Do Your Middle School Students Understand Endorsements?

How well do you think your middle school students understand endorsements and graduation plans?

Understanding gaps in knowledge is key to providing the college and career readiness instruction that will prime eighth graders for success in high school and beyond.

Take a moment to review the following questions. Would your eighth graders make a passing grade on this quiz? Better yet, test it out! Print these questions and give them to your eighth graders.

1. Mariah is a student who excels in her math classes and wants to be a marine biologist. Which endorsement would be best for Mariah?

a) Arts and Humanities

b) Business and Industry

c) Multidisciplinary Studies 

e) STEM 

2. True or false: Courses within a career cluster can fit into only one endorsement.

b) False 

3. Jairam has met with his counselor several times and has taken several different career and interest inventories. Each time, he decides upon a different endorsement option but quickly changes his mind. Jairam is just not sure which endorsement he wants to pursue in high school. Which endorsement would be best for Jairam?

a) Arts and Humanities

b) Business and Industry

c) Multidisciplinary Studies 

e) STEM 

4) Students should choose their endorsement based upon:

a) Their interests both in and out of school 

b) Career and interest inventories

c) Input from their parent or guardian

d) all of the above

5) True or false: Students may choose to graduate without an endorsement after their sophomore year if they have met with their parents and their school counselor.

a) True 

b) False 

6) Axel really enjoys his Theatre Arts class. He is often in front of the camera when the opportunity arises. Which endorsement would be best for Axel?

a) Arts and Humanities

b) Business and Industry

c) Multidisciplinary Studies 

d) Public Service

e) STEM 

For answers to these questions and a robust resource that will help you explain endorsement selection and grad planning to your eighth graders, download our free MapMyGrad Toolkit.

Want to dig even deeper? If you use the Texas OnCourse middle school curriculum, we invite you to participate in the high school readiness study. This study will enable you to assess gaps in your students’ knowledge and understand how our curriculum resources can help. You’ll need to administer a pre-survey at the start of your college and career readiness instruction and a post-survey at the end. To participate next year, contact Lara Gueguen.