Pathways Success Story: Streamlining CCMR Data for Student Success
Facing the challenge of managing complex College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) data for the Miles High School student body, Sara Stevens inherited a cumbersome spreadsheet from her predecessor. This outdated system required navigating multiple platforms and was prone to manual errors, creating significant hurdles in tracking student progress accurately.
Recognizing the need for a more integrated and efficient solution, Sara welcomed the opportunity presented by a Perkins grant to implement Pathways. This new system promised to simplify data management, improve accuracy, and support her counseling efforts and the school’s performance metrics.
Dive into Sara’s journey, uncovering how Pathways revolutionized her role, boosted student outcomes, and enhanced the school’s overall efficiency.
The Challenge
When starting her role, Sara inherited a spreadsheet from her predecessor filled with CCMR data points for the school's high school students. This spreadsheet was a remnant of the previous counselor’s efforts to track student progress but came with several critical challenges.
First, Sara found herself navigating multiple platforms to gather necessary data, including ACT scores, Texas Success Initiative (TSI) reports, and other student metrics — each requiring different logins and interfaces. This fragmentation made data collection cumbersome and time-consuming.
“I was totally overwhelmed by having to learn all those different platforms."
Additionally, the manual entry and management of data introduced significant risks of human inaccuracies. Sara faced issues like misreported TSI results due to simple errors in the spreadsheet, which had real-life implications for student outcomes. Sara emphasized, “Human error was my biggest concern. When you're dealing with so many different data points and trying to organize them all, mistakes are bound to happen.”
She struggled to remember different procedures for each data source while ensuring that all information was accurately reflected in the spreadsheet. The stakes were high, as the accuracy of CCMR data was crucial for student graduation and college readiness, as well as for the school's performance metrics and funding opportunities.
“It's not just high stakes on the student side; it's high stakes on the school side as well."
The Solution
Sara’s search for a solution wasn’t driven by an active quest for new tools but rather by the opportunity presented through a Perkins grant. Pathways was introduced to her as a more efficient way to manage and integrate student data.
Although she hadn’t been actively seeking a solution, Sara saw the potential benefits of Pathways and decided to embrace the new system.
“It's a stressful situation, and you want that data to be reliable — not just for yourself, but also for your students and your administration.”
While Sara experienced a slow start setting up and training for the new system, she attended webinars and engaged in several one-on-one sessions with customer support to get the solution operational. Because the initial setup was trial by error, the support team proved instrumental in troubleshooting issues.
As she continued to use the system, it quickly became her primary resource for managing CCMR data. The centralized location for all data streamlined her workflow, eliminating the need to juggle multiple platforms and manually input data into spreadsheets. By the second semester of her first year, Sara recognized the value of the initial setup effort.
“Last year, as I was getting kids registered for classes and handling other tasks, I found myself going to Pathways all the time.”
The solution made accessing and managing student information much easier, saving her time and reducing errors. She was particularly impressed with how quickly she could retrieve data for tasks like student registration.
“Now it’s kind of my go-to place where I can find all the info right there without having to dig through different files, spreadsheets, and other sources."
The Results
The impact of Pathways extended beyond just Sara as a counselor. The system improved communication and transparency within her school by allowing her to easily share data with stakeholders — like the principal and superintendent.
“It’s been easy not only to keep up with the data but also to share it with others.”
Now, Sara’s advocating for CCMR bonus funding by demonstrating how Pathways facilitated better data management and student tracking.
Adopting Pathways brought several measurable benefits for Sara and her school. It saved time by reducing the need to manually compile reports from various sources, allowing her to focus more on direct counseling and student engagement.
The integrated system also reduced frustration by simplifying the management of data and procedures; not to mention it improved data accuracy by minimizing the risk of human error and ensuring that critical data points were not missed. Enhanced collaboration within the school was another benefit, as clear and accessible data supports Sara’s efforts to secure additional resources and funding.
“I was frustrated at first because I wanted to be with students but found myself stuck behind a computer all the time. Pathways has freed up time for me to focus on counseling activities, like meeting with students individually and helping them.”
Looking ahead, Sara is excited about exploring the additional features of Pathways. Although she has only scratched the surface of what the system can do, she’s optimistic about its future impact on her counseling practices and the school as a whole.
For Sara Stevens, the transition to Pathways at Miles High School represents a successful shift from cumbersome manual data management to a streamlined, efficient system. Pathways not only resolved the immediate challenges of managing CCMR data but also provided a foundation for improved accuracy, efficiency, and collaboration within the school. As Sara continues to leverage the system, the long-term benefits for her students and the school district are poised to grow even further.
The Product
Pathways, powered by Education Advanced, Inc., is a graduation tracking tool that allows administrators and counselors to efficiently create, monitor, and analyze graduation pathways to ensure secondary students are on track to graduate. Pathways ensures the accuracy of student data through a feed with the district student information system, which saves time and reduces the administrative burden for counselors and administrators.
Want to make CCMR tracking easier? Book a Pathways demo here!
