North Dakota law asks school districts to give students a career interest inventory once in grade seven or eight and again in grade nine or ten. At least once in the seventh or eighth grade, students take part in an individual consultation or a nine-week course to discuss the results, select high school courses and develop an individual high school education plan. Done well, that plan follows the student through high school. Done in a hurry, it becomes a course list that is filed and forgotten.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

An interest inventory produces a result, and a consultation turns it into a course plan. What happens in between is up to the student. Without time to look at real colleges, trades, service branches and careers, the inventory result stays a label and the plan has little to grow from.

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 North Dakota schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in North Dakota

North Dakota sets the rules for dual credit in North Dakota Century Code Chapter 15.1-25. Students in grades 10 through 12 can take a course through a two-year or four-year institution and earn both high school and college credit, and before enrolling a student must obtain written permission from the school district superintendent. The North Dakota University System also offers a Dual-Credit Tuition Scholarship for students who completed at least one dual credit course from a North Dakota institution in high school and are now enrolled in a North Dakota higher education institution.

Students who explore careers and majors early can choose dual credit courses that will still matter once they reach college. Daily exploration, for example on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can help students arrive at that conversation with clearer interests.

Official program information: North Dakota University System and North Dakota Department of Public Instruction →

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

  • Follow the inventory with exploration. After the career interest inventory in grade nine or ten, point students to places where they can look at the colleges, trades and careers their results suggest.
  • Remind students they can ask for a review. State law entitles high school students, upon request, to a consultative review of their individual high school education plan. Exploration gives them a reason to ask.
  • Tie exploration to Choice Ready conversations. Choice Ready is part of North Dakota's accountability system. Students who have explored their options come to those conversations with clearer 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. What students find there gives them something real to bring to an education plan review. It supports, and does not replace, North Dakota's education and career planning 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 North Dakota high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.