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OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
NYC Public Schools has laid out an ambitious vision: Every student graduates with a personalized plan for the future that reflects their personal, education and career interests and goals. With the Career Navigation Roadmap and changes to graduation requirements, schools and nonprofits have an opportunity and responsibility to come together and support students in navigating their path to college, careers, and beyond.
In the Strong Plan Improvement Lab, members of existing school Pathways teams, including community-based organizations, will gather to improve towards our shared goal of strong plans for all graduates. Pathways teams may take different shapes, but are essentially cross-functional, school-based teams that focus on this goal. Using continuous improvement strategies and tools, we’ll explore: What makes developing high quality plans challenging? What can we do to help students build? How will we know if our efforts worked?
Improvement Lab Objectives
Increase the number of students with strong plans for college and career, using continuous improvement tools and strategies
Document and share knowledge about how to improve student experiences in Strong Plan milestones and activities
Build skills related to using data for improvement, including tools to measure and monitor progress
Make and strengthen connections with their peers across NYC schools and nonprofits partners, establishing a community for problem-solving and brainstorming
RUNNING NOTES
RUNNING NOTES
Session 1: Seeing the System
Session 1: Seeing the System
October 28, 2025
Welcome to the Strong Plans Improvement Lab! At our kick-off meeting, we brought together improvement teams from seven schools to dive into continuous improvement and explore how we will work together throughout the year to strengthen postsecondary planning.
Key takeaways:
Continuous Improvement Approach: Teams explored continuous Improvement and how this approach can help address systemic challenges in building strong plans by testing small changes.
Strong Plans Reflection and Self-Assessment: Teams discussed what a strong postsecondary plan looks and feels like. They also examined the Career Navigation Roadmap to identify what their school does well and where they might need to improve.
Root Cause Analysis: We explored why all students aren't building strong postsecondary plans by creating Fishbone Diagrams.
Empathy Interviews: Teams began planning empathy interviews to gather insights into student experiences.
NEXT: Teams will (1) Conduct empathy interviews with students, (2) Complete a capacity self-assessment to better understand their strengths and learning goals, and (3) Meet with coaches to plan next steps.
Slide Deck | Session Materials [Improvement Team Access Only]
Session 2: Continuing to See the System
Session 2: Continuing to See the System
November 18, 2025
In our second session, we kicked off with a 4-corners warmer to interrogate what values and priorities we hold close in advising work. For this group, Student Voice and Agency rose to the top, with Feasibility and Practicality having the second largest group. Some participants also emphasized that Well-Being is a precursor to other values, so it is what they hold close while advising.
Teams spent time digging into their data - both their empathy interviews and data from school sources, like the Senior Survey or NV Portal. They also created Journey Maps of how students walk through their schools - from enrolling to exiting with a strong plan. These activities together helped us try to stand in the shoes of students - to see and feel more about their experiences.
At the end, we revisted our Fishbone Diagrams from Session 1 to pull together what we had learned about the barriers to developing strong plans. We interrogation root causes like student "motivation." WHY could students appear unmotivated to plan for their futures? We spoke about prior experiences with failing systems or unsupportive adults, being consumed with present responsibilities and needs, stress and trauma making planning more difficult, etc. Teams started to document a problem to focus on that is rooted in the evidence they reviewed.
At the next session, we'll share ideas with each other, including folks from other schools and the broader network!
Session 3: Think Tank! Developing our Theory of Improvement
Session 3: Think Tank! Developing our Theory of Improvement
December 16, 2025
Session 4: Improvement Cycles
Session 4: Improvement Cycles
February 4, 2026
Session 5: Sharing and Scaling
Session 5: Sharing and Scaling
March 24, 2026
Session 6: Showcase
Session 6: Showcase
April 23, 2025
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