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
cluster. There are four programs within
chOOsE a career cluster on which to
lisT basic
the information Technology cluster (see
focus your high school and college or
information such as
page 12).
postsecondary studies. The idea is to
your name and school.
offer you a seamless route to follow from
high school, through college or other
postsecondary education, and into a career.
chOOsE one or more occupations
not all Texas schools offer all clusters, so
tex
as
Ac
hie
vem
en
t P
lan
for which you would like to prepare.
ask your guidance counselor which clusters
Nam
e: Ta
ylor
jone
s
use resources such as OscAR (www.
are available at your school.
Sch
ool:
spr
ingfi
eld H
igh s
choo
l
ioscar.org/tx) to research your options.
Clus
ter:
Infor
mati
on T
echn
olog
y
Prog
ram
of S
tudy
: pro
gram
ming
& s
oftw
are d
evel
opm
ent
deg
ree i
n so
ftwa
re en
gine
ering
Care
er G
oal:
sof
twar
e en
gine
er
Pos
tsec
ond
ary
Goa
l: ja
va c
ertifi
ed p
rogr
amm
er, a
+ ce
rtific
ate,
bach
elor’
s
11th
Grad
e
12th
Grad
e
PlAn
10th
Grad
e precalc
ulus
for what you want to do after high school.
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 m
ental
syst
ems
apprenticeship program. your postsecondary goal
engli
sh I
phys
ics
envir
on
chem
istry
should influence the classes you take in high school;
biolo
gy
u.s.
Histo
ry
gove
rnme
nt/ec
onom
ics
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
com
pute
r scie
nce I
I
Heal
th/pe
or e
quiva
lent
Tech
nolog
y app
licati
ons
pe or
equi
valen
t
or
busin
ess c
ompu
ter
Intro
ducti
on to

prog
ramm
ing II
career p
repa
ratio
n
Infor
mati
on Te
chno
logy
or
or
or
busin
ess c
ompu
ter In
form
ation
busin
ess c
ompu
ter p
rogra
mmi
ng I
com
pute
r scie
nce I Indep
ende
nt st
udy
sKETch out your schedule of classes for your
syste
ms I
or c
ompu
ter
high school years. most of your time will be
appl
icatio
ns o
r Int
rodu
ction
to
com
pute
r ma
inten
ance
spent taking your core academic courses. By

carefully selecting your electives, you can get
Curr
icula
r Exp
erien
ces:
busi
ness
prof
essio
nals
of am
erica
(bpa
), fut
ure b
usine
ss le
ader
s of a
meri
ca (f
bla)
, skil
lsus
a
s, jo
b sh
adow
ing
the education and experience you need to start
Extr
acur
ricu
lar E
xper
ienc
es: c
ompu
ter Tu
tor, j
unior
engi
neer
ing T
echn
ical s
ociet
y, sc
hool
class
offic
er, u
Il
couts
toward the profession of your choice.
Caree
r Lea
rnin
g Ex
peri
ence
s: ca
reer
prep
arati
on—
paid
and u
npaid
, Inte
rnsh
ip
unity
serv
ice v
olunt
eer, g
irl s
Serv
ice L
earn
ing E
xper
ienc
es: b
oy sc
outs,
com
m
PicK extended learning activities that complement
your classes (see page 14). Work on community
A Career Portfolio (see page 15) is a
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
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