Navigating the Future: PowerSchool Naviance CCLR’s Evolution to Personalized Postsecondary Planning

In the always-advancing landscape of education technology, PowerSchool’s Naviance CCLR has been through a transformative journey. What began as a tool intended primarily for college-going students has become a solution that supports all student paths, whether that includes college or not. With significant improvements to the core product to address user needs and customer issues, Naviance CCLR has also scaled its customer support team and maintained a customer satisfaction score of 95% or higher in 2023.

Today’s Naviance CCLR: Better than Ever 

PowerSchool has made significant investments in strengthening the core of Naviance CCLR, leading to a 57% decrease in escalated customer product issues during the recent application season (following a 32% decrease in the prior year). The platform has also shifted toward a more student-centric model, introducing “My Future Plan” to personalize each student’s Naviance CCLR experience based on their unique interests and strengths. 

Originally known as a solution tailored exclusively for college-bound students, Naviance CCLR was perceived as a niche platform for a niche demographic. Operating in isolation from a school or district’s technology ecosystem, Naviance CCLR lacked integration abilities and was often thought of as an “add-on” rather than an essential element of a student’s digital toolbox.  

College is not the right next step for every high school graduate, and Naviance CCLR has become more inclusive of pathway options, helping students plan to enter the workforce, enlist in the military, attend trade school, earn a professional certification, or pursue other passions.  

Naviance CCLR also integrates with many other solutions across the PowerSchool platform, providing a smoother user experience. Students, parents, and staff can use a single sign-on (SSO) to access course planning data in PowerSchool SIS, and Naviance CCLR’s curriculum is available in PowerSchool Schoology Learning, making it easier for schools to bring CCLR work into the classroom. As districts begin adopting the My PowerSchool experience, students and parents will be able to access their future plans from Naviance CCLR directly in My PowerSchool. Naviance CCLR data is also now available for districts using Connected Intelligence to help link insights between classroom and pathway planning.

Naviance CCLR’s Own Future Plans 

Most of our product investment in Naviance CCLR continues to prioritize improving the core user experience, making updates to address customer issues, and building enhancements that deepen support for students. We are also making a big investment toward better weaving career planning throughout each student’s pathway planning process to help ensure we are bringing together the full ecosystem of stakeholders to support each student in finding and pursuing their best-fit career prospects.

Why Career Planning?

There is a growing demand from students and parents to connect educational journeys to long-term career success. Additionally, supporting career planning also helps with: 

• Promoting equitable opportunities. Districts recognize the imperative to support equity through work-based learning and career exploration, addressing significant gaps between workforce supply and demand. 
• Meeting state requirements. States are increasingly emphasizing the need to better and more clearly connect learning to career outcomes, reinforcing the importance of career planning in education.  
• Helping students think “big picture.” There’s a whole lifetime of learning and experiences awaiting each individual. Students often focus on the next three or four years of their life; emphasizing career planning helps them think about the next three or four decades and create long-term goals.

Looking Forward

This post kicks off a series of articles I’ll be sharing to provide more insight into our approach to career planning and workforce development as we build and support the most comprehensive and connected pathway planning solution available. Bringing everyone together to ensure our students are future-ready requires that we understand the critical components of successful career pathway planning. In this series of articles, I’ll be sharing research, best practices, and upcoming product innovation for these critical career planning considerations: 

• Skills and competencies for future readiness and career success 
• Building career awareness in early learners (K-5) 
• Career demand and postsecondary outcomes 
• Personalized guiding and planning, and the use of AI 
• Education and career stakeholders’ ecosystem  

We hope this series provides insight into the evolution of Naviance CCLR as we respond to the changing needs of students and the workforce. You can subscribe to our blog to be notified when a new article is posted.

About the Author:

Amy Reitz has worked in education technology for over a decade across professional services, program management, quality assurance, and product management. She has also participated in both the public and private sector working with CRM, financial, and judicial technologies. Through all these experiences, she has been able to successfully improve client experience, grow software & services product lines, develop knowledge management systems, build diverse & collaborative teams, and quickly scale operations. Amy is passionate about driving clear vision and strategy through organizations that have a positive impact on people. Amy now serves as the Group Vice President of Product for Naviance and Intersect at PowerSchool where her team focuses on products to help drive student college, career, and life readiness.