The Districts

The leading school district in Kansas, KCKPS, serves over 21,000 students. The district encompasses five high schools, seven middle schools, 29 elementary schools, and ten preschool sites.

KCKPS’ previous College and Career Readiness (CCR) program was not engaging and lacked comprehensiveness, leading educators to seek a more effective, data-rich platform.

The Wentzville School District serves just under 10,000 students. It has eight schools, including four middle and four high schools. The district wanted a CCR Program that supported academic planning, career readiness, and practical learning experiences for middle and high school students.

Student Engagement Increased with Xello

There have been high levels of engagement with Xello at KSCKPS and Wentzville. Consider these numbers:

Wentzville:

Used by 100% of students, with over 60K+ login, spending an average of 15 mins per session
Educator Involvement: 2.9K educators with 5.6K logins, spending over 10 mins per session
Xello Course Planner Usage: Over 3K students complete a Course Plan in Xello this year

KSCKPS

Used by 82% of students, with over 84K+ login, spending an average of 14 mins per session
1.6K educators with 8.7K logins, spending over 13 mins per session
Over 7.5K students completed all four lessons per grade

Both districts reported high levels of educator involvement and Xello Course Planner usage, leading to improved academic planning and career readiness. The success in these districts is attributed to a strong commitment across the entire educator team enhanced by comprehensive training and support from Xello. They also praised the user-friendly interface that resonates well with students.

The Evolution of CCLR Best Practices in These Districts

Wentzville developed an internal Xello steering committee of people from the district who did Xello training and determined what lessons worked for them. Committee members served as trainers in their buildings. The district used their weekly ‘student success time’ to introduce students to Xello.

In this webinar, Julie Durham, Success Ready Programming Manager at the district, attributed their current success to the training and having people in each building to offer support, as well as allocating class time.

KCKPS followed a similar path, according to Lisa Martinez, the Assistant Director of Diploma+. She added that partnering with Xello Support and Training teams helped guide the district on how to pace the launch and get buy-in from all stakeholders.

Other reasons for student engagement according to Martinez, “…the interface is so user friendly, our students are able to navigate the site really easily. They’re able to find and do things very easily… it mimics social media feed, which a lot of our students love…”

Meeting State Mandates

Wentzville’s goal was to have every student use Xello Course Planner to register. Before course enrollment, the district created a pathways kickoff week to excite students about careers.

Course Planner alerts students to courses they didn’t know existed and helps them arrange future classes. Student feedback, according to Durham, is encouraging. They feel more prepared, know why they’re taking classes, and understand the outcomes of choosing a specific pathway.

Because students are creating their course plans, they meet the 4-year ICAP requirement. But before implementing Xello and Course Planner, this process had been a significant challenge, according to Durham.

With Xello resources and support, Martinez and KCKPS mapped out a path for students to meet state requirements associated with IPS and CAN. “…from a compliance standpoint, it [Xello] checks all the boxes, and it really allows us the autonomy to develop a robust tool for our students to utilize,” Martinez adds.

Discover how Xello helps districts and educators meet their State mandates and get students excited about their future.