Franklin Pierce School District

High school students in the Franklin Pierce School District are taking charge of their education and their future. As a part of the school district’s innovative guidance and planning model, students get the skills – and the support - they need to chart their own course through high school, postsecondary education and adult life. The system also provides students with an ongoing, personal relationship with an adult during their high school years and a meaningful way to keep parents involved in the decisions their teens are making.

These are changes that have had a profound impact on student motivation and student willingness to take on more challenging coursework. Students are taking more chemistry, physics and pre-calculus than ever before, said Tim Stensager, executive director of technical and career education. The central feature of the Franklin Pierce model is Navigation 101, a guidance curriculum for teaching the navigational and planning skills students need to get the most out of high school and to prepare for their adult lives. Delivering this curriculum requires far more teaching power than the counseling staff has, so all high school teachers have been trained to lead the course. Others are following the path Franklin Pierce has forged. Eight districts in Washington now follow the guidance model and dozens of others are phasing it in.