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PowerSchool Unveils Major Enhancements to Naviance for the 2025-2026 School Year

via Business Wire

 Robust work-based learning features, AI-powered tools, personalized student experiences define the next generation of college, career, and life readiness

PowerSchool, a leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education, today announced the launch of the next-generation Naviance College, Career & Life Readiness (CCLR) platform. Used by over 8 million students and implemented in 35% of U.S. high schools, PowerSchool Naviance CCLR is delivering an intuitive, personalized, and engaging journey through college and career planning for students and school counselors. Launching in time for the 2025-2026 school year, the new Naviance CCLR will offer tailored content, streamlined navigation, and dynamic tools aligned with students’ unique goals and interests.

Naviance has been reimagined to address a persistent gap in career and college readiness: a lack of access to real-world learning opportunities. According to a study by American Student Assistance, while 79% of high school students express interest in participating in work-based learning, only 34% are aware of available opportunities, and just 2% have completed an internship during high school. Research from Brookings identifies work-based learning as a critical lever for advancing student equity and economic opportunity.

“Naviance defined College, Career, and Life Readiness (CCLR) two decades ago, setting the standard for student preparedness. Today, we're reimagining that standard to directly address the urgent need for work-based learning and future-ready citizens,” said Shivani Stumpf, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at PowerSchool. “This powerful evolution of Naviance bridges the gap between classroom and career, embedding work-based learning, personalized pathways, and smart automation into the heart of the student journey. We're equipping educators to lead with insight and giving every student, whether headed to college, a career, or both, the tools to thrive.”

Work-Based Learning: Real-World Experience, Real Impact

As part of the enhanced Naviance experience, a new Work-Based Learning (WBL) experience will be available at no additional cost. This offering gives students access to school approved and vetted real-world career experiences including internships, apprenticeship, job shadowing, volunteering, and industry visits - all discoverable within a secure school-managed environment.

Key features include:

  • Opportunity Discovery: Students receive tailored suggestions for work-based learning opportunities based on their activity within Naviance, creating a more relevant and engaging experience.
  • Employer Management Portal: Schools can invite employer partners to join for free and manage opportunities directly in a safe and secure portal. Employers have autonomy to post and update listings, reducing manual input for school staff and increasing access to real-world experiences.
  • Engagement Tracking: Tools for tracking student participation, including hours worked and digital signatures, offer students and staff real-time visibility and documentation of the student experience.
  • Streamlined Compliance and Reporting: Enables districts to meet state-aligned mandates and support Perkins V reporting requirements.

Smarter Tools for Students and Counselors

The 2025-2026 Naviance release also introduces multiple enhancements that personalize exploration and streamline counselor support. These updates come at a critical time: the national student-to-counselor ratio reached 376-1 in the 2023-2024 school year, far above the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association. Naviance is designed to help close this gap by equipping counselors with smarter, time-saving tools and giving students more autonomy in planning their future.

New features include:

  • PowerBuddy for College & Career: Launched last year as the first AI assistant of its kind, PowerBuddy for College & Career has been enhanced to help students find relevant work-based opportunities, discover college events, and match them with scholarships, delivering even more personalized support for their futures. New for back-to-school, PowerBuddy now also supports staff directly within Naviance, offering instant, step-by-step guidance, streamlined access to reports and insights, and smart workflows for exporting data, sending emails, and reviewing chat logs – all in one place.
  • Upgraded College Search and Planning Tools: Students can explore colleges, majors, and career paths with enhanced filters, side-by-side comparisons, real-time admissions data and new features like unofficial transcript downloads and external letter of recommendation requests.
  • AI-Generated Letters of Recommendation: A new time-saving feature that uses AI to draft personalized recommendation letters for students, based on data counselors and teachers can approve and customize, will reduce administrative effort while maintaining quality.
  • Enhanced Career Exploration: Expanded career profiles include more personalized insights from student assessments, video interviews with professionals, and access to information about more than 60,000 credential and certificate programs.
  • Modernized Counselor Experience: A redesigned dashboard, simplified workflows, and real-time visibility into student progress make it easier for counselors to manage caseloads and support students more efficiently.

Enhancements will be available during the back-to-school season for the 2025–2026 academic year. For more information, please visit: https://www.powerschool.com/blog/unlocking-potential-and-transforming-futures-with-a-next-generation-cclr/.

About PowerSchool

PowerSchool is a leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to empower educators, administrators, and families to ensure personalized education for every student journey. PowerSchool offers end-to-end product clouds that connect the central office to the classroom to the home with award-winning products including Schoology Learning and Naviance CCLR, so school districts can securely manage student data, enrollment, attendance, grades, instruction, assessments, human resources, talent, professional development, special education, data analytics and insights, communications, and college and career readiness. PowerSchool supports over 60 million students in more than 90 countries and over 18,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States.

© PowerSchool. PowerSchool and other PowerSchool marks are trademarks of PowerSchool Holdings, Inc. or its subsidiaries. ** Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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