Beginning in the fall, every student in the McKeesport Area School District will have an individual plan for success after high school.

McKeesport Area is one of 13 districts working with the Consortium for Public Education on a program called MAPS for "my action plan for success."

The district last week announced plans to implement the program, which begins in seventh grade when students will take a career class that will focus on learning computer skills, researching jobs, writing resumes, filling out applications and creating an online portfolio. Speakers will come to the class to talk to students about different career options.

Districts pay a small fee to participate in the program, but it is largely funded by private foundations, according to Mary Kay Babyak, the consortium's director of initiatives.

She said that while the idea of individualized plans are "certainly a national movement," the consortium's approach is unique.

MAPS culminates in an individual plan so that when students leave, they can "walk out of high school with a comprehensive plan to make sure they're successful in their post-secondary life."

She said some students might change their paths after they graduate, but the program will prepare students to think and reflect about their planning and make changes carefully.

During a MAPS presentation May 8, McKeesport Area officials said they hope the program's emphasis on individualization will improve not only academic performance but also attendance.

Rula Skezas has been a student, teacher, principal and now assistant superintendent in McKeesport Area schools. She said she knows students "need some direction" after they leave high school.

In the seventh-grade career class, students will write a paragraph about themselves and start thinking about their goals.

"That's really the very beginning," she said.

In addition to having advisers in teachers, counselors and coaches, students will work with fellow high school students in peer-to-peer advisory groups.

Ms. Skezas' two children are graduates of McKeesport Area schools, and she said the district is "one of the best-kept secrets in the Mon Valley."

The MAPS program, she said, will give students the tools they need to be "very ready for the real world."

"I want them to feel good when they do leave us," she said. "We just want to make sure ... the next generation has the tools to be successful."

First Published: May 17, 2012, 9:30 a.m.