WHAT IS A
TAP
?
A
TAP is a Texas Achievement Plan, and it’s a smart postsecondary education goals. Don’t worry. You aren’t
idea to create one to guide your studies through locked into your choices. You should revisit your TAP
high school and into college or other postsecondary at least once a year to update it. You can change clusters,
education or training. Your TAP represents your chance programs of study, and career and postsecondary goals as
to take control of your education and career choices. your interests and ambitions change. Having a plan—even
Working with your parents/guardians and guidance if it changes—is smarter than having no idea of what you
counselor, you can pick the cluster on which you want to do and why you are attending school. Here’s how
want to focus your studies as well as your career and to fill out your TAP.
pick a program of study within the
choose a career cluster on which to
list basic
cluster. there are three programs of
focus your high school and college or
information such as
study within the education & training
postsecondary studies. the idea is to
your name and school.
cluster (see page 12).
offer you a seamless route to follow from
high school, through college or other
postsecondary education, and into a career.
Pla
n
choose one or more occupations for
not all texas schools offer all clusters, so
tex
as
Ac
hie
vem
en
t
which you would like to prepare. Use
ask your guidance counselor which clusters
Nam
e: Ta
ylor
jone
s
resources such as oscar (www.ioscar.
are available at your school.
Sch
ool:
spr
ingfi
eld H
igh s
choo
l
org/tx) to research your options.
Clus
ter:
educ
ation
&Tr
ainin
g
Prog
ram
of S
tudy
: Tea
chin
g & T
raini
ng
scip
linar
y stu
dies
Care
er G
oal:
elem
enta
ry sc
hool
Tea
cher
12th
Grad
e
Pos
tsec
ond
ary
Goa
l: Te
ache
r ce
rtific
ation
, bac
helo
r’s d
egre
e in
mult
idi
11th
Grad
e
plan for what you want to do after high school.
10th
Grad
e precal
culus
9th Gra
de
algeb
ra II
your goal may be to attend a four-year university
geom
etry en
glish
Iv
algeb
ra I
engli
sh III
or two-year college, join the military, or enter an
engli
sh II
ap e
nviro
nmen
tal s
cienc
e
apprenticeship program. your postsecondary goal
engli
sh I
phys
ics
chem
istry
nt/ec
onom
ics
should influence the classes you take in high school;
biolo
gy
u.s.
Histo
ry
gove
rnme
worl
d His
tory
for example, you will need certain course credits to w
orld g
eogr
aphy
qualify for admission to a college.
lang
uage
s oth
er Th
an en
glish
I
lang
uage
s oth
er Th
an en
glish
II
com
mun
icatio
n ap
plica
tions
fine
arts
read
y, se
t, Tea
ch! II
Heal
th/pe
or e
quiva
lent
Tech
nolog
y app
licati
ons
pe or
equi
valen
t
or e
xplor
ing e
duca
tion
read
y, se
t, Tea
ch! I career
s or
fam
ily an
d
child
deve
lopm
ent
or e
xplor
ing e
duca
tion
care
er m
anag
emen
t or
pers
onal
and f
amily
or p
repa
ratio
n for
pare
nting
care
ers o
r la
ngua
ges Independ
ent s
tudy
or
sketch
ages
othe
r Tha
n
out your schedule of classes for your dev
elopm
ent o
r sp
eech
or In
divid
ual a
nd fa
mily
life
othe
r Tha
n eng
lish I
II
lang
u
engli
sh Iv
high school years. most of your time will be
com
mun
icatio
ns o
r pu
blic
or e
xplor
ing e
duca
tion c
areer
s
spea
king
spent taking your core academic courses. by
carefully selecting your electives, you can get
am

the education and experience you need to start
Curr
icula
r Exp
erien
ces:
fam
ily, c
aree
r and
com
mun
ity le
ader
s of a
meri
ca; T
exas
asso
ciatio
n of f
uture
educ
ators
toward the profession of your choice.
Extr
acur
ricu
lar E
xper
ienc
es: 4
-H Yo
uth d
evelo
pmen
t, lan
guag
e Imm
ersio
n pro
gram
s, sc
hool
new
spap
er, sp
eech
and
deba
te Te
d
Caree
r Lea
rnin
g Ex
peri
ence
s: ca
reer
prep
arati
on—
paid
and u
npaid
, Inte
rnsh
ips, j
ob sh
adow
ing
after
scho
ol aid
e; ca
mpu
s ser
vice
orga
nizat
ions;
rea
dy, s
et, r
ea
Serv
ice L
earn
ing E
xper
ienc
es: b
efore
/
pick extended learning activities that complement
a Career Portfolio (see page 15) is a
your classes (see page 14). Work on community
good way to organize information about your
service projects. plan for paid and unpaid career
educational experiences, record results of
learning experiences, such as job shadowing and career interest and abilities assessments,
internships. all these extracurricular activities and hold examples of your best work.
can give you experience that will help you get into
include a tap in your portfolio.
college or land a job.
Page 5
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24