4-year plan

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For a 1936 Nazi Germany economic plan, see Four Year Plan.

In the high school setting, a 4-year plan is typically the focal point of a student's academic guidance. A 4-year plan is a worksheet that outlines the classes a student will take during their 4 years of high school, and its creation is usually a joint effort between the student and guidance counselor.

The 4-year plan allows students to carefully plan their high school curriculum based on their career and postsecondary goals/interests. Usually, the aim of the 4-year plan is to ensure that students are aware of and meet graduation requirements, meet minimum eligibility requirements for college admission, and become acqauinted with the class structures of the institution.

Typical format of the 4-year plan is a four column table with the grades 9-12 in the header and a listing of the major subject requirements on the left. By design, the 4-year high school plan is flexible and should be updated each year as the student's interests and plans change.

4-year plans usually include the following information:

1. Career area(s) that interest the student
2. Possible occupation(s)
3. Postsecondary education plans:
   • 4-year college (CSU/UC)
   • 2-year college (Community Colleges)
   • Post-secondary vocational programs
   • Apprenticeship programs
   • Occupational skill training in the military
   • On-the-job-training
4. Possible post-secondary education campuses (university or college name)
5. Courses the student will take each semester (related to the student's interest and/or educational goals).
6. Grades
7. Semester and cumulative credits

In many states, the completion of a 4-year plan is mandatory for graduation as a component of a student portfolio or profile. In the state of California, the 10th Grade Counseling program and Senate Bill 813 require that all high schools students within the public school system complete a 4-year plan by age 16, or the end of 10th grade. Additionally, 4-year planning is a component which greatly assists in school WASC accredidation.

[edit] Progressions in 4-year planning

Continuing the trend of migrating school processes to an online format, many schools are making the transition to online 4-year planning. This provides several benefits to the students, parents, and counselors involved. Providing a traditional 4-year plan is usually a manual process, with a paper copy of the 4-year plan given to the student. This poses issues of accessibility and responsibility, as the student can forget or misplace the 4-year plan.

The new online format typically provides a centralized store of student's 4-year plans, which allow parents, students, and counselors to easily interact with a plan and make changes. Additionally, some online solutions are integrating active guidance into the 4-year plan module, which perform the task of finding best-fit classes, and adjusting the 4-year plan to accommodate changes in student preferences and academic performance automatically. By offering products that react to student input and are tailored to the hierarchies and master catalogs of individual schools, the new online 4-year planning format provides a high degree of accuracy in projecting and maintaining relevant 4-year plans.

As a result of the new online format, counselors are able to spend less time generating and keeping track of 4-year plans, and more time on issues that require 1-1 counseling, like addressing at-risk students and providing college guidance.