Naviance and College Summit Unite to Level the Playing Field for Students in Low-income Communities

ARLINGTON, Va. and WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Naviance is pleased to announce a new partnership with College Summit, a national nonprofit organization that partners with high schools and districts to strengthen college-going culture and increase college enrollment rates. As a result of this agreement, College Summit member schools will now have the option of accessing College Summit's curriculum and reporting capabilities through Naviance Succeed, the leading college and career readiness platform for schools and districts.

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"College Summit partner high schools have a postsecondary planning curriculum that helps students connect the dots between their future goals and the academic choices they make, starting in ninth grade," said J.B. Schramm, CEO and co-founder of College Summit. "Partnering with Naviance will provide principals and educators additional tools to promote, measure and improve college and career readiness for all students."

Naviance Succeed® integrates tools for planning across four critical areas – course, career, college and success – into a single powerful solution. Robust analytics, comprehensive communication tools and a student/family portal give schools and districts the ability to raise accountability and performance across a number of key indicators. This leads to increased engagement, improvements in academic performance and overall workplace and career readiness.

"We've always believed that technology is valuable, but more important is that an adult takes an interest in a student's future," says Stephen Smith, president, Naviance. "We are pleased to be able to offer College Summit's curriculum through our platform to help more students recognize college opportunities and guide them along a path to success."

College Summit works with high school students from low-income backgrounds around the country, right in their schools, to get them thinking about, prepared for, and going to college. For many of these young people, they will be the first in their families to go to college. To support them along the way, College Summit partners with high schools to:

• Offer a postsecondary planning course for students in grades 9-12, and provide educators with professional development and onsite coaching to successfully lead this class.
• Mobilize peer influencers through powerful training in summer workshop and school year activities to forge a student-driven college-going culture.
• Use data to manage the school-wide postsecondary planning, college enrollment and college persistence process.

About College Summit

Founded in 1993, College Summit is a national nonprofit that serves more than 30,000 students annually in 170 partner high schools in low-income communities in 11 states. College Summit offers curricula and technology to guide seniors step-by-step through the college admissions process and to guide younger students through postsecondary planning. We partner with high schools to examine their data and use it to drive improvement in college-going rates. A linchpin of our approach is leveraging the power of peer influence to build a culture in high schools where going to college is the expectation, not the exception.

About Naviance

Naviance, a Hobsons company, is the leading provider of measurable student success solutions for K-12 schools. Serving more than 200,000 educators and 4 million students across nearly 5,400 schools in 84 countries, Naviance provides student-centric tools for course, career, college and success planning. Established in 2002, Naviance's mission is to help every student graduate from high school prepared for success in post-secondary education and the twenty-first century workplace.

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