Unified planning tools empower the eighth-largest district in Florida
The challenge
As the eighth-largest school district in Florida and one of the 27th largest in the U.S., the School District of Lee County serves a diverse population of over 100,000 students across 96 traditional schools and 119 schools with charters.
While college and career readiness (CCR) has always been a priority for the district, early efforts were often fragmented, due to teachers, counseling, and admins using different methods to pull information they needed about students and their plans.
The district needed a unified, intuitive solution that could scale across its entire K–12 spectrum. By partnering with Xello, Lee County has not only standardized its CCR curriculum but has also fostered a culture where every student graduates with a clear, actionable plan for their future.
District
Location
The challenge
The solution
The solution
Scalable success in a massive district
Before implementing Xello, Lee County experienced challenges with tools that were either too complicated and time consuming for the classroom or lacked district-wide promotion. Bethany Lloyd, a College and Career Specialist in the district’s Career and Technical Education department, recalls a time when educators were wary of adding “one more thing” to their already heavy workloads.
To overcome this, Lee County employed a top-down, bottom-up implementation strategy. While the district’s careers specialists, teachers, and counselors built grassroots momentum in middle and high schools, the district’s leadership—including the superintendent and school board members—provided the expectations and accountability necessary for universal adoption.
Winning over the skeptics
The secret to Lee County’s high engagement lies in the platform’s ease of use. When training teachers and counselors, Lloyd and other implementation leaders use a simple, five-minute demonstration to prove Xello’s plug-and-play value.
“I tell them, ‘Give me five minutes. Let me show you all you have to do,’” said Lloyd.
“Once they see that Xello is almost entirely student-driven—they take the assessments, explore the careers, and build the portfolio—the light bulb goes off. Teachers realize it’s a tool that actually saves them time and deepens their conversations with students.”
This simplicity allows teachers to shift from lecturers to facilitators, moving away from 45-minute presentations to meaningful, one-on-one discussions about a student’s specific interests and goals.
When educators and counselors became familiar with all the Xello features, new possibilities opened up. “They began to see the value of Scholarships and Work-Based Learning, where business partners in the community can list their companies and jobs. Then there’s Resumes and Lessons. It was great that all of these things are in one solution, and they don’t have to go to 14 different places.”
The results
One Lee County student and her pursuit of dermatology
For students like Melani Patel, a 12th grader in the district, Xello helped transform academic uncertainty into a concrete career pathway. In her freshman year, she chose her school’s medical cluster, taking classes that aligned with her interests. By her senior year, Patel was already earning her Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) licence, gaining clinical experience at local hospitals and nursing homes.
When it came to choosing a career, Xello had a huge part in making the decision.
“I was bouncing between so many different things. Doctor, nurse, forensic scientist, psychiatrist… I wanted to be everything! When I took Xello’s Matchmaker quiz, the top option was dermatology, which was on my list. I was also introduced to a bunch of other ideas that I had never thought about. I researched all the careers in Xello to get more of a description and hear from people who are actually in those fields,” she said.
Ultimately, Patel chose to pursue a career as a dermatology physician’s assistant (PA). She also used Xello to help her find and apply to scholarships and even build a resume.
Financial reality with The Real Game
Lloyd says that one of the most profound aha moments for Lee County students occurs within The Real Game, Xello’s immersive, reality-based simulation. The tool allows students to build a lifestyle based on their career choice, factoring in housing, transportation, and daily expenses.
For Patel, it was a necessary reality check. By inputting the costs of the universities she was considering, she realized that certain paths would lead to overwhelming debt.
“I didn’t want to go into college and come out with a bunch of debt from my bachelor’s. The Real Game showed me I could go to a different school for cheaper and save money.”
Lloyd notes that this feature is essential for grounding student dreams in financial reality. “Most of them want the Lamborghini and the expensive house, but when they input all the expenses vs their earnings, they see that they’re down $6,000 at the end of the month. It forces them to adjust their plan—either live differently or aim for a different career level.”
Empowering educators with actionable data
Xello’s reporting capabilities have transformed how Lee County administrators and counselors support their students. Lloyd regularly pulls data to identify trends, such as shifts in student interest from four-year universities to trade schools or the military.
More importantly, the data allows for targeted intervention. If 90% of a senior class has a post-secondary plan, counselors can use Xello to identify the exact 10% who are still struggling.
“We can filter the data down to see exactly who needs help. Instead of guessing, a counselor can pull a student’s Xello profile, see their saved skills and college interests, and start a meaningful conversation from a place of knowledge,” said Lloyd.
A plan for every senior
The ultimate goal for Lee County is to ensure that 100% of graduating seniors have a “Plan A and a Plan B” for life after high school. This approach embraces the 4Es: enrollment, employment, enlistment, or entrepreneurship.
By starting as early as kindergarten with the gamified Career Town, the district builds a vibrant digital portfolio for every student that follows them through graduation. For students like Melani, who is graduating with full scholarships to her top-choice universities, the impact is life-changing.
“Two years ago, we couldn’t say with certainty what our students’ plans were. Now, we have the data, we have the engagement, and most importantly, we have students who are excited and prepared for what comes next,” said Lloyd.
About the district
