Standard 2.8 Planning for Students' Future
Standard 2.8: The institution provides programs and services for learners’ educational futures and career planning.
State Report Card
We are proud that one of our strengths at PHS is preparing our students for their futures. The Utah Board of Education (Office of Education) produces a school report card about each school in the state, giving scores to the school in a variety of categories. One of our strongest areas is "Post Secondary Readiness," which is a combination of how many students score an 18 or above on the ACT test, graduation rate, and how many students are enrolled in coursework designated as post-secondary readiness (AP, Concurrent Enrollment, and CTE courses).
PHS received a score of "Commendable" in Post Secondary Readiness. The artifact here is a screenshot from our School Report Card.
Counseling Center
Our Counseling Department moves mountains in their work to help students plan for their futures. To help them develop plans, counselors work with students individually as well as organizing school-wide events. Individually, counselors meet with students and parents in a meeting we call College and Career Readiness (CCR). They also proactively reach out to students who seem to be struggling.
In addition, they organize many large-scale events like FAFSA Night, which has been renamed as Beyond High School Night, and Utah Application Week. They arrange for military recruiters to have a presence in the school as well as local trade schools and technical colleges. They also provide vital information about scholarships.
Other College and Career Programs
In addition to the great work done by the counseling department above, Payson High School has other programs intended to help students plan for their futures.
GEAR UP is a college readiness program, administered through Utah Valley University, that provides free services and assistance for low-income students and their parents in order to help students successfully graduate from high school and prepare for college. GEAR UP is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Gear Up representatives come into the school once per week to work with students individually on their college readiness.
Our CTE programs in the school are organized into Career Pathways that outline specific series of courses that will prepare an interested student for particular careers. Career Pathways are a roadmap to a student’s educational and career goals. Each area of study has multiple pathways so that students can tailor their learning to their individual interests and abilities. Career pathway completers receive a lion paw medallion that is worn at graduation as recognition of their achievement. Pathway completion can be included on resumes, college applications, and scholarship applications.
SPED Transition Plan
As special education students with IEPs enter high school, their annual IEP meeting includes discussion about the student's transition plan. The SpEd file holder works with the student to identify their interests and goals for the future, and then helps that student research and develop plans to pursue those goals. This is a very valuable program that helps to ensure that SpEd students graduate already on a pathway to a future that they decide.
In many cases, part of the transition plan includes information about Vocational Rehabilitation, a division of Utah WorkForce Services that helps people with disabilities address their unique barriers and achieve employment. They support individuals with disabilities in obtaining competitive, integrated employment through professional vocational counseling and guidance, and through partnerships with employers, school districts, higher education, and other agencies. They also serve Utah businesses by offering training on hiring individuals with disabilities and workplace accommodations. We encourage our SpEd students and parents to explore the many resources that "Voc Rehab" has to offer.
College Tours
Each year Payson High School organizes tours of college campuses around the state for any student who is interested. This is an important program, especially for potentially first-generation college students. Often simply saying the words "You should go to college," is not enough to move a student to actually apply and attend. To many students, college is just a word. But if they have actually been on a college campus, the word has images and experiences to go along with it, which increases the likelihood that students will actually apply to and attend college.
We take students all over the state to colleges like Utah Valley University, Utah State University, The University of Utah, Weber State, Westminster, Southern Utah University, Snow College, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake Community College, and Mountainland Technical College. This program was started in a grass-roots way by teachers at PHS. It became so popular that other high schools in the district have followed suit with their own college tours.
The artifact here is a link to a story on our school website advertising that year's college tour.
College Credit: AP & CE
Through our Advanced Placement (AP) and Concurrent Enrollment (CE programs, our students have the opportunity to earn a lot of college credit while still in high school. Over the years, student interest has been swinging more towards the CE programs. Total college credit earned by our students has skyrocketed from 1,735 in 2016 to 4,521 in 2020. Measured another way, the value of earned college credit, reported as a dollar amount, is enormous: $471,800 in 2016 to $1,149,950 in 2020.
