand how their education connects to their interests, strengths, goals, and future. Personalized and experiential learning allows students to explore possibilities, discover their strengths, develop real-world skills, and make informed decisions about life after high school. By intentionally connecting academics with career exploration, work-based learning, entrepreneurship, community partnerships, and post-secondary opportunities, Vilas students can build a pathway that is meaningful and relevant to them. The goal is not for every student to follow the same path, but for every student to leave Vilas with meaningful experiences, a clear sense of direction, and the skills and confidence to take their next step. |
| Action steps related to the priority | Strengthen and expand individualized student planning (ICAP) K–12, including age-appropriate goal setting, interest exploration, strengths identification, and regular student reflection. Use student interests, strengths, and goals to guide learning opportunities, course selection, enrichment, career exploration, and experiential learning experiences. Increase family involvement in individualized student planning, ensuring families understand and contribute to their student’s goals and pathway. Expand work-based and experiential learning opportunities through job shadows, mentorships, internships, community projects, career exploration, and partnerships with employers and community organizations. Strengthen CTE, concurrent enrollment, and other post-secondary opportunities and intentionally connect participation to individual student goals and interests. Develop entrepreneurship experiences and a post-secondary readiness capstone that allow students to apply academic and real-world skills and demonstrate their learning. Explore and implement mastery-based learning practices that allow students to demonstrate proficiency, reflect on their progress, and take greater ownership of their learning. Develop and maintain community and employer partnerships that expand the range of authentic learning experiences available to students. Regularly gather student voice and pathway data to identify gaps between student interests and the opportunities currently available and adjust programming accordingly. |
| Evidence of Implementation | Individualized Student Pathways: Students have documented, regularly reviewed ICAPs that identify interests, strengths, goals, and future pathways. Student Goal Setting & Reflection: Students regularly set goals, reflect on their progress, and participate in conversations about their learning and future. Family Participation: Families are included in the ICAP and individualized planning process and have opportunities to contribute to student goals and pathways. Experiential & Work-Based Learning: Students participate in career exploration, job shadows, mentorships, community-based projects, work-based learning, and other real-world experiences connected to their interests. Pathway-Aligned Opportunities: CTE, concurrent enrollment, enrichment, and other learning opportunities are intentionally connected to individual student interests and post-secondary goals. Community & Employer Partnerships: Active partnerships provide students with authentic career exploration, mentorship, projects, and work-based learning opportunities. Entrepreneurship & Capstone Experiences: Students have opportunities to apply their learning through entrepreneurship and ultimately demonstrate their learning through a post-secondary readiness capstone. Personalized/Mastery-Based Practices: Teachers increasingly use student goal setting, reflection, proficiency tracking, choice, and other personalized or mastery-based practices. Student Voice: Student interests and feedback are regularly collected and used to develop or adjust learning experiences and opportunities. |
| Evidence of Impact | Students can articulate their strengths, interests, goals, and future aspirations and explain how their learning connects to them. Students demonstrate increased ownership and agency in setting goals, making learning choices, seeking opportunities, and reflecting on their progress. Students report increased relevance and engagement because they see connections between academics, their interests, real-world experiences, and their future. Students successfully participate in experiences aligned to their individual pathways, including CTE, concurrent enrollment, work-based learning, career exploration, entrepreneurship, and community-based opportunities. Students demonstrate increased post-secondary readiness, including clearer plans for education, career, military, entrepreneurship, or other pathways after graduation. Students demonstrate transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration, independence, adaptability, and professional skills through authentic experiences. Graduates complete Vilas with documented evidence of readiness, including a post-secondary plan, work-based learning experience, and capstone/entrepreneurship experience. This directly aligns with the district’s 2030 graduate goal. Alumni report that their Vilas experiences prepared them for life after high school and helped them make informed decisions about their next steps. |