IT Infrastructure & Management

Kentucky Debuts Online College and Career Tool for Students

By Rhea R. Borja — January 23, 2007 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Kentucky has launched an interactive online system that tracks students’ college and career plans, houses their academic records, and allows them to create résumés for prospective employers.

The Web-based guidance system will help middle and high school students fulfill the state’s requirement that they each complete an “individual learning plan” to graduate from high school. Those plans are part of Kentucky’s broader agenda for improving secondary schools, said Linda Pittinger, the state education department’s director of secondary learning, virtual education, and dropout prevention.

“This really builds their educational résumé,” she said. “This is a way for students to distinguish themselves when trying to gain admission to college or applying for summer internships.”

The state awarded a three-year, $1.05 million contract to Anaca Technologies Ltd., a Toronto-based software company, to customize and use the company’s Career Cruising online tool.

Anaca Technologies works in almost all states, though mostly at the school or district level. It may partner with Delaware soon on a similar statewide system, and several schools in the state are already piloting the online tool, said Meredith Beyer-Alldredige, the senior project manager for Career Cruising.

Replacing Paper

Kentucky’s online career education system, rolled out in September, will gradually replace the state’s paper-based student-learning-plan system, said Julia Harmon, a program consultant in the state’s virtual and secondary education division.

Get more information on Kentucky’s career-guidance system from the state’s Department of Education.

“We wanted to take our antiquated paper version and take it into the real world,” she said.

Through the online tool, at www.careercruising.com, students can gather information on a variety of careers, watch video interviews of professionals in those fields, and research colleges that offer the needed degrees. The precollegiate career-guidance system is integrated with www.gohigherky.org, Kentucky’s online college guide.

Middle and high school students can also track the courses they have taken or plan to take to meet their goals, said Ms. Harmon. They can also store essays and other classwork, and document community-service work and activities such as internships and college fairs.

For its part, the Kentucky education department will integrate student demographic and academic data into the system. That way, officials say, students, parents, and colleges can view students’ complete academic and career profiles.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 24, 2007 edition of Education Week as Kentucky Debuts Online College and Career Tool for Students

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

IT Infrastructure & Management One Solution to Maintaining 1-to-1 Devices? Pay Students to Repair Them
Hiring students to help with the repair process is one way school districts are ensuring the sustainability of their 1-to-1 programs.
4 min read
Sawyer Wendt, a student intern for the Altoona school district’s IT department, repairs a Chromebook.
Sawyer Wendt, who's been a student intern for the Altoona district's tech department since junior year, is now studying IT software development in college.
Courtesy of Jevin Stangel, IT technician for the Altoona school district
IT Infrastructure & Management Schools Get Relief on Chromebook Replacements. Google Extends Device Support to 10 Years
Schools have typically had to replace Chromebooks every three to five years.
4 min read
Photo of teacher working with student on laptop computer.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
IT Infrastructure & Management What We Know About District Tech Leaders, in Charts
Male chief technology officers in K-12 tend to come from technological backgrounds while most female tech leaders are former teachers.
1 min read
Illustration concept of leadership, using wooden cut-out figures and arrows.
Liz Yap/Education Week via Canva
IT Infrastructure & Management How Schools Can Avoid Wasting Money on Technology
A district leader shares ways to ensure ed-tech tools are worth the investment.
2 min read
Illustration of laptop with checklist on the screen
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty