In Focus
Texas School Business Special Section
27
Three Ways Allen ISD Uses Technology to Help Students Prepare for Life Beyond High School By Dustin Tamplen
One.
Create a College and Career Center. In order to help reach all our students, we opened a College and Career Center. Specialists work with the counselors to meet with all students to map out their postsecondary plans. Specialists also work with students and families to guide them through the resources available in Naviance. The center provides a variety of services to our students and parents, from assistance with college applications and financial aid to transcripts and dual credit programs. All of these elements work together to ensure we reach every student.
Two.
Three.
Increase Engagement. One of our major successes is the creation of our District Naviance Guide. We identified three key areas that we wanted our students to address: exploration, career planning and secondary planning. Our goal as a district is for each of our graduating seniors to have a successful postsecondary plan in place as he or she leaves Allen High School and becomes productive citizens. To help our students reach this goal, we identified all of the resources in Naviance and placed them by grade level in our guide to ensure the students reap all of the benefits of the program.
Collaborate. A few years ago, we created a District Naviance Team, comprised of the district coordinator, two building principals, a curriculum principal, the College and Career Center coordinator, the counseling lead and a member of the technology department. This team evaluates the processes we have in place regarding college and career readiness and makes the appropriate changes for the upcoming school year. One of our mottos is, “If it can happen in Naviance, it needs to happen in Naviance.” With this in mind, the team finds where we can continue to incorporate Naviance into our school. Some of the decisions that have come from this team include the addition of the following in Naviance: GPA and rank, transcripts, course selection and dual credit information.
About the Author Dustin Tamplen is a counselor at Allen High School and the Naviance District Coordinator in Allen ISD. He has previously worked as a college and career advisor and a Spanish teacher for Allen ISD. He moved into the Counseling Department in the spring of 2012. Dustin recently completed his 14th year in the education field.
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