Charlotte County Public Schools accelerates career readiness with Xello
Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS) in Florida achieved a rare and impressive feat during their first year with Xello: a rapid, district-wide implementation with high, consistent usage across all schools.
Under the leadership of Dr. Brian Granstra, Director of Career and Technical Education, and Dr. Jaime Eyster, Career and Technical Education Curriculum and Instructional Specialist, the district successfully integrated Xello as the core of its new career planning strategy, setting a high standard for engagement and early results.
The need for a seamless solution
Before Xello, CCPS recognized two major gaps in their college and career readiness program. First, without a comprehensive platform where they could explore options outside their experience, students’ career exposure was limited to what they saw in their immediate community. Second, the process of researching careers was inefficient.
“A student would come to me and say they wanted to be a veterinarian, and I would say, ‘Let’s Google what you need to do to become a veterinarian.’ We’d follow the breadcrumbs, but it was an exercise in Googling, not college and career planning. We needed a platform that would provide all the information they need in one place,” said Dr. Eyster.
Dr. Granstra emphasizes that not just any platform would do. “We needed a program that’s relevant to students. There are other providers out there that have career inventories, assessments, and career exploration, but they don’t connect one to the other as well as Xello does,” he said.
“We wanted to make sure students felt like this was worth their time. We want them to be exposed to careers they’d never heard existed before and we knew Xello would allow every student in our district to find careers that are relevant to them.”
Dr. Eyster was pleased to note that Xello, “lends itself to beginning with the end in mind, where you find that career and backtrack on how to get to it. No going down Google rabbit holes.”
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Implementation strategies: Built-in buy-in and accountability
CCPS’s swift and cohesive rollout, which saw all schools using Xello at a similar rate—a rarity in Year 1—was the result of a deliberate strategy.
Strategy 1: Making Xello the curriculum mandate
The key to universal buy-in was seamlessly integrating Xello into a newly created district-wide career planning guide.
“We were in a lucky position in that we were creating a career planning guide for the district. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we used Xello. It became the face of the guide. Its activities, surveys, and lessons make up 90% of the guide,” said Dr. Eyster.
“All high schools and middle schools in the district were tasked with completing the career planning guide which led into Xello so that is how we got most of the schools’ buy in and participation in that first year.”
In year two, they repeated that exercise with an elementary career planning guide, again relying heavily on Xello for the elementary aspect of career exploration.
“With our soft launch of K-5 we were hoping at least one school would take advantage of Xello, but it appears that several schools are doing it and having great success.”
Strategy 2: Collaborative development and flexibility
To ensure the guide was practical and supported across the board, the district included representatives from all schools in its development. These individuals became advocates and supporters of Xello, serving as the go-to person for their school.
While Xello use was an expectation, schools were given flexibility in how they implemented it to accommodate different schedules and needs. Dr. Granstra also shared usage results.
“I would run reports and show all the principals so they could see where they line up with other schools in the district. It was a good motivator.”
Dr. Eyster says having a superintendent who is 100% behind college and career planning also goes a long way in developing educator buy-in. “When you have the support of the superintendent that holds a lot of weight and creates accountability on its own.”
Strategy 3: Healthy competition
Dr. Eyster collaborates often with career specialists at each high school to make sure that they’re comfortable using the Xello platform, running reports, and getting educator buy-in.
“I talk to them about how to have friendly competitions. Maybe see which grade level can get the most Xello lessons completed in a week. Students who do their lessons get to put their name in for a raffle. We’re really trying to encourage kids to do it and get buy-in from staff and hold them accountable,” she said.
Early results and student impact
CCPS’s goals for year one were centered on exposure for students and full implementation in secondary schools. They quickly surpassed these targets as volumes exceeded expectations.
High-volume usage
Despite a focus on secondary schools, CCPS saw usage trickling down to the elementary level even without a formal planning guide attached. The district is also excited by the number of families linking their accounts to Xello, demonstrating that parents are monitoring their students’ progress.
With over 17,000 students, the district has achieved an impressive login rate. Among districts of a similar size in Florida, CCPS is currently number one.
Dr. Granstra noted a substantial year-over-year increase. “We’re excited about that and as we continue to do this… it’s becoming part of the culture and DNA of our schools. We try to use every feature possible so we can get the most value from it.”
Runaway enthusiasm
Beginning in year one of implementation, students and educators showed their eagerness to spend time in Xello.
“Running through the reports, we could see schools using it even though Xello wasn’t assigned to them yet, especially at the elementary level,” said Dr. Granstra.
“I’d see high usage for particular grades because the teacher thought it was valuable to them, or we’d see a high school where they made sure that almost 100% of students used Xello as much as they could.”
As they consulted with these teachers and students, the feedback was exceptionally positive. “Students would tell us about what they enjoyed about using Xello and the things they learned from it,” he said.
Life-changing discoveries
The successes she saw were so profound that Dr. Eyster did her dissertation on Xello. The most significant wins came from students discovering new possibilities.
“One of the students in my study said to me, ‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do after graduation.’ Xello results said he would be a fit for a firefighter/paramedic type of pathway so that student decided to go to Charlotte Technical College in his senior year to achieve a career goal that he had learned about in Xello,” said Dr. Eyster.
“I found this incredible because the student went from complete uncertainty to finding a pathway and being able to get started on it the very next year before he’d even graduated high school.”
Another student had her mind set on a post-secondary plan until she completed Xello’s personality assessment. The results introduced her to event planning, a career she didn’t know existed. This prompted her to do a deep dive and completely change her chosen program.
“Now she’s on the path to become an event planner because she found the perfect career for her. That’s her whole life trajectory changing because of an assessment she did on Xello,” said Dr. Granstra.
Onboarding is easy
In a word, Dr. Eyster says Xello’s onboarding process as “simple”. And Dr. Granstra added “fast”.
“I was impressed that Xello doesn’t require a whole lot of training. However, training is readily available for those who want or need it.”
This support, combined with a collaborative, mandatory approach to implementation, has allowed the district to rapidly build a robust, student-centric college and career readiness culture.
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