Using Key Insights from the 2021 Naviance Student Survey to Guide Its Integration Efforts, the New Features Further Improve User Experience for Both Students and Educators

PowerSchool, the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, announced it has made enhanced updates to Naviance by PowerSchool, its leading college, career, and life readiness (CCLR) platform serving more than 10 million student users, a thriving community of more than 500,000 educators and the submission of more than 6.2 million college applications in 2021.

Key findings from the 2021 Naviance Student Survey supported the need for these solution enhancements to be made. The survey revealed substantial increases in the importance of the cost of education with scholarship and financial aid availability as a contributing factor to a student’s application and enrollment decision. More than 60% of students indicated cost was a very important factor in their college search.

The enhanced Scholarship capability makes it easier for students to understand their scholarship options and include new matching criteria, and also gives districts the ability to easily create comprehensive scholarship resources, and improve management tools for students and staff.

“We’re seeing how the pandemic has impacted students’ decision making and students are telling us they have a strong interest in more consistent access to career guidance throughout middle and high school,” said PowerSchool Chief Product Officer Marcy Daniel. "With career-connected learning experiences while in high school, we can provide them with the tools that help with both the planning and potential pathways. We can support their needs to get an earlier start in their college search and ensure they are ready.”

Key updates to Naviance include:

• School administrators can now manage national, regional, and local scholarships all from one page vs. multiple, making it easier to add new scholarships for students to choose from.
• Students can easily find and track personalized scholarship opportunities via:
  • Streamlined search: Students can find scholarships by name or keyword, as well as sort by deadline, award amount, or publish date
  • Match and filter: Students can customize their match settings by adding, editing, or removing demographic data and indicate additional personal interests to match with more scholarships
  • Update applications: Students can update their Scholarship Application Status and Result right from the same page

The 2021 Naviance Student Survey, comprised of more than 15,000 middle and high school students who volunteered to participate, helps educators understand how students are making postsecondary decisions. Key insights further supported the need for enhancements to its scholarship search tool, which provides a personalized experience allowing students to search and filter through millions of available scholarships to match their needs and qualifications.

Over half of the individuals who participated in the 2021 Naviance Student Survey indicated they would like more support discovering their own interests and strengths ahead of researching colleges and decision making. Reinforced by this insight, PowerSchool has worked to ensure there is seamless integration between its student information system, PowerSchool SIS, and Naviance to provide parents, students and administrators a more complete view of each student and allowing counselors and educators to guide students on self-discovery and college choice. Student records are safely and readily available across systems and adhere to the latest privacy and security standards.

“I’m excited about the Naviance and PowerSchool SIS data integration,” said Anna Harding, Data Administrator at Anne Arundel County Public Schools. “Marrying the college, career, and life readiness data with the SIS data will paint a fuller picture of the student.”

To help create a seamless experience for educators using these integrated solutions, PowerSchool launched AppSwitcher, in August 2021, which allows administrators to quickly transition between their SIS and Naviance to complete priority tasks such as entering individual learning plans, viewing student attendance, or reviewing a Student Readiness Report.

The PowerSchool SIS Integration tool allows student records to be uploaded into Naviance automatically. This update simplifies the data management process, avoiding record duplication and ensuring information is accurate and periodically updated across different systems. Records are seamlessly and safely transitioned using modern encryption technology and strict user management.

Learn more about Naviance by PowerSchool at https://www.powerschool.com/solutions/naviance-by-powerschool/. Additional results/insights, and a webinar about the 2021 Naviance Student Survey can be found at https://www.powerschool.com/webinar/student-perspectives-on-college-career-and-life-readiness/.

About PowerSchool

PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 45 million students globally and more than 13,000 customers, including over 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries.

©PowerSchool Group LLC. PowerSchool, the PowerSchool logo and other PowerSchool marks are trademarks of PowerSchool Group LLC or its parents or subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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