Grand Prairie Independent School District<\/a> (ISD) is a 58-square mile district that serves 30,000 students in Grand Prairie, Texas. Its 30,000 students are spread across 43 campuses that include 22 elementary schools, seven middle schools, four high schools, and two early college high schools.<\/p>\n Before Dana Jackson took on her current role, she was lead counselor at one of Grand Prairie ISD\u2019s high schools and noted that there was a need for more online academic tracking and career planning tools. \u201cBefore they enter high school, students must choose their \u2018major\u2019\u2014and their academic & electives courses throughout high school will be geared to that particular endorsement,\u201d says Jackson. Jackson says the switch from Career Cruising to Xello was uneventful. Although there was apprehension about a \u201cnew\u201d system, the counselors and career teachers quickly realized the functional differences were negligible. \u201cWe packaged it as a sleeker Career Cruising, like Career Cruising 2.0. Once they got in the system and saw it was the same thing, but looked and worked better, it didn\u2019t take a lot of training,\u201d says Jackson.
\nThe Challenge: Endorsements Required Students to Narrow Down Their Interests Before Entering High School<\/h3>\n
\nIt was 2013 and Texas legislators had just passed House Bill 5, which restructured the state\u2019s graduation requirements, requiring students to earn endorsements in specific areas of study by completing four additional credits. The endorsements include:<\/p>\n\n
\nThe goal of the endorsements is to help students focus on areas of education and eventual careers that interest them, so they\u2019ll be better prepared for college and careers. However, the endorsement requirement created a lot of paperwork for counselors. They needed to find a solution that could store and track all of the student endorsement information.
\nJackson did some research and immediately fell in love with Career Cruising. \u201cI loved the course planner feature. It matched up perfectly with what we needed.\u201d
\nAnd they quickly discovered the multi-grade benefits of the tool. \u201cWhat attracted me to Career Cruising was its K-12 component. Most other tools only focused on Grade 9-12 or 6-12. We use the K-5 program with our students so they can explore careers at an early age.\u201d
\nThe Matchmaker tool, which helps students find careers that fit their strengths and interests, was helpful for middle schoolers who were considering their high school endorsement. \u201cBy using Matchmaker to research careers and career clusters, students were better able to select the right high school endorsement choices for them,\u201d says Jackson.<\/p>\nThe Implementation: Moving from Career Cruising to Xello<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cXello\u2019s new look and functionality is wonderful. The clean lines, customization, Instagram-like dashboard, storyboard where you can upload, more areas for journaling and an interactive map for colleges were all very impressive. It was everything Career Cruising offered and more. Plus, it looked and navigated better.\u201d
\nGrand Prairie ISD\u2019s Xello customer success manager arrived on-site to train high school counselors to make sure they understood the soon-to-be-implemented college features. Xello also assisted Grand Prairie with ideas to customize features in Xello, with external links, to make sure the system completely met the unique needs of the district.
\nMeanwhile, Jackson and the Counseling Services Team worked with the district\u2019s communications team to create a Xello Website<\/a>,\u00a0 posters and videos<\/a> introducing Xello as their dedicated college and career planning tool. Flyers with login information were prepared to be paired with every student\u2019s schedule during schedule pick up dates in August.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really important that Xello is promoted throughout all campuses to make sure students are getting the benefit of it. Teachers have also been trained by counselors on how to use the program with the students.\u201d<\/p>\n