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For Huntley Community School District, SchooLinks is the “Total Package”
March 27, 2023
March 27, 2023
SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
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Algonquin
Illinois
8.8K
Students
9
Schools
1
Years with SchoolLinks
SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
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SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
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SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
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SchooLinks is the driver behind Huntley’s aspirations to make college and career readiness a student-driven, experience-based, and personalized endeavor.
Problem: Seeking a Platform that Matched Their Ambitions for CCR Success
Huntley Community School District 158 sits just northwest of Chicago. The district serves 9,000 students across 9 schools. Over the past several years, the district has engaged in strategic planning and recognized the need for college and career initiatives to be a central part of their secondary curriculum and programmatic offerings. This work has occurred with the backdrop of new state reporting requirements around postsecondary readiness metrics.
As part of this work, the district created a new college and career readiness (CCR) framework that seeks to provide the foundation for a modern approach to college and career planning for district students. A key component to this vision for postsecondary readiness in Huntley was an effort to expand opportunities for real-world career exploration and mentorship as students plan and make decisions about their future.
As educators, counselors, and administrators initiated the work to put these plans into practice, they shared frustration with the current CCR platform and articulated that it could not offer the tools, resources, and support to provide students with the robust, meaningful, and cohesive CCR experience they were seeking to create. The district decided to launch a search for the optimal CCR platform for students, counselors, and administrators to undergird this critical district work.
Process: The “One-Stop Shop” for Effectively Meeting the CCR Needs of Students, Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators
The district had a long wish list as they searched for a new CCR platform. They sought a solution that empowers students to engage and explore on their own. They wanted a resource that would provide an interactive way for students to learn about course options and understand how different courses mapped onto differentiated pathways as they made a four-year course plan. They were looking for a system that would connect students to internship experiences, job-shadowing roles, and other work-based learning opportunities as they developed workforce readiness skills. They hoped to offer students tools for the full cycle of college and career planning from initial goal-setting to career and college exploration to applying for schools and scholarships. And, they wanted a system that would be easy for teachers, counselors, and administrators to use in supporting students, monitoring their progress toward CCR benchmarks, and meeting state reporting requirements.
They decided to explore the breadth of offerings in the CCR platform landscape to identify the right tool for their students and educators. Experiencing each platform first-hand was a critical part of the selection process. The district had a variety of stakeholders–including teachers, department chairs, and administrators–engage with various platforms with demonstration credentials to explore each option from both the student and counselor perspective.
Michael Kennedy, Director of Curriculum for AVID, Grants, and College and Career Readiness for Huntley, shared that as they went through the process, SchooLinks emerged as the obvious “one-stop shop” they were looking for. He explained that it offered, by far, the most “digitally-appealing and user-friendly” interface. The district review team was also blown away by the ease with which the system tracks and automates the reporting of key indicators for college and career pathway endorsements required by the state. He summed up the decision by saying: “SchooLinks stood out where others came up short. It provided the total package.”
Upon the selection of SchooLinks, the district was excited to give their students and staff access to this incredible suite of resources. Huntley rolled out SchooLinks to its 5,000 secondary students at two middle schools and single high school.
Results: A Smooth Implementation Has Yielded Meaningful Engagement
The initial reception from students and educators has been overwhelmingly positive both in verbal feedback and on utilization metrics. The school district structured the introduction of SchooLinks to students to occur during student advisory periods. Within the first three months of implementation, about 90% of students completed the onboarding process and the strengths and interests inventory. Students have been eager to explore the features and self-initiate using the platform, logging in to search for colleges, build resumes, and explore and “favorite” careers. Some teachers have even reported students are so excited to engage with SchooLinks that they have had to ask some to pause using SchooLinks during course time and close their devices to focus on other tasks. District counselors and administrators realize that student interest and engagement are critical factors to maximize success, as students must use the features in order for them to be effective.
The district is utilizing the SchooLinks course planning feature as a key component to bring cohesion between students’ planning and the pathway opportunities offered within the district. Within the platform, students can easily search for courses, learn how to align their academic requirements with different pathways and electives, identify dual enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, and see how they all fit together sequentially and holistically over the course of their four years of high school. With this, students are making informed and intentional choices about course selection that directly work toward their postsecondary goals.
Teachers and counselors reported tremendous customer support from the SchooLinks team and an easy and smooth platform launch. Kennedy described meaningful and practical training for educators that allowed implementation to be seamless. He described that teachers are being thoughtful about building usage of SchooLinks into a variety of course content and curriculum. Teachers and counselors within Huntley have also used SchooLinks as a tool to engage families and collaborate with them around their child’s college and career planning. The district connected families to SchooLinks through easy-to-use parent codes that give families access to important notifications about CCR events and deadlines and share information on student goal-setting and other CCR exploration milestones.
Kennedy explained, “SchooLinks is our main vehicle helping guide all of our conversations [around] building curriculum and engaging our students in the college and career process.” In short, SchooLinks has become an anchor for expanding CCR in Huntley.
Looking Forward: Using SchooLinks to Nurture and Elevate CCR Culture Across the District
The Huntley School District has been thrilled with the positive impact SchooLinks is having on helping the district to ensure that each student has a pathway and plan that is truly personalized to their unique profile of needs and interests, engage with industry partners around work-based learning experiences, and create an innovative and meaningful college and career readiness culture throughout the district. Huntley is eager to have counselors and teachers continue to integrate SchooLinks into their systems. They plan to extend the use of SchooLinks for course planning to manage and streamline course selection and registration. This will allow for further integration and alignment between course planning, personalized pathways, and student decision-making.
Reflecting on his professional experience, Kennedy shared that “of all the platforms I’ve used or seen…[SchooLinks] is truly the best for CCR.” As administrators in Huntley look to the future, they are excited to expand and deepen student and counselor engagement with SchooLinks and leverage its features to cultivate an environment where students have agency to explore their passions, tools to connect with learning experiences to inform decision-making, resources to help them be fully prepared for their choice of career or college, and ultimately realize postsecondary success.
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