West Oak Lane Charter School serves students in Kindergarten through 8th grade and chose Kuder to help meet the Career Education and Work (CEW) Standards enacted in 2006 required for all Pennsylvania students. The CEW standards are focused on four areas of knowledge that are to be immersed in curriculum and activities:
West Oak Lane Charter School in Philadelphia, PA has partnered with Kuder for comprehensive college and career readiness solutions for their elementary and middle school students to meet the four key state requirements.
The partnership includes access to Kuder Galaxy® for PreK – 5th grade students and Kuder Navigator® for their students in grades 6 – 8th. As students progress from Kindergarten to 8th grade, they advance from career exploration to career readiness so they are prepared to pursue courses aligned to their desired field of study as they transition to high school.
Hear directly from Tasha Rivera, College & Career Readiness Coordinator, at West Oak Lane about how Galaxy and Navigator are used to meet their goals and state requirements.
“The goal for elementary students at West Oak Lane is to provide a variety of avenues for students to be exposed to different jobs. Kuder Galaxy serves this need by providing:
Teachers can enjoy the access to view what galaxies students have completed and which students complete the “I can” statements at the end of each planet, to track and capture as a Career Awareness & Preparation Artifact for the Pennsylvania CEW standards.”
To serve middle school students at West Oak Lane Charter School, Kuder Navigator is used as the comprehensive college and career readiness solution. Navigator provides avenues for students to be exposed to a variety of careers and provides direction to guide students in selecting a career of interest and map what each student needs to accomplish in order to reach their ultimate career goal.
Tasha continued to share key features of Navigator used with their students “A foundational function of Navigator includes our career assessments, including two for 6-8th grade students: Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment and Kuder Interests Assessment. These assessments help students determine their career interests aligned to relevant occupants. Students can use the Explore Occupations feature to dive into the education needed to pursue a given career and explore accompanying information like salary and day-to-day responsibilities.
Students can also research different colleges and tuition costs for specific universities who focus on their career interest by using the Plan for Education tool. This not only assists with college selections but also incorporates a Finance 101 program to assist with a realistic budget for college costs as well banking, credit, and education on loans, providing a comprehensive overview for students.”
Over the past few years, our partnership with West Oak Lane Charter School has included personalized service and tailored reporting to ensure they are equipped with the information they need to meet CEW requirements.
When asked how our team supports their use of our system and meeting state requirements, Tasha explained “Kuder conducts monthly check-in meetings to provide step-by-step ways administrators, educators, and students can get the most out of their solutions. In addition, we have closely partnered to develop custom reports to track student progress against the state requirements to ensure our team can be proactive in reaching out to any students that may need extra support to meet the requirements.”
Our partnership also provides ongoing training and professional development opportunities for West Oak Lane Charter School staff to engage with to ensure they are best prepared to empower their students.
Through the partnership between West Oak Lane Charter School and Kuder, K-8th grade students have prepared for their futures through comprehensive career exploration and readiness with Kuder Galaxy and Kuder Navigator. Educators and administrators have been able to see the progress students are making aligned to state career readiness indicators to help keep all students on track for graduation and feel confident in creating plans for the future.
