Valerie Backus is building student agency and achievement through career-connected learning

How Murrieta Valley USD is using CTE, data, and purpose to ensure every student is connected and ready

See how Valerie Backus and the team at Murrieta Valley Unified School District are intentionally infusing career readiness competencies into their ‘Profile of a Graduate’ requirements.

For Valerie Backus, career readiness isn’t a standalone program. It’s a belief system.

As Career and Technical Education (CTE) Coordinator for Murrieta Valley Unified School District, Valerie helps lead one of the most comprehensive, student-centered career readiness models in California. Serving Murrieta Valley, the third-largest public school district in Riverside County, her work reaches thousands of students each year, helping them understand who they are, what they’re good at, and how to move forward with confidence.

Her guiding principle is simple but powerful: every student deserves the tools to understand themselves and act on that understanding.

From self-perception to self-efficacy

Before Murrieta Valley adopted a data-driven approach, students were doing what students everywhere are often asked to do—make big life decisions based on limited information.

“We’ve had the careers course for ninth graders for a long time,” Valerie explains. “But the curriculum didn’t have something as tangible and comprehensive for aptitudes. It was a lot of self-reflecting and self-reporting.”

That changed when the district adopted the full YouScience Brightpath platform in 2021, starting with Aptitude & Career Discovery as the foundation.

“YouScience has really given students something concrete,” Valerie says. “They can say, ‘Here’s what I’m good at. Here are things I might find difficult.’ And now they have evidence to help them understand how to manage that.”

That shift—from opinion to evidence—has been transformational.

“Without access to aptitude data, students would have been left to make plans based only on self-perception and outside opinions. The honest answer is they probably wouldn’t create a meaningful 10-year plan at all.”

A districtwide career readiness pipeline

By ninth grade, every student completes Aptitude & Career Discovery and uses that data to build a personalized 10-year plan as part of the district’s Grade Level Projects.

From there, the data informs everything:

• Course placement and CTE pathway enrollment
• Work-based learning opportunities
• Industry certification alignment
• Counseling conversations and family engagement

This approach ensures that career exploration isn’t random or reactive—it’s strategic, inclusive, and student-centered.

A shared definition of success: Murrieta Valley’s profile of a graduate

At the heart of Murrieta Valley Unified School District’s career-connected approach is a simple but powerful question: What does it actually mean for a student to be ready for life after graduation?

For Valerie Backus, the answer couldn’t be left to interpretation.

That’s why the district established a clear, districtwide Profile of a Graduate—a shared definition of success that unites educators, counselors, administrators, and CTE staff around a common goal: ensuring every student graduates ready for life.

Rather than focusing on a single outcome, Murrieta Valley defines readiness across four essential competencies:

• Academically ready: Students read, write, and think critically; engage in challenging coursework; practice digital literacy; meet academic standards; and demonstrate creativity and innovation.
• Life ready: Students exhibit perseverance and adaptability, manage responsibilities, practice self-care, demonstrate financial literacy, set goals, and regulate emotions.
• Workplace ready: Students take initiative, solve problems, collaborate effectively, accept feedback, and build employability skills through career exploration and real-world experiences.
• Civic minded: Students contribute to their communities, stay informed, practice accountability, participate in democratic processes, and interact respectfully with others.

Turning vision into action with data

The Profile of a Graduate becomes actionable because Murrieta Valley pairs it with objective student data.

Aptitude & Career Discovery gives students and educators a common starting point: an evidence-based understanding of how each student is naturally wired to learn, solve problems, and work with others. That data then informs decisions across the system, from ninth-grade planning to work-based learning placement.

Ninth graders use their aptitude and interest results to create a 10-year education and career plan, directly aligned to the Profile of a Graduate competencies. Teachers and counselors use the same data to guide conversations, track growth, and ensure experiences are intentionally building toward readiness, not just checking boxes.

“It’s the idea of self-agency,” Valerie says. “Students can take action and make choices that influence their lives.”

Academic outcomes that challenge the narrative

• English: 27% higher academic performance for CTE completers vs state targets
• Math: 34% higher academic performance for CTE completers vs state targets
• Science: 29% higher academic performance for CTE completers vs state targets

“I’m rather proud of our CTE completer academic proficiency,” Valerie says. “CTE completers consistently score significantly higher on state tests than our general population.”

These outcomes reinforce what Valerie has long believed: career-connected learning strengthens, not competes with, academic rigor.

A career devoted to student readiness

Valerie’s commitment to this work is deeply personal. She began her career teaching English in a traditional classroom before transitioning into CTE after seeing its power to prepare all students for all postsecondary pathways.

Since 2013, she has focused on ensuring students graduate with a clear next step—whether that’s college, trade school, apprenticeships, military service, or on-the-job training.

Her leadership has been widely recognized, including:

• Marine Corps Leadership Award
• Teacher of Excellence
• Outstanding Administrator by the California Department of Education
• Certificated Administrator of the Year (Murrieta Valley USD)

But for Valerie, the real reward is seeing students take ownership of their futures.

Every student connected and ready

Murrieta Valley’s results make one thing clear: when educators are equipped with objective data and aligned systems, students rise—academically, personally, and professionally.

Valerie Backus has built more than a CTE program. She’s built a model where career readiness fuels academic achievement, and where every student is empowered to move forward with clarity and confidence.

That’s what it looks like when every student is connected and ready.

Ready to build a career-connected model in your district?