As the 2025-26 school year approaches, SRVUSD is making the transition from Naviance to SchooLinks, a college and career readiness program designed to aid students with their college applications and prepare them for their next steps after graduation.
“The district decided, with feedback from our counselors, that SchooLinks is more user-friendly and offers a more coordinated curriculum over the course of students’ journey through middle and high school to explore their interests and refine their post high school plans,” Kelly Cushner, a DVHS counselor, explained. “The district is already utilizing SchooLinks for our course catalog, which will soon enable students to have one dedicated place for information about planning while they’re in high school and beyond.”
Prior to this switch, the district used Naviance, another college and career readiness provider. The program offered features that aided students in college research and applications through its integration with the Common Application, as well as course planning and preparation. Through Naviance, school counselors were able to track individual student progress while communicating with students and their families.
“This is the main tool we’ve used to send required documents to colleges,” Cushner said. “Naviance also offers a career exploration component, but that hasn’t been frequently utilized by our students.”
SchooLinks is a similar platform to Naviance in that it helps students learn about their skills, learning style and future options, but with a stronger focus on career readiness in addition to aiding students’ with college applications and research.
“[SchooLinks’s] Learning Hub has videos and activities on self-discovery, job skills and career exploration,” Lais Oliveira, another DVHS counselor, said. “Students can find college info, track applications and watch short career videos. They can also ask professionals questions about careers.”
Additionally, the district chose SchooLinks for its user-friendly interface and simplicity in comparison to Naviance.
“SchooLinks and Naviance provide similar types of services to students and schools,” Jessica Coulson, SRVUSD’s Social Emotional Well-Being and College and Career Readiness Coordinator, said. “It is our belief that interacting with the SchooLinks platform will be easier for students, staff and families.”
The change in platforms will primarily affect current high school juniors who will be seniors during the 2025-26 school year, though SchooLinks will be used by students prior to the college application process as well.
“Students will be given quarterly assignments and deadlines related to college and career exploration throughout high school and starting in middle school,” Oliveira emphasized. “These assignments are not graded, they are optional, but will give students opportunities for greater support around planning for their futures.”
During the 2024-25 school year, seniors primarily used Naviance for their college applications, in contrast to the district’s focus on multifunctionality with SchooLink. Enping Zhang, a current senior at DVHS, recalled her generally positive experience with Naviance last fall.
“I was able to navigate a lot of stuff through Naviance, like which colleges I wanted to choose and matching and pairings, and I was able to see with my statistics how well they paired me up and what colleges I was fit for,” she said. “I just used it for choosing what schools I would want to go for, and then you put it in and the counselors see it and they finalize it.”
Senior Emma Wen also described mainly using Naviance for her college applications. She initially attempted to use some of the career planning tools as well, but eventually resorted to finding other options online due to the difficulties she faced while trying to navigate Naviance’s built-in functions.
“I might sound like I’m just technologically illiterate, but some of the tabs, they sound similar, but it was like, ‘oh, I feel like I should click this one button to get where I need to be.’ But then sometimes there would be another one, and I’d just have to remember in the back of my mind, like, ‘oh, that’s not correct. I have to go this other route,’” she said. “So it was fine, it was usable, but I personally didn’t like it. It wasn’t as easy or as intuitive as I would have hoped for.”
Although it was acknowledged that the shift is expected to be an adjustment for students, families and staff, Cushner emphasized the consideration and care that went into selecting the new program, as well as the fact that students’ ease, interests and access to opportunities were prioritized.
“A new system always has some challenges, but since school counselors designed it, a lot of thought went into it,” she said. “The main focus now is spreading the word so students are aware and can take advantage of it.”
SchooLinks will eventually sync with Infinite Campus in order to be utilized for course selections, familiarizing students with the platform early on in their academic careers. The similarities between SchooLinks and its predecessor were also important considerations when it came to making the transition as seamless as possible.
“Teachers will continue to have access like they did with Naviance, to send college letters of recommendation,” Cushner said.
Coulson echoed similar sentiments, explaining that students would be interacting with a familiar interface when scheduling college tours and fairs.
“Sign-ups for rep/college visits will feel similar to how it was done in Naviance,” she described. “Sign-ups will be managed by the College & Career Advisor at each high school site, and be done through the students’ SchooLink accounts.”
The platform shift will begin this spring for high school juniors, and students in the eighth through 12th grades will have access to SchooLinks in the fall. Counselors will introduce students and their families to the program as they work towards building their post-high school plans and applying to colleges.
“We are excited for this change, and it will be an exciting new start to revamp our process for college and career planning,” Oliveira said. “Our hope is that students will get on board with SchooLinks starting in eighth grade so that they have more time to explore their interests and career early on.”
