By Janet Blandford, Director of College and Career Readiness; and Sativah Jones, Assistant Director of College and Career Readiness, Highline Public Schools
Reading time: Four minutes
When Ethan Mendoza, an 11th-grade student at Tyee High School, talks about being “future ready,” he isn’t thinking about checking off graduation requirements.
“Future ready is being prepared and not just going straight into any job,” he said. “It’s figuring out what I want to do with my life and building a plan around that.”
One of the most distinctive elements of Highline’s approach is when the work begins.
Students don’t encounter postsecondary planning for the first time in 11th grade. Instead, Highline introduces future-focused learning as early as elementary school, using play-based lessons that build self-awareness and curiosity.
By middle school, the focus expands. Students explore interests, interact with industry partners to learn about careers and get onto college campuses, all during the school day. In high school, exploration and experiences gradually narrow into concrete
plans.
This intentional arc means that when students formally engage with the HSBP in middle school, the ideas are familiar and connected.
Creating a College & Career Readiness System
At the state level, Washington's HSBP establishes important requirements and tools to support postsecondary planning. Highline educators have built that foundation by designing a districtwide system that deepens student engagement and connection.
"Our goal is to leverage the High School and Beyond Plan to help students understand who they are and what they care about, identify a possible career direction, and then work backward to determine the postsecondary pathway that best fits their aspirations,”
said Assistant Director of College and Career Readiness Sativah Jones.
Highline built a multi-layered system that includes:
Academic planning and advising
Required SchooLinks tasks aligned to grade-level milestones
Pre- and post-lessons that help students prepare for, reflect on and connect real-world experiences
These elements are intentionally sequenced from grades 6–12, creating a shared roadmap for students, families and educators.
Making Learning Relevant Through Experience
A cornerstone of Highline’s approach is ensuring that future planning is relevant. For example, every 10th-grade student participates in a career-aligned field experience connected to their emerging postsecondary interests. Each experience includes:
A pre lesson to help students set goals and understand why the experience matters
The experience itself, aligned to identified pathways
A post-lesson reflection, where students connect what they learned back to their plan
This timing is intentional. Exposure in 10th grade allows students to explore broadly, refine interests in 11th grade, and enter 12th grade ready to apply for programs, colleges and financial aid.
Families as Partners
Highline also recognized that meaningful postsecondary planning doesn’t happen without families.
Each grade level includes clear family touchpoints. This includes annual checklists, student-led conferences, financial aid support, and large-scale engagement events like Future Ready Fest in the fall, focused on postsecondary options, and CollegeCON
in the spring, centered on the High School and Beyond Plan. Families are invited into the process early and often.
“It’s helpful seeing everything in one place,” shared one parent at Future Ready Fest, reflecting
on how the event helped families understand postsecondary options.
Building the Infrastructure for Success
To support implementation, Highline has invested in:
Cross-school teams that include counselors, administrators, advisors, multilingual staff, and community partners
Ongoing feedback loops with educators and students
In August 2025, teams from every middle and high school came together to ground the work districtwide. They reconvened mid-year for reflection and will close the cycle with an end-of-year debrief.
“We don’t have everything figured out,” shared Director of College & Career Readiness Janet Blandford. “But we know that without the right infrastructure and resources, the real work with students can’t happen.”
Ultimately, Highline’s approach to the High School and Beyond Planning reflects the Highline Promise to know every student by name, strength and need, so that they graduate prepared for the future they choose. By building a coherent, developmentally appropriate
K–12 system that centers relationships, relevance and real-world experiences, Highline is helping students move beyond completing a requirement to confidently shaping what comes after graduation.
For more on how districts and schools can enable students' postsecondary success, including creating the enabling conditions at the district level and providing high-quality postsecondary advising, visitdistrict-framework.ncan.org.
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