New Mexico students prepare an interim next-step plan at the end of grades eight through eleven and complete a final next-step plan during the senior year, before graduation. State law asks that each year's plan align to the graduate profile of the student's school district or charter school. Done well, the plan is a yearly conversation about where a student is heading. Done in a hurry, it becomes a signature page.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

The next-step plan sets out the coursework for the grades that remain and is signed by the student, a parent and the school counselor or other official charged with coursework planning. That meeting is short, and a student who has never looked at a college, a trade or a branch of service has little to bring to it. A plan is only as strong as the exploration behind it.

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 New Mexico schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in New Mexico

New Mexico high school students can take college courses through the Dual Credit Program, established in state law (NMSA 1978 Section 21-1-1.2) and carried out through rules adopted by the Higher Education Department and the Public Education Department. Students must meet eligibility requirements at both their high school and the college. According to the Higher Education Department, public colleges, universities, and some tribal colleges have agreed to waive tuition and general fees for dual credit students.

Students who explore careers and majors before choosing dual credit courses can pick classes that count toward a real goal rather than filling a schedule. Daily exploration, for example on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can help students arrive at that conversation with clearer interests.

Official program information: New Mexico Higher Education Department and New Mexico Public Education Department →

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

  • Explore before the plan is signed. Give students time to look at colleges, skilled trades, military service and careers in the weeks before the interim next-step plan is prepared at the end of the year.
  • Connect the plan to the graduate profile. Each year's plan is aligned to the local graduate profile. Ask students which options they explored fit the skills that profile describes.
  • Revisit what changed. The statute asks each plan to explain differences from earlier interim plans. Invite students to explore again each year so those changes reflect real discovery.
  • 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. What students discover there gives them something concrete to bring to the next-step plan conversation each year. It supports, and does not replace, New Mexico's next-step plan 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 New Mexico high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.