Seventh-graders across Virginia soon will have to think as far as a decade into the future.
The state Board of Education voted Thursday to require middle school students to create plans detailing their academic goals until high school graduation. The measure was proposed by Gov. Tim Kaine last year as part of a broader effort to help Virginia generate a strong work force.
In their academic and career plans, the seventh-graders will have to decide what they plan to study in high school and how their education will help them get into college or find a job. Both the child’s teacher and parent will have to sign off on the plan.
“It’s a way of ensuring there’s a conversation [about] the student’s future,” said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education. “This conversation will include the student, school and home.”
Michelle Menapace, president of the Fairfax Council of PTAs, said she was happy with the board’s decision because it would allow teachers to get to know their students as individuals.
She acknowledged, though, that some seventh-graders might not be ready to think so far into the future and may need more help.
But Pyle stressed that the plans would be flexible and that students would not be locked in to them. “We know interests will change and be discovered,” he said. “The plans will be revised accordingly.”
Several school systems already require students in grades seven to 12 to write long-term plans. The board will allow those in effect this year to remain.
For the regions that will start next school year, the board will provide a template for the plans and additional assistance if needed. Pyle said the schools could adapt the template.
Students will have to finish their plans by the start of eighth grade.
