After a successful pilot year in 2010-11, the Skaneateles High School soon will return to training its students on a new web-based guidance tool that allows them to electronically keep track of all curricular and extra-curricular activities and achievements, prepare a resume and college application and even research potential colleges they may want to attend.
The system is convenient, straightforward, can be accessed by parents and, most importantly, is the wave of the future.
“We’re just keeping up with the times,” said high school guidance counselor Mary Lou Ingram. “Most, if not all, colleges are online at this point, not sending us paper applications and encouraging online applications.”
“This immediately builds credentials for college, jobs or the military,” said Superintendent Phil D’Angelo. “It’s like a comprehensive planner for them: just another way to make their lives easier.”
The new system, called “Naviance,” is a web-based data management system contracted from a private vendor. It is used by high schools across the country.
“The reason we took Naviance on is because it is a very progressive program,” Ingram said.
Naviance has multiple facets to its program to assist students in various aspects of their high school career college preparation.
Beginning in ninth grade, students are encouraged to utilize the resume component of Naviance to keep an electronic inventory of items such as academic and athletic interests, achievements and awards; extra-curricular activities or interests (both in and out of school); and jobs worked. Theoretically, this list would be updated every year, and by the time a student is ready to apply to college or a job they will have all the personal information they need ready and available to them.
Students and guidance counselors can also create a “high school profile” that includes student transcripts, teacher recommendations and evaluations.
The “family connection” part of Naviance is an interactive database that allows students and their parents to investigate, research, track and plan for college admissions. They can search for colleges by using “interest inventories” such as occupation or career fields, student personality and characteristics, specific curriculum priorities, school size and location. They also can search for local and national college scholarships.
While parents are informed of the Naviance system and have access to their child’s account, they cannot input data or manipulate the current information, Ingram said. Similarly, to keep the system secure only students, parents and guidance counselors can access a student’s account using security codes.
Last year in Skaneateles, the freshman and sophomore classes were trained in the Naviance system by high school guidance counselors. This year, probably in January, those two classes — now juniors and sophomores — as well as the new freshman class will be shown and trained in the system again, Ingram said.
“It’s not a difficult program to use, and the kids adapt to these kinds of programs really easily,” Ingram said. “Really it’s just a matter of reminding them its there.”
Every year the students continue on the program is another year they can add new items into their accounts, she said. Also, every year Naviance continues to upgrade its product, on which the guidance counselors are trained, and they can then teach the new or updated techniques to the students.
“This really is the wave of the future,” D’Angelo said.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
