A new report from the nonprofit MDRC examined the effectiveness of two popular CTE advising software platforms over a two-year period at five different schools, making several observations and providing recommendations for schools and districts looking to utilize these tools.

With many states adopting legislation seeking to provide more access to CTE pathways and career exposure in high school, many district leaders are faced with the challenge of meeting new requirements without being provided additional funding to hire counselors or advisors, who are essential to students’ career-preparation process….

….The study made four main observations:

1. In schools where school staff members and leaders were committed to implementation and the technology worked well, students tended to have better experiences.
    
2. School staff members and students both had preconceived notions about what students were capable of, but reacted differently to results from the software platforms that did not fit those notions. Teachers and counselors encouraged students to explore unexpected results or recommendations from the software, whereas students tended to be less flexible about the careers they wanted to pursue.
    
3. The advising platforms exposed students to careers they were previously unfamiliar with, and students learned about the salaries they could earn and the education required to succeed in those careers.
    
4. Students could not always act on the recommendations from the platforms when picking career-related courses. Often, students’ decisions were limited by course offerings at their schools and were also influenced by what was socially acceptable in their community or family context.

Full article