From Middle School to High School and Beyond

Challenges 

• New state requirements for middle school college and career exploration
• No cohesive future readiness curriculum for grades 6-12
• Teachers and students not using previous CCLR tool
• Career and technical education programming siloed from classroom instruction

Solution 

• PowerSchool Naviance CCLR 

Results 

• Centralized location helps staff track and meet future readiness state requirements for students in grades 6-12
• Pre-built digital curriculum ensures every cohort receives information equitably
• Early awareness of tool empowers students to use it throughout their entire academic journey
• Specialized middle school nine-week career exploration class yielded student engagement and excitement about future planning

Located in the heart of middle Tennessee, Putnam County School System serves almost 12,000 students across 22 schools, including three brick-and-mortar high schools, a virtual school (grades 3-12), and four middle schools.

Situated in a rural area with a diverse student population, the Putnam County School System benefits from its proximity to the college town of Cookeville, home to Tennessee Tech University. Thanks to a robust Career and Technical Education (CTE) program led by Jackie Vester, PCSS offers its students the opportunity to earn credentials, certifications, and career experience they can apply directly upon graduation.  

To comply with new state requirements for career exploration and workforce readiness, the district rolled out PowerSchool Naviance CCLR for middle school students in the 2023-24 school year, with plans to continue to build Naviance CCLR into the high school curriculum as students and staff acclimate to the tool.

Reasons for Choosing Naviance CCLR

“We were searching for a curriculum that made sense,” Jackie explains about the choice of Naviance CCLR. It was important that CTE teachers didn’t have to build their own course materials because they already “didn’t necessarily have the time to hit all their standards and their requirements for their coursework as well as doing college and career exploration,” Jackie elaborates. With its built-in college and career readiness curriculum, Naviance CCLR not only saved teachers’ time, but also helped PCSS implement a comprehensive approach to student career exploration from an early age, giving students more time to think about what their postgraduate lives could look like.  

Jackie adds, “Naviance CCLR is what I like to call [the teachers’] safety net. They know the road map for students of what they’re going accomplish in career explorations, and then with Naviance CCLR they’re adding in the extra stuff, the enrichment pieces.” 

Middle school students at PCSS all take a nine-week career exploration course meant to spark the self-discovery that begins the future planning journey. Naviance CCLR’s scope and sequence help teachers align their instruction with state requirements and provide students with supplemental resources not directly included in the course.  

Naviance CCLR’s built-in career interest assessments were a crucial feature for PCSS, helping the district meet state mandates. These assessments provided valuable insights into student interests and potential career paths, facilitating early career awareness and planning. Max, a middle school student at PCSS, said of the assessments, “Some people may want to work inside. Some people may want to work outside. [The assessment] just asked a bunch of different things and then pulled maybe five or ten specific careers that would be good. Being able to look through those really helped.” 

Max also found that Naviance CCLR “was able to help build [my future plan] because you can choose, do you want to go to college? Do you want to go to community college? Do you want to just stick with the high school education and go straight into work? It was able to help me narrow that down a little bit because there are a lot of choices.” 

Misty Briggs, a Career and Technical Education teacher at Prescott South Middle School, also appreciated the interest assessments. She says, “I had one sixth grader who was dead set on being a professional football player. And so when we were doing those self-assessments, that’s all he said he was going to do. And then, after he took some assessments, his mom actually came to me and said, ‘Oh, my goodness, thank you so much, because he now has turned away from professional football.’ Now, he actually wants to work with lungs. Naviance CCLR spiked this interest in him. When he did his career presentation a few weeks later, it was all on breathing and respiratory therapy.”

Rollout, Adoption, and Buy-In of Naviance CCLR

The initial rollout of Naviance CCLR targeted middle school students to ensure compliance with state career exploration requirements. By focusing on grades 6-8, PCSS aims to instill career awareness and planning skills early on. 

PCSS plans to extend the use of Naviance CCLR to high school advisement periods, utilizing its curriculum and resume-building features to support students in their continued career planning and preparation. 

Jackie reflected on how much the training sessions from PowerSchool experts helped generate staff enthusiasm and buy-in for the tool: “Our counselors think it’s a great product. It looks great. When we did the training, they love the reports. We love that we’re going to be able to collect data. As the CTE supervisor, I love that.”

The metrics collected in Naviance CCLR provide valuable insight into student growth and planning trends. Says Jackie, “I’m going to have CTE program of study interest data so that I can do some spot checking like, hey, when this kid was in middle school they were all gung-ho that they were going to be a welder, and then somehow they got to high school and they’re in culinary arts. What happened between the two? Now we’re going to have that data piece.”

Adds Misty, “You can sit and have students take assessments all day, but until you take that data and actually utilize it, it’s worthless.” The metrics help PCSS staff understand what kind of career exploration activities they should be providing and what opportunities students are interested in.

Naviance CCLR Benefits Students and Staff

Because Tennessee places a heavy emphasis on career exploration and readiness, PCSS wanted a digital tool that both students and staff find engaging and easy to use. While Max appreciates the assessments and “how interactive” the solution is, Misty prefers a different feature.  

“My favorite part of the program is the resume part,” Misty says. “I tell the kids, ‘Listen, when you start this resume, you’ll see how easy it is to edit and delete and change sections.’ And I say, ‘You have access to this for the next nine years, all through high school, all through college. You are going to need this.’ And I personally, with my own kids, had just paid money on a website for them to have a professional help them write a resume. But Naviance CCLR is free.”   

Jackie mentions that another teacher favorite is the Roadtrip Nation videos. “The Roadtrip Nation videos, those are really valuable to CTE teachers,” she says. After Misty’s students watch those videos, Misty invites speakers to talk to her students about their careers. Guests have included a dental hygienist, a police officer, and a virtual visitor who works as a zoologist at the Nashville Zoo. By providing career stories from members of the Putnam County community, Misty hopes students can envision themselves going into those professions.

Naviance CCLR Expansion Goals

PCSS aims to expand the use of Naviance CCLR to high school, providing students with continued support in their career planning and preparation. The district is also exploring additional features such as Common App integration and advanced reporting tools to further enhance the platform’s capabilities and support student success.

“There Are So Many Great Pieces of Naviance CCLR”

PCSS’s implementation of Naviance CCLR has significantly benefited both students and educators by providing a comprehensive, engaging, and effective tool for career exploration and planning. With ongoing support and future expansion plans, the district is well-positioned to continue helping students achieve their educational and career goals and equipping them with practical skills and knowledge that will serve them throughout their lives.