Embedded Files
Three Instructional Modes
There are three ways in which we can instruct students on postsecondary education: Active engagement (w/captive audience, Passive instruction, and Self-selected instruction. Active engagement with a captive audience would be any required information session that teaches students something about the postsecondary process before they need to do it would fall into this category. A guest speaker who talks to a class, an assembly, or an assigned module for the whole grade to complete would fall into this category. Passive instruction means sending information to students/parents in a way that requires no interaction. That could mean an email, a flyer, a poster in the hall, or some other form of communication where there is no reply or interaction. Self-selected instruction is when we students/parents attend an optional event. The event may be open to all students but limited in capacity, like a summer bus tour. Or it may be a parent meeting that can hold all the parents, but not all choose to come.
Active (Active engagement with a captive audience)
Class lessons on:
Career-Credential Connection
Evaluating Postsecondary Options
Financial Aid
Application & Entry
Whole-class campus visit
Grade-level assembly on a postsecondary topic
Virtual modules assigned thru class
Passive (One-way information flow)
Informational Materials
FAFSA Materials/Mailers
Emails
Calls home
Automated phone calls
Text blasts
Social Media
Self-selected (Available to all; optional participation)
Parent Meetings
FAFSA Night
Information sessions
Campus visits
Summer Bus Tours
Community Colleges
4-year Institutions
Postsecondary Instructional Inventories
In order to ensure equitable pre-teaching opportunities, the heaviest category should be active engagement with a captive audience. Passive communication should be robust as well, but it cannot stand alone as the primary method of instruction. Self-selected activities, such as campus visits, are significant as well; yet just because an event is open to all does not mean it is a universal, or "tier 1" service. It is important to continually ask, "who are we missing" with all of our instructional pieces.
A great way to analyze who is missing is to complete and instructional services inventory.
If you work in a small district (one high school), attached below is a template for inventorying what is happening instructionally around postsecondary access.
If you work in a larger district with multiple high schools and want to compare what is happening from school to school, the large district template is also attached below.
Instructional Inventory-Single High School Instructional Inventory: Multi-High School
Page updated
Report abuse