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 five programs of study
chooSe a career cluster on which to
liST basic
within the law, Public Safety, corrections
focus your high school and college or
information such as
& Security cluster (see 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:
law
, pub
lic s
afety
, cor
recti
ons
& se
curit
y
Prog
ram
of S
tudy
: em
erge
ncy
and
fire
man
agem
ent s
ervic
es
Care
er G
oal:
fire
fight
er
chel
or’s
deg
ree i
n fir
e sc
ienc
e
Pos
tsec
ond
ary
Goa
l: Ba
sic f
irefig
hter
cert
ifica
tion,
Ba
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
II
algeb
ra I
engli
sh I
or two-year college, join the military, or enter an
engli
sh II
apprenticeship program. your postsecondary goal
engli
sh I
phys
ics
anat
omy
& ph
ysiol
ogy
chem
istry overnme
nt/ec
onom
ics
should influence the classes you take in high school;
Biolo
gy
u.s.
Histo
ry
g
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
othe
r Tha
n eng
lish I
lang
uage
othe
r Tha
n eng
lish I
I
com
mun
icatio
n ap
plica
tions
fine
arts
ener
gy, p
ower
, and
Heal
th/pe
or e
quiva
lent
Tech
nolog
y app
licati
ons
pe or
equi
valen
t
Trans
porta
tion s
ystem
s
eme
rgen
cy co
mmu
nicat
ions
or
r
crim
inal I
nves
tigati
on o or c
ourts
and

Heal
th sc
ience
Tech
nolog
y I or
crim
inal p
roced
ure o
r
fire p
reven
tion s
ervic
es o
r
fund
amen
tals o
f crim
inal
firefi
ghte
r II o
r
Intro
ducti
on to
crim
inal J
ustic
e
law
or f
irefig
hter
I
geog
raph
ic Inf
orma
tion
SkeTch
or In
trodu
ction
to H
ealth fire s
ervic
e Hyd
raulic
s or

out your schedule of classes for your
e
or c
rime
in am
erica
syste
ms (g
Is)
scien
ce Te
chno
logy
or f
ir
firefi
ghte
r Hea
lth an
d sa
fety
high school years. most of your time will be
scien
ce Te
chno
logy or
Tech
nolog
y sys
tems
(mod
ular-
Base
d lab
)
spent taking your core academic courses. By

carefully selecting your electives, you can get
Curr
icula
r Exp
erien
ces:
skill
susa
, Hea
lth o
ccup
ation
s stu
dent
s of a
meri
ca
t cou
ncil,
mock
Trial
the education and experience you need to start
Extr
acur
ricu
lar E
xper
ienc
es: e
xplor
er pr
ogra
m, s
tude
n
toward the profession of your choice.
Caree
r Lea
rnin
g Ex
peri
ence
s: ca
reer
prep
arati
on—
paid
and u
npaid
, Job
sha
dowi
ng, In
terns
hips
er Tu
torin
g, pe
er m
entor
ing
peri
ence
s: co
mmu
nity s
ervic
e, pe
Serv
ice L
earn
ing E
x
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
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