From Data Chaos to Student Success: Pflugerville ISD’s CCMR Transformation with SchooLinks

Key Takeaways 

• SchooLinks provides a comprehensive platform where students can map out course plans, explore work-based learning, and connect with counselors and educators, all in one place–increasing student utilization and overall engagement with CCMR processes. 
• The ability to automate tracking of industry certifications, college entrance testing, successful course completion, and more allows districts to easily monitor student progress toward goals and comply with state reporting requirements. 
• The SchooLinks Customer Support team is a true partner to district and school staff as they guide important processes, map out steps for implementation, and incorporate district and school feedback into the platform.  
• SchooLinks allows for increased engagement with all stakeholders–students, families, educators, industry partners, and the broader community.

Pflugerville Independent School District is a K-12 district with approximately 25,000 students in Pflugerville,Texas–a suburban community in central Texas, just north of Austin. In Pflugerville, educators work to provide an “inspiring, engaging, and relevant education that empowers students to reach their full potential as productive members of a diverse global community.” Traci Hendrix, the Career and Technical Education Director in Pflugerville, plays a major role in those efforts. Hendrix describes her position as the “best job in the district” because she is able to “work with all of the middle and high school programs that are designed to help students explore, become aware of, and hopefully choose a path that will lead them to a rewarding and fulfilling career.” This work is vitally important as it catalyzes the district’s efforts in ensuring all students have a plan for their future–one that feels both exciting and within reach. 

“These phenomenal additions have expanded the lens of what we see as possible with CCMR.”

– Traci Hendrix, Career and Technical Education Director, Pflugerville ISD

Expanding The Breadth and Depth of CCMR 

To support this work, Hendrix and the Pflugerville staff sought out a platform that could streamline their College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) efforts and create a single, common system for all stakeholders. They set engagement as a priority and sought out a tool that would empower students and parents to document their goals, track progress, and access channels for support as needed. 

Though the user-friendly platform was a key feature that won over Pflugerville initially, school and district staff quickly realized that SchooLinks offered a plethora of capabilities that were critical to their CCMR efforts. From helping students to identify work-based learning opportunities, track internships and experiences, map out courses, and explore potential colleges and careers, SchooLinks has allowed Pflugerville to add breadth and depth to their CCMR processes and opportunities for students. And because the tools and resources are all in one place, they work together to increase student utilization, facilitate connections between student experiences and goals, and drive overall engagement and energy with CCMR processes. According to Hendrix, these “phenomenal additions” have expanded the lens of what they see as possible with CCMR. 

Connecting Industry-Based Certifications with Broader CTE Planning

Hendrix noted that the primary goal of all Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs is for students to be well prepared for their postsecondary experience–whether that's heading directly to the workforce or onto an education program after graduation. Industry certifications are a powerful way to ensure students develop skills that are directly applicable to a future career role or field. Like many states, Texas uses industry certifications as a measure to gauge a student’s postsecondary readiness. 

Because of the critical value they offer, Pflugerville has integrated industry certifications into nearly all of their CTE programs. The district has utilized SchooLinks as an important tool in this work to help students map out courses that align with their goals and plan for when they will take relevant courses and earn their industry certifications. This process, driven primarily by students themselves, helps them to have agency in making decisions to meet their unique set of goals and strengths, create a realistic plan for completing a multi-sequence CTE program, and earn industry certifications that will support them as they enter the workforce.

Real-Time School- and District-Level Analytics

Prior to SchooLinks, nearly all of the school-based CCMR data was tracked in school-specific spreadsheets, created by a college and career advisor at the school site who was responsible for manually collecting and inputting the data. This system resulted in lags between data collection and analysis, allowed for human error in data entry, and greatly constrained the ability of a counselor, principal, or district administrator to get a real-time understanding of student progress and needs. 

Hendrix and her staff were thrilled with the functionality of SchooLinks to connect with the district’s Student Information System (SIS) and track real-time data on the full span of CCRM indicators–including student progress toward goals, course planning, industry certifications, work-based learning experiences, testing results, FAFSA completion, and a variety of other CCMR indicators. With SchooLinks, Hendrix and other district staff can now easily run reports that offer key insights on which schools, populations of students, or individuals might need additional support, resources, or guidance–eliminating time-intensive barriers to information access. Hendrix explained that counselors and administrators now have access to the data they truly need to make informed decisions, sharing, "I don't have any doubts that we're looking at reliable data in as timely a manner as we can.” 

Streamlined State and District Reporting 

For Pflugerville administrators, SchooLinks has also automated processes and eliminated many steps of work required for critical state CCMR reporting. In Texas, students’ completion of their CTE program and associated industry certification is one measure used by the state to determine if schools and districts are adequately preparing students for college, career, and the military. With that, Hendrix explained that having an accurate and reliable method for tracking industry certifications and successful program completion is incredibly important. For Hendrix and Pflugerville ISD, the SchooLinks CCMR tracker has been integral to their data tracking and reporting needs. This also allows administrators to monitor progress throughout the school year and make iterative adjustments as needed. Hendrix shared her amazement at how easy it is to monitor progress within the SchooLinks system, articulating that they can now see trends toward important milestones in nearly real time. 

School and district staff have found that these capabilities have saved them incredible amounts of time on cumbersome tasks and allowed them to focus more time and energy on direct student support. One example Henrix shared was a district initiative to celebrate students who have earned their industry certification and have a post-secondary plan relevant to their CTE program–akin to what a future college athlete might experience at a Signing Day. In past years, planning for this effort has taken district staff weeks of time to identify students who have met this benchmark and verify the information. With SchooLinks, this work took only hours. Hendrix explained, “We were so excited because we could simply go into the CCMR Tracker and pull down a report of every student who met our criteria, and it was right there on paper.” As implementation continues, school and district staff continue to identify additional ways to integrate SchooLinks into their processes to create efficiencies and better support for students. 

Strengthening CCMR Engagement 

Hendrix reflected on both the meaningful partnership and collaboration that SchooLinks has provided along with the value add for all stakeholders in her district. According to Hendrix, SchooLinks customer support provides “anything we need, at any time” and that the staff at SchooLinks shows a deep respect for the work being done in schools and districts. With that, Hendrix explained that SchooLinks listens to their needs and works to incorporate their feedback into their product. This type of supportive, two-way communication, and the iterative process of continued development, makes the relationship between Pflugerville ISD and SchooLinks a true partnership. 

Hendrix offered one piece of advice for districts implementing SchooLinks. She recommended that districts get their “entire stakeholder group involved–your industry partners, your parents, your students, your counselors, your advisors, your administrators, your district curriculum staff, everybody–because…if you get everyone to be a user of [SchooLinks]–a good user of it–it will do amazing things for you.”

And, for students, families, and community members in Pflugerville ISD, SchooLinks has done amazing things. A spring semester push of educating families about SchooLinks skyrocketed CCMR engagement. Hendrix shared a description of parents’ astonishment and excitement about what SchooLinks can offer: “You mean I can see what my student is planning, and I can help them track it? And I can help them explore colleges and careers? And this is all here?” To which, Hendrix replied, “Yes–that’s what this is all about!” With all of the stakeholders on board and enthusiastic about what this means for students’ future plans, Hendrix only expects the utilization of SchooLinks to continue to grow–sparking energy for CCMR efforts and initiatives and support for the students, families, and educators participating in this important work. 

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