Mississippi's Public School Accountability Standards call for students to have an Individual Success Plan (ISP) before they leave 7th grade. The Mississippi Department of Education describes the ISP as a process, not a document, and as a five-year career exploration plan. Its guidance has school counselors and students revisit and revise the plan every year.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

A 7th grader can only plan around the options he or she has seen. When the ISP is written before a student has explored colleges, skilled trades, military service and careers, the first draft tends to stay the only draft. The same is true of Mississippi's diploma endorsements: a student is in a better position to aim for a career and technical, academic, or distinguished academic endorsement after seeing where each one can go.

What students tell us

Across the 13th Year™ network, students are most open early, and their options narrow as graduation gets closer:

  • 32%of 9th graders are weighing more than one path after high school. By 12th grade, 16% are.
  • 53%of 9th graders are interested in more than one career field, compared with 33% of seniors.
  • 11%of 9th graders say they are not sure yet what comes next. Only 2% of seniors say so.
  • 23%of students planning on college are also considering another path, such as the skilled trades, the military, work or a business of their own.

For planning, that means the most valuable exploration happens in the first years of high school, while students are still open to what they find.

Figures come from more than 3,800 responses students submitted at 13th Year™ kiosks and school links across the 13th Year™ network in 2026, not only Mississippi schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in Mississippi

Mississippi Code section 37-15-38 provides for dual enrollment and dual credit programs that let high school students earn postsecondary credit. The dual enrollment system is set up jointly by the local school board, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi Community College Board, and a memorandum of understanding is required between each postsecondary institution and school district offering dual credit. Statewide procedures appear in the IHL Procedures Manual for Dual Enrollment and Accelerated Programs. The Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid reported that the 2024 Legislature did not continue funding the Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Scholarship, so none were offered for 2024-25.

Students who explore career and college options early, for example through daily exploration on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can choose dual credit courses that match the program they plan to pursue.

Official program information: Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and Mississippi Community College Board, with local school boards →

What students need before the planning meeting

The most productive planning conversations happen when a student walks in with something to talk about: a career they read about, a program that surprised them, a question about the military or an apprenticeship. That kind of curiosity comes from exposure, and exposure works best when it is frequent, self-directed and part of the school day.

Practical ways to build exploration into the year

  • Put exploration ahead of the first ISP. Give 7th graders time to look at careers, colleges and training options before the plan is written, so the first version reflects real interests.
  • Treat the yearly revisit as a real update. State guidance has school counselors and students revisit and revise the ISP every year. Ask students to bring one new option they explored since the last review.
  • Connect the ISP to the endorsement conversation. When students and families discuss the career and technical, academic, and distinguished academic endorsements, use the ISP to show how each choice fits the student's goals.
  • Make exploration self-serve. Let students explore on their own time, so counselor time goes to the conversations that need it.

Where the Student Pathway System™ goes

13th Year™ places an interactive college and career kiosk in a school's hallway, a modern guidance resource students use before, during and after school. That steady exploration gives students something concrete to bring to their ISP and to each yearly review. It supports, and does not replace, Mississippi's ISP process and school counselors.

For administrators, the questions are usually privacy and workload. The 13th Year™ platform is FERPA aligned and designed with student privacy considerations in mind. It does not access the high school's student information system, and no student data is sold. Kiosks come at no cost to the school, and 13th Year™ delivers, installs and supports every kiosk, so it is built to support your counselors, not burden them.

See how 13th Year™ supports Mississippi high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.