At some point, all students ask themselves that question during their time in high school. At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Perry Township Schools announced its partnership with Naviance to help high schoolers discover the answer to that question.
Naviance is a college and career readiness platform that helps students connect what they are learning in school to what they want to do in life. The online resource is an important tool for student self-discovery.
Naviance has features that allows students to understand their unique strengths, connect their interests to careers and set goals. It allows students to map out their entire high school career and choose the diploma track that is right for them (e.g., Core 40, Core 40 with academic honors, etc.) so they can make a plan for the future.
After high school, some students aspire to go to college. Others desire to go straight into the workforce. Naviance has features to help each of these groups plan appropriately, allowing students to gauge what they need to do in high school to achieve their goals after graduation.
The platform has a strengths explorer feature that allows students to assess their abilities to determine what they are good at. Some researchers believe that students succeed when they focus on what they do best rather than trying to improve on weaknesses. These tools are an important part of our strategy to keep students involved in their education. We believe Naviance can improve student outcomes by helping them connect their strengths and interests to long-term goals.
Students can also use Naviance for resume writing. It allows them to collect and organize information about extracurricular activities, awards and jobs.
In addition to helping students plan, Naviance has useful features for staff.
Guidance counselors have the ability to monitor student progress so they can identify which students need help. Acquiring Naviance aligns with our mission “to provide educational opportunities that create a desire for lifelong learning that inspires all students to maximize their academic success.”
We want our diverse population of 16,200-plus students to excel in whatever their postsecondary dreams may be. Last year 95.2 percent of our students graduated, and we hope that services like Naviance can help us improve upon that rate.