District 99 has adopted a new college and career readiness software provider that replaces Naviance. This source that DGS and DGN students will start to use is SchooLinks.
SchooLinks, like Naviance, helps prepare students for what is to come after graduation. Students can create personalized plans to help them reach their future goals; in addition, they can take assessments that are used to navigate the planning process. This resource is also utilized to explore colleges and career paths.
The main difference between the two is that SchooLinks is more user-friendly. College and Career Counselor Dan Mustari gives an explanation of how this platform is easier to understand and navigate.
“A lot of schools are moving over to SchooLinks because of the user-friendliness of it and the ability for students to do more exploration of career and college,” Mustari said. “It gives students more flexibility and opportunities to find what interests them, as well as base their searches off of it.”
SchooLinks has been put into full effect this year, as it was introduced to students last school year, and the recognition of this switch has not all been positive. Senior Kim Torres was an avid Naviance user and she expressed her opinion on the new format.
“I would say I definitely used Naviance more than an average student did,” Torres said. “So when I used SchooLinks for the first time it was a pretty different set up and I didn’t necessarily find it easier to work with. It seemed a little confusing, a little finicky and it was just different.”
As this new provider is new to students, it is also new to teachers and staff. Counselor Tim Christy gives his perspective on SchooLinks.
“I think it’s fair to say that SchooLinks is a more streamlined, more user-friendly version of a very similar product [to Naviance]. As counselors look at SchooLinks now we recognize a lot of the same functionality. It’s new to us so it’s a learning process for both us and our students,” Christy said.
Mustari hopes there are going to be improvements and benefits in the next year and years to come while students collaborate with SchooLinks.
“Moving forward I would like for students to get started earlier on the post and secondary search,” Mustari said. “As well as, setting ideas of what careers are out there and how that affects their choices in terms of colleges or whatever their career path might be after high school.”
“Then making sure they understand how the work they are doing now all ties together. What you’re doing now affects what you do and where you go after high school,” Mustari said.
