Education and Career Action Plan (ECAP) process at Pinnacle Charter Schools.

Parents and families play a critical role in helping students plan for post-secondary success by providing support and guidance alongside educators and school counselors.

What is ECAP?
In 2008, the State Board of Education approved ECAPs for all Arizona students in grades 9-12. The goal of an ECAP is to guide students through an exploration and planning process to ensure a seamless transition from high school graduation to their chosen post-secondary pathway. The process involves self-exploration, career-exploration, and career planning and management activities, in which students learn about themselves and the post-secondary options available to them. This process allows students to connect academic courses and extracurricular activities to career goals that are aligned to individual interests, skills, and values. The resulting portfolio or plan is a compilation of academic course work, extracurricular activities, career aspirations, and a post-secondary plan for reaching career goals. The ECAP process and plan allows students and their parents to personalize the education experience in collaboration with school counselors and educators.

How can parents or guardians support their child in the ECAP process?
During this school year, your student’s counselors, instructional intervention specialists and teachers will help them explore interests, careers, colleges, scholarships, and more. However, an ECAP is not complete without participation from the family. Talk with your child at home about their strengths and talents, their future aspirations, and what type of postsecondary pathway they might be interested in: career, technical school, two-year College, four-year university, apprenticeships, military or volunteer service, etc.

Pinnacle Charter Schools uses AZCIS as a way to manage an electronic ECAP portfolio for each student. Ask your child’s counselor for parent log-in information so that you can be a part of this planning process.  Pinnacle requires all students in grades 9-12 to take an ECAP class along with Personal Learning Plans being completed yearly with counselors, instructional intervention specialists or teachers.  Please do not hesitate to contact your student’s guidance counselor or our school administration if you have any questions about the ECAP process. Call us at 1-888-746-3301.