Jennifer Bento: [00:00:00] Okay, so let’s get started. We have a lot to pack into this 60 minutes this morning. So welcome and thank you for joining. Uh, my name is Jennifer Bento Pinion. I’m director of K12 services here at MEFA. I’m joined, um, by the amazing MEFA Pathway team. Um, we have Apleona Joseph, um, Orkidea Montero, uh, Andrea Keenan, I think is here today, uh, Elizabeth Moore, and Sarah Castillo.

Uh, we are excited, uh, to unveil the newly redesigned MEFA Pathway for you today. Uh, while the core features, um, and functionality are in place, the platform will continue to evolve, uh, throughout this academic year. Uh, so as we, um, introduce additional enhancements and refine the look and feel, um, Orkidea will lead us [00:01:00] through today’s demonstration.

She’s going to be highlighting the new features and tools available in MEFA Pathway. All right, so before we get started, just a few, uh, quick logistics. Uh, the chat feature is disabled, uh, so if you have a question, uh, during the weba- webinar, please submit that through the Q&A. Uh, Orkidea may address, uh, many of your questions throughout the presentation, and we’ll pause, uh, at a few points to answer, um, anything appropriate live.

Um, closed captioning is available, as you can see, um, uh, at the bottom of your screen. Um, and if you have to leave early, no worries. Uh, we are recording the session and we will be sending the recording, uh, along with the slides, uh, following this webinar. Okay, so a little bit about MEFA. Uh, MEFA, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, is a state authority that has been helping families, uh, plan, save, and pay for college for over 40 [00:02:00] years.

Uh, we’re supporting students, families throughout the college planning process, and that continues to be at the heart of our mission

Okay. So MEFA is proud to have provided students, families, and educators across Massachusetts with a free college and career planning portal since 2011. So over the years, uh, this has evolved to meet the changing needs, uh, of, of the people we serve. Uh, and many of you may have been with us, uh, throughout this journey.

Uh, so we started, uh, back in 2011 with Your Plan for College. Uh, this was developed, uh, at the bequest of then Governor Deval Patrick. So this early platform, uh, focused on helping high school students, uh, navigate college exploration and planning for after graduation. Uh, we realized then that we needed to really expand our target [00:03:00] audience, and Your Plan for the Future was born.

Uh, this iteration expanded the focus to include more career exploration, uh, in a, in a broader range of post-secondary pathways. So then come June 2017, MEFA Pathway became available. So building on the foundation of previous platforms, uh, MEFA Pathway brought together college and career readiness tools, uh, individualized planning, uh, support for MyCAP and work-based learning initiatives, um, along with, uh, integration of Common App and Parchment Okay, so now we’re, we’re entering an exciting new chapter with a complete redesign of MEFA Pathway.

Uh, our current platform, uh, will be retired in June of two thousand twenty-seven, uh, paving the way for the full launch of the redesigned platform for the two thousand twenty-seven, uh, twenty-eight school year. So the platform is built on, uh, [00:04:00] years really, of, of valuable feedback from educators, uh, students, families.

Um, and the redesigned MEFA Pathway platform will offer expanded, uh, college and career planning tools, advanced resources to help students explore their interests, uh, discover opportunities and plan for their future. Uh, so while the platform continues to evolve, our commitment remains the same, uh, providing Massachusetts, uh, students and, and educators with, uh, meaningful, accessible, and cost-free college and career planning resources.

So with that, Orchidea is going to take us through, uh, a few slides and, and then we’re going to go live into the, the redesigned site. All right, take it away, Orchidea.

Apelila Joseph: Thank you so much, Jennifer, and hi, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here with you today and to introduce you to the redesigned MEFA Pathway.

I will tap in at one point Elizabeth to help me demo as well. Um, and as Jennifer mentioned here, MEFA [00:05:00] Pathway is really a one-stop shop for, uh, college and career readiness. So bringing together all of those tools and resources that students need in order to discover, explore, plan, and prepare as you see here.

Something that’s really, um, uh, the foundation of MEFA Pathway is cen– a career being at the center, career being that destination for students, and MEFA Pathway is supporting students getting to that destination, whether your students are going straight into the military, going to college, or right into the workforce right after high school.

Next slide please, Jennifer Awesome. So here are some core solutions. MEFA Pathway is supporting students from grades six through 12, and we are giving educators and families the resources to helps, to help guide students through and through. So the redesigned platform focuses on making the experience intuitive for students and providing personalized career planning tools, supporting work-based [00:06:00] learning, and giving educators the tools to monitor the student progress in real time.

So we will show you all of that today, which is really exciting. And in making sure that the tool is seamless to use for all, um, we provide lots of support, lots of professional learning opportunities as well. Um, so we wanna make sure that you all have the, the tools in the toolbox to utilize the platform to, to its max capacity Next slide, please.

So here is a quick punch list of those MEFA Pathway features. Um, we have research-based assessments, and the platform really drives off, uh, off of these assessments because we give suggestions to students based on their results, which is really neat, and we will show you that today. MEFA Pathway is supporting MyCAP in all of your schools and districts MyCAP activities, like goal setting, financial tools, as well as course plans.

MEFA Pathway supports college access and prep, including the College Match [00:07:00] feature and, as Jennifer mentioned, that college, um, the Common App integration right in our platform. MEFA Pathway also supports work-based learning and offers a lifelong portfolio, so your students will have access to their assessment results and resumes even after they graduate high school, which is really special.

And we also provide lesson plans as part of career guidelines curriculum, so we will literally hand those off to you so that you have them readily avail-available and accessible for you and your students. Robust self-service data that you all can obtain right from the admin portal, and we will show you where that lives today.

Single sign-on, so you and your students can easily sign in, and I will show you today those different options when we sign into our student demo account. Um, but just again, making it easy for you all to just, with a click of a button, be able to log in. And also SIS integration, so making the rostering process super easy, and we literally transfer your roster over to our platform, which [00:08:00] is awesome as well.

Next slide, please, Jennifer. So I would like to take a moment to highlight work-based learning. Um, so again, here’s just a quick punch list of what’s included with our work-based learning features. Um, so not only is it an, an embedded part of the career portfolio for your students, capturing certifications, student resumes, cover letters, but students can also log their time right in our platform.

They can log their pay stubs right in our platform. Um, and as educators and businesses are uploading, um, opportunities into the platform, educators can also suggest, um, opportunities for students. So we’ll, we’ll dive into just a little bit, a, a little sneak peek of that today, but we are having a, um, a webinar that’s focused on work-based learning.

So we wanna make sure that we can save all of those fun, um, features that we have for you for then. Awesome. So with that, um, I would like to take a moment to now transition our screens, [00:09:00] and I am excited to jump into the demo for you all. If you can just give me one second to share my screen here Awesome.

So here I am. I am starting on the landing page. This is the redesigned, um, landing page for you all here. Um, and I’m gonna click Log In. Here we see these different portals here. So you’ll see Student, Parent and Guardians, Admins, and Businesses. So really quick, just wanna go over them. So here’s the student one, and here I mentioned students can single sign on by clicking on Clever or FastLink, depending on what their school utilizes.

And with a single sign on, they’re able to log into our platform, which is really neat. I wanna call out the Parents and Guardians tab here. Um, we do have a portal for our family members as well so that families can follow their students. Our admin [00:10:00] portal, so this is for all educators, counselors, teachers, admins.

They all live within this admin portal here. And then businesses as well. So as I mentioned, for work-based learning, businesses can upload opportunities for students here. Today, we’re gonna focus on students and admins, um, but as I mentioned, no worries. We’ll have plenty of webinars that will jump into these other features as well.

I’m gonna do a manual login today to show you a demo account. So here I am signing in, and today I am serving as Ollie, a twelfth-grade student, as you see here. Awesome. So Ollie is greeted. We have their grade up to the right. I wanna point out that the student menu is on the left-hand side. So here you’ll see all the different tabs for students to navigate.

Awesome. To the top right, you’ll see My Portfolio. I will be diving into this in just a second, um, but I do wanna call out here we have a [00:11:00] notification center. So students are getting in-app notifications, which is super awesome. So as educators, um, you are able to, on your admin side, send an in-app message to students and they will be able to see that right here.

To the right of that, I have a globe, and this globe allows me to translate the full MEFA Pathway platform to Spanish. And as part of those enhancements that Jennifer mentioned, we are adding more languages here. Mm-hmm. So with that, I’ll also mention that we do have enhancements coming out at the end of this month, and we will continue to have enhancements, um, come into production as we continue to evolve our platform.

Awesome. So let me jump back into my portfolio. So in alignment with MyCAP, here we have, um, job search tools that are gearing up our students. I’m gonna show you a couple of these features. I’m gonna jump into the resume builder. Here, I have already, [00:12:00] um, drafted a resume for you all to see with me today. Um, but students are able to easily come in and fulfill these buckets, um, in their resume, making it super easy for students to add as much, um, as they need to, um, and also to create as many resumes as they would like, right, for, for different reasons.

Let’s pre- preview this together. And here you’ll see that the platform will create and put together all of those different buckets for students in one resume. Um, I also have the opportunity to change the format, the style as well. So as I’m scrolling, you’ll see all of those different experiences here.

And then a student can download it, right, and be able to share accordingly. Also, within my portfolio, I wanna show you cover letters. This is new as well. Um, and again, students can easily, um, create a cover letter here. We have different pockets for them to complete. Um, [00:13:00] and then let’s look at this together so that you can see an example when it’s all put together for your students Awesome.

And one more thing, I wanna show you eProfile. Here’s another tool for students. Um, this is an example of an eProfile here. It’s a secured link, so this link, um, can only be, um, opened by those who have, uh, the link. So, um, it’s not readily accessible right on the internet. This is very secured, so, um, students will feel comfortable sharing this eProfile, um, with their job applications or college applications, for example Awesome.

So here I am. I’m going back to my homepage. I do wanna call out these assessments here that are really at the heart of our platform. And as I mentioned, um, during the slides, um, we drive, uh, suggestions for students based on their assessment results, um, which is really [00:14:00] neat. Um, before we get into the assessments, and I tap in Elizabeth to talk a little bit more about that, I do wanna scroll down and show you here recommended resources.

Um, so as educators, you are able to post a resource for students, and it’ll be right here front and center on their homepage. So anything that’s super important for them to have quick access to, you can list them here. And I do wanna call out, I have an example here for a scholarship list, and that is one enhancement that’s also coming out at the end of the month, and we’re really excited for that because as educators, you all are able to upload your local scholarship list, and students are then able to explore those opportunities and also keep track of those local scholarship opportunities that they are applying to right in our platform, which is really neat as well Awesome.

So I’m going to take a moment to just pause here. I’m gonna scroll back up to those wonderful assessments, and I am going to invite Elizabeth, um, to now share her screen, um, to [00:15:00] touch on a f- few more features on the student side and also jump into the admin side

Orquidia Montero: Absolutely. Good morning. Thank you, Arkadia. It is lovely to be with you all Grab my screen really quickly. All right. So looking at those foundational assessments, thank you, Arkia, for giving us the lay of the land with those portfolio items and a first look at the newly redesigned MEFA pathway. As we’re driving into research-based assessments, students are going to see these foundational assessments right on their home page.

The assessments start as early as sixth grade, and students are able to learn about themselves through the interest assessment. As students move into seventh grade and older, they’re going to be presented with additional assessments to complete each year. And we do recommend that students take these on an annual [00:16:00] basis.

They take about ten to fifteen minutes to each be completed. And as students are taking these assessments, they’re able to continue learning about themselves as they’re growing and changing over time. Students are able to retake them multiple times if needed. They’re not going to be penalized in any way, shape, or form.

And as students are taking these assessments, they’re even able to look back in time and see what these assessment results were in previous school years As we move into the assessment results, students are presented with their top career pathways, and research shows that students can work in any one of these top five areas and enjoy what they do.

So as students are presented with these areas, we encourage them to open these up, learn about them, really research and explore these different areas to get an idea of what these are. Coming out of the classroom, my students often had never heard of these, these different pathways and industries, so it’s an [00:17:00] important exploration activity.

As students are taking their career assessments, they’re going to be driven to your local CTE programs. And so this is where your school, your district will work with our team to load your local CTE programs. So I can see that based on my assessment results, I’m being driven towards these. Think of them as a high school major, and then we do oft– also provide, um, post-secondary majors.

So right here where it says Massachusetts CTE Pathways, it would say the name of your local school or district, and you can see that I’m connecting with marketing, dental assisting, and medical assisting based on these assessment results. I’m able to open up the details of these pathways and learn more about this particular program.

So again, this is student-facing content. You get to control it, and it’s a great way to promote and recruit for your CTE, and it can also be any other academic program that you’d like to, [00:18:00] um, include in the system. So students are able to get an idea of what this particular pathway is, as well as driving to the program, and then they can see a list of the courses to start to think through, “Do these courses sound like me as I’m moving through school?”

Students are able to save their favorite CTE pathways and academic pathways just so they can easily revisit them, and everything that students are saving goes right into that por-portfolio in that Favorites area Now we do want to make all of the information available to students. So while I’m able to see my CTE matches and my academic matches, students can also come over here to the action area, let me zoom in here, and they’re able to print off.

They can contact, um, a point of contact for the school or the district to get more information about this particular program. If you don’t want to include a [00:19:00] contact, you don’t have to for your school or district, but it is an option. But students can also view all of the different pathways available to them at their school.

If you have multiple locations, those will be listed here, and students are able to explore and see details of all these different academic and CTE pathways. So as students are taking these foundational assessments, the foundational assessments are used to drive students to opportunities, to connect them with local training programs, as well as work-based learning, which we’ll have upcoming webinars to discuss As students are taking these assessments, um, we of course are not only driving them to industries, but we’re also driving them to occupations.

Now, students will sometimes, you know, look at this information and, and, you know, think, “Oh, it’s telling me to be A.” And we do make some occupation rec- recommendations, but we really [00:20:00] use this as well as a tool to help students understand opportunities, to maybe consider things that they’ve never thought of before, and learn about the workforce, the industry, and the occupations, um, available to them.

So when we come over here to occupations suggested by assessment results, students are able to quickly look and see, uh, different jobs that are connecting to their interest, skills, and values. And I’ve got some, some content in here as an example. So students are able to open up any of these occupations and really drill into the details.

Occupations that have a bright outlook will have a sun next to them, and if an occupation has a green leaf, that means it’s a job that promotes a green economy. As students get in here, they’re able to start watching videos, this is very popular with our students, and really start to explore and learn about different occupations, and we do encourage you and your [00:21:00] students to take time to really watch and learn and review different occupations.

On this homepage, we’ve got these quick facts where students can see those, you know, quick details and information that they’re typically looking for answers to their questions around. And as I scroll down, we can see details of these occupations. So for this particular job, I’m able to see that community health workers work in a variety of different environments, and sometimes students are surprised all of the different places that they may find an occupation.

We can also see details about work schedules, tasks, so this really can help our students make real-world decisions. When I was in the classroom, students would often say, “Ms. Moore, why did it tell me that I should consider,” you know, fill in the blank, whichever job. And so students are able to come over here to interest, skills, and work values, and explore the career personality of people who [00:22:00] enjoy working as a community health worker.

Um, in this situation or in this scenario, um, people who enjoy working in community health are first and foremost social, but they’re also enterprising, and so students may be surprised to learn that there’s a lot of leadership that comes with these types of positions. Students are also able to see a list of skill sets, and with these skill sets, students can start thinking about How can I work on these skills today?

So maybe, you know, for the next, uh, quarter, uh, for our school year, for the semester, for the quarter, we’re going to work on paying attention and giving full attention to when people are presenting or when people are giving us instructions. And so not only can students see the skill sets for an occupation, but they can even come up here to the portfolio and start writing SMART goals around the skills that they’re going to be working on, and we’ll talk about that in just a moment.

We also can see the work [00:23:00] values. So for someone who enjoys this line of work, they really value, um, strong relationships with their coworkers as well as creativity and independence, and students can get a little bit of verbiage around why that is Now, when I take my work value assessment, it’s going to recommend different occupations based on my value system, and we of course know that work values help individuals stay in positions for the long haul.

Students are able to see salary information. So of course, my students always wanted to know how much a particular job was going to pay. And so we can come over here to salary and see that in the state of Massachusetts, and even in specific regions, so looking at the Boston area, we can see yearly and hourly wages for individual jobs.

Students are also able to see how jobs compare locally versus, um, how it pays nationally, and so can start thinking about those [00:24:00] details. One of the things that I so appreciate about the, the MEFA Pathway tool is that students can quickly connect with a lot of different occupations and really take the time to explore.

So it’s very easy to go in and start accessing different jobs. Um, so under Related Occupations, if students are thinking, “You know, I really like health education, but what else?” I can come over here to Related Occupations and see other typical types of work that might be a great related area for career starters, and students can go in and continue exploring.

If there is a related military occupation, that will be listed as well, so students are able to see those details too. So looking at this particular job, if I’m thinking, “This sounds really good. I’m interested in this. I would like to take this on,” I can come over here to the star and save it as a favorite.

And now we have a data point. Not only can students quickly get back to that [00:25:00] favorite occupation in their portfolio, they can see it linked out in their eProfile, as Erkidia shared with you a moment ago. But now, educators, you have a data point to very quickly see, in aggregate or individually, which students have an interest in family and community services, in health education, and start creating those…

or use this to support your curated career exploration events where students are engaging with guest speakers, field trips, and really have a personal invite to explore those areas that they have an interest in All right, so we’ve been taking a deep dive for the last moment into the occupation search, and all of this came off of those career assessments.

We’re gonna transition for the next few moments to look at a few other resources available in MEFA Pathway, and then driving ultimately to MyCAP course plans, um, and we’ll look just for a moment at work-based learning. So under our Plan for Education, [00:26:00] we are able to see a variety of resources, and this is where you’re going to find, um, a number of the pieces that Arcadia called out a moment ago with, um, Common App, Parchment, all those pieces, and we’ll have future trainings to support that.

But I want to drive your attention to Finance 101. Um, note that under Plan for Education, we have resources about scholarships, as Arcadia called out earlier, as well as the FAFSA and financial aid. So looking at Finance 101, you have nine chapters of financial literacy content, and each of these chapters includes activities and lesson plans that are going to be provided to you, uh, to support.

And so in each of these chapters, students are able to go in, access the information. They’re able to get an idea of what they’re going to be learning in that particular chapter, and then really start to engage in different activities. And again, there’s activities in the system that you can pull for students to complete either in the portal or either print and complete external to the [00:27:00] portal.

So with the financial literacy piece, um, students are able to access this, believe it or not, as early as sixth grade. And with the financial literacy, they can continue to come back to it throughout their school years. So this is something that you can either divide up locally and sprinkle it throughout the student experience, building it into MyCAP activities, really however you want to roll it out locally.

As we are moving through planning for education, um, lot of resources available here, but wanna move us right into, uh, the MyCAP piece. And so with MyCAP, students are able to go in and really get an idea of what they’re going to be doing throughout their school experience. So as I move into MyCAP, um, keep in mind that the example you’re looking at on your screen today is here as an example.

[00:28:00] This can be structured to how you roll out MyCAP at your local school, across your district, to really meet how you structure those activities each school year. We’ve named this one MyCAP, but you can even adjust the name to include how you refer to it with your students, if you tie a school mascot or logo to it or your school’s name.

Um, and I can see that for Ollie, we have activities for Ollie to complete before graduation, as well as specific grade level example, uh, grade level activities. So before graduation, we can see that Ollie has been guided to go in and explore different favorite occupations, look at colleges and majors, um, and to really think about what Ollie wants to do after graduation.

Now, as I move into twelfth grade, which is Ollie’s current grade, we can see that Ollie’s about halfway there, so really doing great for the beginning of the [00:29:00] school year. Um, Ollie has gone in and taken career assessments this school year. And moving into those key job search tools, Ollie has been busy with reve- resumes, references, and cover letters.

So a number of these are completed inside of the MEFA Pathway system, and these are going to be checked off automatically as Ollie completes. If there’s activities external to the system, for example, completing the FAFSA or opting out, then these are custom areas that you can add in order to even include activities that are external to MEFA Pathway, but that still support MyCAP.

So again, all of this can be configured based on how you roll out, uh, MyCAP locally. If we roll back to, uh, tenth grade, we can see that, and I’m looking into the past, but if Ollie had completed these activities in previous years, we would see all of that documentation [00:30:00] here. Um, notice that we do have an area for goals, and so this will take Ollie directly into goal setting to be able to complete those activities.

As students are moving through the MyCAP, um, activities, when I come up here to the top of the screen, we have a preview stu- students can pull. We can even pull a print preview. But students are able to turn this in when they are ready for it to be reviewed by their advisor. And so, um, and we have the language advisor, so whoever would approve these locally, and students are able to submit these annually, really however often you want them to be submitted.

Once submitted, it’ll show the student’s signature on the MyCAP for that individual student, as well as provide a space for parents, guardians, and educators to review and also sign off on MyCAP for that school year. So, uh, parents can sign these electronically in the parent portal, um, but then a hard copy can also be [00:31:00] signed as well.

I want to pause right here. Apolila, Jennifer, Andrea, Julie, anything about MyCAP that we’re not calling out that we should be?

Apelila Joseph: Uh, Elizabeth, can you just speak to, uh, middle school as well? So is, like, this MyCAP page available for middle school students?

Orquidia Montero: Yes, Apolila, thank you. Absolutely. So students are able, as early as sixth grade, to go in and work on these MyCAP activities.

And Apolila, that’s such a great call-out, so I appreciate that. Um, schools are able to configure this to include those middle school activities. For this particular example, we’ve got those high school ones in here. Um, but if there are six, seventh, eighth grade activities as well, those can be listed.

Students are going to be able to look all the way back to those middle school years and see exactly what they completed. It also gives families and students a really great guide of here’s the types of things I’m go- going to be doing over the next few years. Thanks, [00:32:00] Apolila Anything else? All right. So, um, I’m gonna keep us moving for time’s sake.

I will call out in the goal-setting area, this is where, um, students are able to add goals, and we really do not, uh, limit how many goals they have in the system. As students are going in and adding goals, they are able to indicate if these are academic, career, or personal goals, as well as something else, and so it does support those MyCAP activities.

All right, so before we move out of the student side of the house, um, we’re going to take a quick look at the course plan, the four-year, um, education plan, course plans, and talk that through, and then we’ll transition into the admin side of the house before we wrap this morning. So underneath four-year education plans, um, students are able to go in and start working on their course [00:33:00] plan for high school.

So inside of the course plan, couple housekeeping things. We have this particular one structured to include eighth through twelfth grade. It is up to you if you would like this to start at the ninth grade level and run through twelfth grade. Right on the homepage, students are able to, um, edit the name of the plan as they continue working on it throughout school.

They can also make copies of, um, course plans and have copies for each school year. So it’s really up to you how you wanna use this. Um, right on your home screen, we can see that this course plan has been worked on this school year. We can see it’s for our demo high school, and it is for the current school year.

Um, as I scroll down, we can see the listings of those core classes. And as I continue down the page, we can see art, PE, world languages, as well as CTE courses. These buckets [00:34:00] are determined by your course files. So you all, um, will have the ability to control your courses, and so you will have an import into the course planner, so that’ll be new.

We’ll work with you around that and have plenty of opportunity to learn about that. And so it will give you local control of what these buckets are for students to select from. As students are adding courses, they have that credit count at the top of the screen, so it makes it very straightforward for them to, uh, see how many credits they’ve put on the plan.

And just to get an idea of how this works, you can see that I’ve gone in and started adding those English and a couple of math and science courses. As students are working on their course plans, they are able to see that bird’s-eye view of their entire plan, but they can also drill into an individual grade level, and this can be helpful in the classroom when working with a group of students [00:35:00] if you want them to focus on one grade level at a time So let’s take a quick look at adding courses.

So right here, I’m going to go in and start adding a 10th grade math course. So I’ve put in my algebra one, um, for ninth grade. So let’s go drop in that 10th grade course. So we can see that for 10th grade math, students are able to see the subject area. Um, they can very quickly toggle to different subject areas if they’d like to do that.

But when I come over here, I have two options to select from. And keep in mind, this is based on how mine is… what I’ve loaded in. You all will be able to control what courses appear here, so it will reflect your local 10th grade offerings. And so I’m going to choose geometry, and I’m going to add that to my plan.

Now, as I come over here, I would continue adding classes for each school year. If students try to drop that geometry course in a second [00:36:00] time, it will let them know they’ve already added that course, so it– we won’t have the same thing over and over again. And then if they need to shift courses, they’re just gonna click on that particular course, and they can shift it to wherever it needs to go.

They can see what grade levels it’s available in, and then even remove the course if needed. Students will continue working through that four-year plan and add in all of those courses. When I come down here to this CTE area, this is where you’ll have all your local CTE courses loaded, and so students can search for a particular course.

They’re also able to scroll through and choose the classes that make sense for them, as well as be able to see what grade levels courses are available for

Our educators really appreciate how straightforward the four-year education plan is, how it’s visually, um, laid out for students, and [00:37:00] just how easy and straightforward it is to navigate. Educators are able to load local resources. So if you all have local guidance around course plans, graduation requirements, all of that can be loaded into your educator portal.

And in the resource area, you are able to have those quick links for your students. So we’ve loaded the Massachusetts graduation requirements. But this is where you can have your local guidance, um, and you’re not limited to just one link. You can put in multiple and, and have those resources for students to quickly load, um, grab, and be able to have in front of them while they are working on those education plans and course plans.

Students are able to print this off if desi- if desired, and once they finish their course plan, they can submit it for approval. So at this point, they are turning it over to their school for it to [00:38:00] be approved, commented on by an educator at that building. Um, keep in mind that even before I turn in my course plan, you can actually edit it.

So in your educator portal, you guys will be able to make adjustments, especially if I’ve put down something crazy or have maybe missed some courses. You don’t have to wait till I turn it in. You can go ahead and make edits in real time. Students are gonna be able to see those edits. Once students turn in the course plan, then you can actually give it that stamp of approval, marked it, mark it as approved.

You can also deny it and make comments on the ed plan as well. And families and, um, students will all see your comments. Families can also sign off on course plans and make comments that educators and students can see as well. So, um, all of these are here and ready for, um, or available for students to be able to use.

So I’ve now turned in my [00:39:00] course plan, um, and if I need to continue working, if I didn’t finish, then I can come over here and make a copy and finish that course plan copy. All right, so we– I’m gonna pause right here for questions on the student side of the house. What types of things are we wondering?

MEFA team, what all are we, what all are, uh, folks asking about and what do we need to call out?

Apelila Joseph: Um, I think we are good on the student side right now. Mm-hmm. I think we have tackled just about all of the questions. Because of time, I think we should transition over to the admin side, and then we can pause for questions at the end.

And I know there’s been a couple questions that have come up from folks about when can they access the redesign platform, uh, migration student data, that sort of stuff. Um, so we will pause at the end of the demo to talk a little bit about next steps.

Orquidia Montero: Perfect. Thanks, Halfileena. All [00:40:00] right. So moving into the educator portal.

Arcadia showed you earlier our landing page for MEFA Pathway. So I am now logged in as an educator, and right on our home screen, we can quickly see that it is welcoming, um, you in to the educator portal. Ewan is an educator in the demo district, and Ewan actually has district level access, and so is able to look across multiple buildings in the district, um, or at least these two buildings where Ewan works.

So we will be offering extensive, um, training and professional development around the educator portal, around the student platform. Uh, for this morning, I wanna show you just a couple of key things. So the left-hand side of the screen is where we’re going to find a number of management tools that Ewan is able, has- is able to access and be able to manage with MEFA Pathway.

And on the homepage, we have all of our reports [00:41:00] and insights into what students are doing, what is their progress. Um, we’re able to pull all of this aggregate data across the board. We do have notifications in the system, so Ewan is able to very quickly get an idea of any actions that need to be taken from the educator side of the house.

So we’ve got students who are turning in course plans. We have students who are, um, engaging with work-based learning, and we’re able to see what these actions are we need to take. I can click on these here and actually see exactly who the seven students are, um, who’ve turned in their course plans. If Ewan would like to receive email notification for any actions that are needed, then we can go into our daily digest and turn on our one daily email that will let us know from MEFA Pathway what actions we need to take in the educator portal.

Now, I mentioned that we’re able to pull all [00:42:00] of these different reporting pieces. One of the pieces that our educators so appreciate about MEFA Pathway is that we can drill into an individual student and get really micro level data, but we’re also able to zoom out and see all of those aggregate pieces as well.

So wanna take a moment and zoom into a student portfolio so you can get an idea of how this is structured So I’ve pulled Ollie’s student account, and we can see that Ollie is a senior at MEFA Demo High School. On this home general area, this is all of the student information that’s coming from us– coming to us from the student information system, and we can also see that Ollie has invited a parent to join MEFA Pathway, and the parent has registered and logged in as recently as yesterday.

We’re also able to invite an additional parent, um, or invite a parent on behalf of Ollie if needed. Under the [00:43:00] Discover area, we can quickly see what are Ollie’s top interests and skills, what’s important, what assessments have been completed in the past by this particular student. In the Explore area, we can see everything that Ollie was doing on the student side of the house around favorites.

So what are our favorite pathways, industries, occupations? What is Ollie saving in the system? And again, in our reporting area, we can pull this in aggregate to create those curated field trips and guest speaker events. Ollie has gone in and indicated, um, an interest in one day pursuing a four-year degree.

Um, and we can also see that Ollie has gotten started with goal setting and, um, course plans. So Ollie is over here engaging with that education plan that we saw just a moment ago. With the MyCAP area, we are able to see Ollie’s MyCAP and see what’s been completed [00:44:00] as well as completion dates. Um, if this was ready for review, then I would be able to review the MyCAP as well, make comments on it, and even sign off on it Under work-based learning, we can see work-based learning that Ollie is engaged with, but again, we’ll offer extensive training on work-based learning to get an idea of how all of that functions.

In the prepare area, we can see Ollie’s college applications. Ollie, um, has some work to do, right, as a senior, but we would be able to see Common App, direct applications, as well as Parchment. In the documents area, we’re going to see everything that Dolly h- um, Ollie has uploaded to the system around resumes, cover letters, references, resumes built into the system.

Um, any credentials that were uploaded, we’re able to view those, as well as forms. So we are able to assign lessons and [00:45:00] activities inside of MEFA Pathway using the forms tool. And so Ollie has been assigned a unit reflection. This might be tied to some MyCAP activities. It might be tied to a permission form related to a field trip.

It could be a lot of different types of forms and activities to complete. Um, but all of those can be assigned to Ollie in our forms and assignment area. Okay? All of this content is able to be, um, printed under the student portfolio, and so this is a nice one print, one-click print, um, so that all of this can be pulled into a single, um, document and be used in IEP meetings or for student advising if you want a hard copy.

All right, so that is a very high-level look at the admin side of the house, but we do have a lot of functionality available to you and, um, we’re excited for future [00:46:00] sessions to learn more

All right. So yeah, MEFA team, I know we’ve got some pieces to talk through with, um, what’s next.

Apelila Joseph: Yes.

Orquidia Montero: Apalila, before we move on, anything, and Jennifer, anything that we have not covered this morning that we need to?

Apelila Joseph: Uh, Elizabeth, can you just talk a little bit about the support and ways to access the support in the new platforms?

That’s something that would be very different from the current MEFA Pathway platform, but if folks are using it, have questions, need help, how would they access support?

Orquidia Montero: Yes. Apalila, thank you so much. They, um… Yes, our support team is on standby. So on the MEFA Pathway landing page, we have a support queue right here in the [00:47:00] lower right-hand corner, and this is the fastest way to connect with our support team.

So when you visit mepathway.kuder.com, um, in the lower right-hand corner, you can see that you very quickly can connect with us, um, in real time. And so not only can you start chatting with our team, but you can also search for help using our help center, um, and very quickly get into the support articles.

Now, our team is available not only via chat, and these are real people that you’re going to be chatting with, but, um, you can throw questions in our chat. They are there ready to engage with you and answer questions in real time. So when you ask them about, you know, how to find something or how to do something, you’re going to be very quickly connected to a real person and, um, in the US who are going to start answering your questions about how to do what you were asking.

Now, once you have your [00:48:00] access in place inside of your educator portal, you also have our help center and our getting started center. So in the lower right-hand corner, I’m inside the educator portal. Not only can I visit our help center, but this is going to give me guided tours, checklists, help articles, any news and announcements.

So as new releases are made, you’re going to learn about those. And then in the contact us bear- area, you can email, call, and live chat with our team. And our team is happy to jump on the phone with you. Um, please don’t hesitate to reach out so we can support. As new things become available, when you guys log in, you will often see some pop-ups inside of your educator portal that will guide you to explore new tools and resources.

So you’ll be very up to speed on new releases. Thanks, Apalila. That’s a great question

Apelila Joseph: Great. Thank you. Okay, Jennifer, do you wanna [00:49:00] transition back to the slide deck, and then we’ll talk through some next steps and then have time for additional questions?

Jennifer Bento: Yes. All right. Okay, so next steps. Thank you so much, uh, Elizabeth and Orchidea for sharing all the great, uh, the, the newly redesigned MEFA Pathway.

We’re so excited. Um, so you might be wondering, um, next steps. So start here. Here is our MEFA Pathway interest form. Uh, so you’ll complete the, the form, and again, you’ll be getting these slides, so don’t feel like you have to take a picture of this QR code right here. You’ll have these slides. But this is where, um, this QR code is where you will access the interest form.

We will submit that. Um, if we don’t have an agreement on file for you as of right today, then you will need to, um, complete that, and so we’ll be in touch. We’ll send that agreement. You’ll fill that out. And then step three, you will look out for a communication from the MEFA Pathway implement- implementation team to [00:50:00] get you started.

So three easy steps What happens next? All right. After submitting your form, your district or school will, uh, be assigned to a rollout wave and in turn receive an implementation timeline. Uh, we will be hosting, uh, training webinars, uh, so you can participate in those to get more familiar with the, with the, um, platform.

And then you will work with our MEFA Pathway implementation team to configure the platform features, permissions, and then access for participating schools if you have, um… you know, if you’re a schoolwi- if you’re a district and you have more than one, um, school that you would like to, um, have access, um, to the site.

So pretty, pretty easy and, and straightforward. Um, you have all the information here in the, on the slides. Abilila, did you have some- something to add?

Apelila Joseph: Yeah. So I, I just wanna reiterate because we’ve gotten a couple questions in the chat around some of [00:51:00] this. So, um, current MEFA Pathways, the platform that many of you are all familiar with, that platform will still be available through the end of this school year, so you are more than welcome to continue using that platform if you choose.

Um, at the same time, we are also opening up for transition over to the redesigned platform, which you all just saw. Um, so that transition will begin in November. As a school or district, you can choose to sign up, um, and we will fit you into a wave. So we’re, we’re transitioning schools in waves. So that’s just a school or district raising their hand and self-selecting.

That’s what you’re doing when you’re completing that interest form. And so the goal is to have everyone transitioned and rolled over, um, ahead of the end of this school year, so that way folks are prepped and ready to go, um, at the start of next school year. Um, so I just wanted to clarify on that. And then also we’ve gotten a lot of questions about existing data.

So if you have current student data in the existing MEFA Pathway platform, um, we are happy [00:52:00] to talk with you about, um, if there are pieces that you need transitioned over to the new platform, happy to assist with that. Um, but make sure that you just follow up with your, um, specific success manager, um, and we’ll, we’ll walk through getting any data transitioned over for folks.

And Jennifer, you can take it away. Yeah. I think I covered everything that- All right … I saw coming up major in the chat.

Jennifer Bento: Okay. All right. So let’s get to the next slide here. Okay. So, um, MEFA resources for educators. Uh, of course, we want you to take advantage of all that MEFA has to offer, but here are just two, um, highlighted webinars, uh, of the newly redesigned platform.

So on October 30th, we have, uh, uh, for the, through the MEFA Institute, How to Use MEFA Pathway Lesson Plans in the Classroom. And then on November 17th, uh, uh, also MEFA Institute Work-Based Learning Inside the Redesigned MEFA Pathway. Um, keep in mind these, uh, these, uh, webinars [00:53:00] are eligible for PDPs, so that will be included in your follow-up, um, email as well, so you can get a PDP for these, for these webinars.

Um, but go, um, to mefa.hor- mefa.org, uh, to see, um, click on the counselor, uh, top right counselor, uh, page, and you can see all of what MEFA has to offer for, um, for counselors. Um, all right. And then our MEFA Ambassador Program, uh, this is where, uh, we make it really easy for you to connect, uh, with a content expert, uh, to schedule an in-person event for your school.

Uh, we have, uh, topics such as, um, college admissions, financial aid 101, paying the college bill. So you as a school connect directly with, uh, one of our experts. Um, here are the steps. I won’t go through them, but you can see they’re very, it’s very easy to do. Um, so you can have, uh, someone come right out to your school and, um, speak to any one of these topics.

And we even have a couple of presenters, um, in [00:54:00] Spanish, so you can even have the option to do it, uh, virtual or in person. Um, most people are choosing in person these days. Um, so ME- MEFA Ambassador Program. And then, uh, MEFA resources for families. Um, we do have, uh, three FAFSA festivals coming up, one, uh, being next week, October 26th.

I think that’s next week. Uh, so these, uh, the FAFSA festivals are, these are virtual events where, uh, students and families can log in any time from 4:00 to 6:00 PM and be paired with one of our experts, where you have a breakout room where, where folks can, um, share their screen or ask any questions. Um, so those FAFSA festivals are coming up.

And then we have our, our, our webinars that we have, um, a number of different topics. Uh, we have upcoming and recorded webinars, uh, so you can share these resources with your families and have them take advantage of, um, of what MEFA has to offer All right, you can [00:55:00] always connect with us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, uh, LinkedIn.

Uh, we have a great podcast. Jonathan Hughes does an amazing job of, uh, a lot of different topics, talking with students, talking with educators. Um, so check us out, check the podcast out. Uh, connect with us on social. And if you have any questions following this webinar here this morning, don’t hesitate to reach out.

You can always reach us on our phone line. We’re, we’re available Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, and also, um, at [email protected]. So don’t ever hesitate to reach out to us, um, if you have a question regarding MEFA Pathway or anything outside of MEFA Pathway that we can help support you. All right, so do we have any lingering questions here this morning?

Yes, we will, um, share the… Yes, so the links to the next webinar are included in the, in the, um, slide deck here, and you can also find them [00:56:00] on mefa.org by going to that counselor, the counselor section there. And, um, they’re all, you can register right from our webpage, but we’ll have them included in this, in the slide deck as well

Okay. All right. Looks like we have two minutes to spare. All right, thank you all. If there isn’t anything, anything lingering

Okay. Enjoy the day Okay. Thank you