The Impact of Individual Learning Plans in Minnesota

Minnesota Individual Learning Plan
Survey
June 2013

Hobsons conducted a survey of Minnesota
educators to find out how many schools currently
have all students complete individual learning
plans, as well as to identify challenges and best
practices.
The survey was conducted May 1 – 20, 2013.
We received 76 responses.
We publicized the survey via an email campaign and the
Minnesota School Counselors Association listserv.
2
Survey Details

25% of respondents’ schools currently require ILPs for
all students.
Lowering drop-out rates and increasing college-going
rates are the top two goals of schools that require ILPs.
Stakeholder response generally has been positive.
Teacher/counselor resources, staff buy-in, and easy to
use technology are seen as the most important factors
for successful implementation.
Time constraints and lack of resources are the most
commonly identified challenges.
3
Survey Highlights

48 are counselors
14 are principals
8 are teachers
1 is a superintendent
1 is a project coordinator
1 is a transition coordinator
1 is an education software developer
1 is a special education teacher
1 is a paraprofessional
1 in in administrative support
1 is technology support staff
4
How would you describe your role?

5
Does your school currently have
ILPs for all students?
19
57
Yes
No

6
What were the key drivers for
implementing ILPs at your school?
6
AS AN ALC, WE ARE REQUIRED TO
HAVE A CLP FOR ALL STUDENTS.
MAKING SURE STUDENTS ARE TO
GRADUATE WITHIN FOUR YEARS.
OUR PERKINS CONSORTIUM HAS HELPED
US IMPLEMENT THIS OVER THE YEARS (15-
20?), AND I’VE ADDED MCIS AS A GREAT
WAY TO GO ELECTRONIC
SETTING GOALS
WE HAVE A SIX YEAR PLAN IN PLACE VIA
NAVIANCE.
I TEACH IN AN INDEPENDENT
STUDY ALTERNATIVE
PROGRAM.

7
7
THEY ARE REQUIRED FOR OUR
TYPE OF SCHOOL – CARE AND
TREATMENT FACILITY
A DESIRE FOR MORE INDIVIDUALIZED
ATTENTION TO EACH STUDENT
COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW IMPLEMENTATION OF ASCA
MODEL
WE ARE A SMALL SCHOOL. WE SET A
PRIORITY OF INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING
FOR ALL STUDENTS AND MEETING ALL
STUDENTS’ NEEDS
I THINK THE WAY THE WORLD
IN CHANGING WE HAVE TO
MAKE SURE THAT THE
STUDENTS ARE PREPARED.

88
THE SCHOOL COUNSELORS WITH HELP
FROM THE PRINCIPALS AND THE SCHOOL
BOARD (WHO APPROVED THE PURCHASE
OF NAVIANCE FOR USE IN IMPLEMENTING
THE ILPs.
•ACADEMIC NEED
•POST SECONDARY SKILLS
•TRANSITION TO EMPLOYMENT
•BASIC SKILLS
•MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS
•ACCOMODATIONS
•MODIFICATIONS
•MEET SPECIFIC STANDARDS
•ACT/SAT NEEDS
WE DON’T HAVE OFFICIAL ILPs, BUT WE
SET UP A PLAN WITH STUDENTS STARTING
THEIR FRESHMAN YEAR. WE FEEL IT’S
IMPORTANT AS A SCHOOL, AND IT ALSO IS
PART OF OUR ROLE AS A SCHOOL
COUNSELOR TO IMPLEMENT THIS AS
SOON AS STUDENT ENTER HIGH SCHOOL.
WE HAVE BEEN USING NAVIANCE TO
SUPPORT US WITH THESE PLANS.
•ACADEMIC GROWTH TARGETS
•SCHOOL ATTENDENCE AND
TARDINESS ISSUES
•SOCIAL SKILLS
•BEING INVOLVED IN
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
•PLANNING FOR COURSES
NEEDED IN CAREER INTERESTS

9
Which grades participate?
9th 10th 11th 12th8th7th6th
5 8 8 16 18 18 18
When did you implement ILPs for
every student?
15 – prior to 2011-2012 school year
4 – 2012-2013 school year

10
What information is included in
each student’s ILP?
18
13 14
16
4
9
12 13 12
16
1
6
2
2
12
9
7 6
5
33
1
3
1 2
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Not sure
Not included
Included

11
How have constituents reacted to
your ILP initiative?
11 11
13
4
2
2
2 2
2
6
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Students Parents Teachers
Not involved
Negatively
Neutral
Positively

12
How often are ILPs updated?
4
5
1
9
Each school year
Each semester
Each month
Other (see below)

Ideally every school
year, but this is not
always happening
Goals and academic
progress are updated
weekly; other areas 3x
per year
6 times a year
Twice—students are
here for a limited/short
amount of time
13
How often are ILPs updated?
More completely in
7th, 9th, 11th, but at least
annually for other grades
Quarterly
Varies—whenever certain
activities, meetings, etc.
are scheduled
Rarely
Minimum each school
year; otherwise as
needed

14
Which tool does your school use to
support your ILPs?
8
6
1
0 0 0
5
3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Minnesota
Career
Information
System
Naviance Bridges (a
Xap
Company)
Career
Cruising
Kuder ConnectEDU Other (see
below)
None

15
Other responses:
We started using efolio this year without luck
Looking into an electronic form as this year did not
work well and want to change to another
GPS and Ramp Up to Readiness
Home grown solution
ISEEK.ORG
Which tool does your school use to
support your ILPs?

16
If you do not have an ILP plan in
place, do you have plans for
implementing one in the future?
24
39
Yes
No

17
The following factors are critically
important to successfully
implementing ILPs:
55
15
3 3
Staff buy-in
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
34
32
8
11
Parent/guardian
involvement
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

18
implementing ILPs:
58
15
3
Teacher/counselor
resources
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
53
18
4 1
Easy to use technology
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

19
implementing ILPs:
37
27
10
11
Reporting and
analytics
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
39
24
9
1 3
Budget
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

20
implementing ILPs:
42
28
5 1
Professional
development
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
37
27
8
3 1
Curriculum
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree

21
What are your desired goals for
implementing ILPs:
3.44
4.16
4.23
4.32
4.56
4.62
5.10
5.32
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00
Enhance career planning
Improve postsecondary results
Increase academic rigor
Improve course planning
Raise high school graduation rates
Enhance student-teacher collaboration
Increase college-going rate
Lower drop-out rates
Weighted Rank

22
Getting everyone from homeroom teachers, to
parents, to school board on board
Too large of a case load for each counselor
Not enough counselors to effectively manage and work
with students!!
Time—teachers are focused on delivering the required
subject level standards; there is not adequate time with
students built in to our school days.
Time and resources to do it
Finding curriculum writing/implementation time
What are the biggest challenges to

23
Getting students’ advisors on board. We have always
had a continuous learning plan in place and now have
changed the title to ILP as we move forward. Getting all
students to enter data on their Naviance account
presents issues at times because of limited access to
computer labs.
Ability to follow through and track them. We tried for
just our GT students, and it was very difficult and
wasn't maintained. Buy in and usefulness.
Time and class size

24
Staff time and resources. We do not have enough time
to with the current staff we have, but adding this will be
a burden unless more FTE's are added.
Administration and having others realize the
importance of counselors being involved/not having
teachers take over ILP
TIME—both in the classroom to implement and
maintain the ILP and counselor to student ratio time
constraints
Resources, staff buy-in

25
Lack of access to computers. They are all tied up with
testing most of the spring.
Another thing for teachers to do! Not enough time in
the day/year.
None
Resources for teachers and counselors, adequate time
for implementing, teacher buy-in, money for curriculum
updates
Time and staffing—not enough of either
Lab space and pulling students from classes

26
Funding, having an adequate amount of staff to make
this proposed mandate realistic
Time and energy
Resources and time, and who will be responsible
We aren't really looking at implementing ILPs at this
point, so I can't say we've spent much time thinking
about the challenges. As with any new initiative, I
imagine the biggest challenge is finding the time and
financial resources to plan, train, and get buy-in on a
brand new plan that we would want to be high-quality
and useful.

27
Right now we have a very "lean" model when it comes
to our staffing. So we have the desire to move forward
with ILPs but have limited time and resources to work
on the implementation. However, we have been
looking at how to do it and what we need to do to make
sure we can successfully implement it. If we had a
component to Naviance that could make this step
easier, that would be an excellent help.
Counselor to student ratio
They are not meaningful to students. Difficulty finding
time to complete and update them.

28
The high needs of our students (98% free and reduced
lunch) and the academic challenges of students not
passing all required classes
Starting mid-stream is difficult. Since this is our first
year of implementation, our seniors will graduate with
only one year on the ILP. By the time we get through
our first class, who goes through grades 9-12 with it, it
will be a smooth, refined process.
Time and the lack of staff
Time, money and man power

29
Counselor time. I am half-time 7-12 Counselor and
half-time District Assessment Coordinator. I also am
the NHS advisor and Student Council Advisor, and I
coordinate our scholarship program.
Personnel & technology. Who does it, and when does it
happen? Where is it kept? Is it easily accessible to all
staff members and students/families?
Time and information on implementing ILPs
Cost, time and management
Finding time to learn about ILPs

30
The amount of time and collaboration needed when
teachers and parents are involved with the student in
setting goals and plans. Doing interest and skills
assessments with students are useful but again take
considerable time away from curriculum instruction
time. Having the technology tools can be a benefit but
still personal connections and contact time are keys to
successful career / post high school planning.
Identifying relevant goals for students. Assigning
relevant courses to those goals.
Admin, teacher and counselor buy in

31
Making a coordinated effort for priority, planning and
implementation. I feel that general staff will feel this is
the counselor responsibility not necessarily a shared
one.
Resources! We don't have enough people or funding!
Time to do this and resources to make this a reality.
Working this into the school planning with all of the
curricular requirements.
Finding time in the day for student to work on them
Making sure that all staff have the appropriate training
to make this transformation work

32
Getting computer access for
students, teachers, parents, and counselors to utilize
the tool. It takes such a long time for students to log-in
to the computer, then to figure out what their username
and password are for their Naviance/Family
Connection account. We also struggle with not having
a point person who is well trained with the tool to train
teachers to use the tool. There just not enough time to
implement such a great tool.
No monies for counselors, resources, and time to work
meeting each student's individual needs

33
Buy-in! Making sure the ILP is in a format that is user-
friendly and easy to use but is engaging. With a small
number of counselors (1:510), staff buy-in would also
be essential.
ILPs should compare each individual's scores at the
beginning and end of the year to see what the student
accomplished during the school year. Currently, scores
are treated as an aggregate. It’s meaningless.
Scheduling time and students being on board and
taking ILP's seriously

34
Staff buy in!!! MUST be something easy for them to do
that doesn't require a lot of extra work on their part.
Scaling the process to 3000 students
Limited staffing to assist with this
Student buy-in and parent support
Carving out the time to make the interactions and work
surrounding ILPs both meaningful and relevant.
Developing curriculum to meet student need and
district expectations is also challenging.
Lack of knowledge on how to implement

35
Time for effective interactions to take place. Structure
for those interactions to take place. Skill capacity for
teachers to implement and supervise the ILP. This is
not what HS is—radical paradigm shift.
Lack of knowledge on how to implement
Resources and time
Time
Support and time
Training time for all staff and money to support its
effective use

36
Finding the right person who is qualified and the students
trust to work with students. It is time consuming and the
person must be willing to put in some extra work. An
extensive knowledge of the curriculum, student test
results, and college planning are important. I am the testing
coordinator, I teach a college credit class, I have been
principal in the building for 8 years, I have done college
planning for our seniors for the past 11 years - I have a strong
knowledge of all the pieces. We are small enough for this to
happen. I don't think this will be effect without the counselor
having a broad knowledge base and access/understanding of
all the tests/inventories completed by students.

37
Time for teachers to meaningfully develop and follow
ILPs. Our teachers see 200 students a day.
Time. Offering a transition course or careers course
Time
Money and staff buy-in to the programs
Time
Time constraints
IF this is going to be of value to anyone, it needs to be
a meaningful, useful, quick and easy to do. Quite
honestly, I feel it now is just one more piece of
paperwork we complete to satisfy a requirement

38
Overcoming the doubts of the teachers and parents
Teachers having time to track and enter data
Lack of point person, lack of school counselor
Keeping plans up to date, following plans when
courses and standards change, students switching
schools - will these follow with transcripts?? parent and
student "buy in" to the plans, is this a "one time
deal", technology and computers to support the
plan, teachers actually taking the time to complete
these with students and review them with
students, school budgets

39
Attitudes of people involved and people not following
through for student are "At Extreme Risk" of not
graduating on time with peers
Staff buy in. Teachers and counselors must believe in
the value in order to make them happen.

40
Many thanks to the Minnesota educators who shared
their time and insights.
Thanks to the Minnesota School Counselors
Association and the Minnesota Association of
Secondary School Principalsfor helping us publicize
the survey.
Thank you!

The Impact of Individual Learning Plans in Minnesota

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