Career/College Planning
The ability to improve students’ success, as measured by increasing access to college and career opportunities—especially for
underserved populations—has frustrated students, parents, educators, and policymakers for decades.
FolderWave has developed a different approach, based on a student-centric paradigm, that leverages its cloud-based
platform to dramatically improve the college and career planning process.
The FolderWave College and Career Planning solution is being developed on the FolderWave technology platform in partnership with the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA).
For the first time, policymakers have an accurate assessment of the number of students who are interested in attending college or choosing a particular career as well as the number of students who have created a college list and ultimately apply. This information provides the opportunity for policy makers to identify and match resources to student needs earlier.
Employers can be engaged to provide internships and jobs for students that have interests and competencies demonstrated in their portfolio.
The platform will be made available to all Massachusetts Middle Schools and High Schools. Student academic data will be integrated into the platform using the same data set schools currently provide to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Our Approach
Student Portfolio
Tracks and captures school curated student data (course and grade information, test scores, project and writing samples, extra-curricular activities, as well as personality and interest information) beginning in middle school. The portfolio provides guidance counselors and families robust tools to manage the process of advisement in an efficient way. Each student will create a six-year Individual Learning and Career Plan that will be enhanced as the platform proactively guides the student through college and career exploration using the student’s actual performance and interest data.
Tailored Content
The FolderWave platform provides rich content that is contextualized to each particular student’s specific needs through each stage of the college and career planning process. A middle-school student will complete interest assessments to explore possible careers as well as personality and learning style assessments to help identify his or her strengths and weaknesses. In high school, the student continues their college and career exploration while constructing a resume and portfolio that can be used for internships or jobs.
College Application
Most significantly, the platform will support the ability to easily and directly pre-populate the collected data to directly to transfer it to your online application provider. Guidance counselors can create and manage all the recommendations and transcripts within the platform as part of this process.
More Time for Advising
Guidance counselors can use student-supplied information to recommend course selections and areas for exploration and future growth. Counselors have visibility to students who have not yet completed these milestones, so they can work with them to close the gap and determine prerequisites. Students are exposed to information on financial literacy and paying for college. They can research colleges and careers contextualized with their stored academic and personal interest information. This is a meaningful differentiator from the multitude of college search sites available, as this tool requires no re-entry of data. Efficiencies and opportunities abound, allowing counselors more time for advising.
The Details
Differentiators
–The ability to compare data across the system, not just inside the school
–Active collaboration between student, administration, and parents
–Tools to make the student portfolio part of the curriculum
–Improved, game-like interface to capture student interest
Technology
–Multi-tenant supports centralized data
–Supports flows across institutions (Load balancing)
–Standard data to support state-wide reporting
–Affordable technology where budgets are being impacted. Excellent ROI
–Expandable platform to address future needs
–Central paper handling with advanced capabilities and upload support
–Configurable, institution-specific rules
–Support for grad and undergrad processing
Potential
State Systems
- Serve distributed campuses
- Meet the need for flexible flows in the “system”
- Maintain competitive stance
School Districts
- Support beleaguered counseling staff
- Monitor and implement Integrated Learning Plans
- Provide self-motivated opportunities for self-awareness and personal/academic growth
