TPC Journal V8, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 4 377 on or off track to graduate and is a source to share electronic resources for students needing Tier 2 supports . Another high school counselor reported that Naviance was helpful in saving time when completing tasks and gathering student information. She stated, “Using Naviance makes me a better counselor; I’m more productive throughout my day, and I can tackle other more pressing issues students might have instead of working late to update my Excel spreadsheet.” Although there were more counselors who found Naviance useful in their role, one middle school counselor and one high school counselor did not agree that Naviance enhanced their counseling practice. The high school counselor stated, “Naviance is yet again another system to use to support students that might go away when there is no more funding, so why learn it.” The same counselor went on to add that she has students who are “dealing with anger, drug addiction, pregnancy, suicide, and anxiety, and Naviance does not offer curriculum on those topics.” She further stated, “I can upload resources into Naviance, but it’s not useful because my role also includes helping students in the areas of social and emotional development.” The middle school counselor described her experience using Naviance and added, “Naviance is good for kids, but I honestly do not see how it makes me a better counselor or my job more efficient or productive.” The same counselor added, “My job is about building trust, establishing relationships, advocating, and guiding students through middle school. Naviance is a tool that can help facilitate that process, but it does not enhance my counseling skills.” Attitudes When asked whether counselors like using Naviance and whether they have a generally favorable attitude toward it, in both instances the results were mixed. Twenty-eight (72%) of the 38 school counselors strongly or somewhat agreed that they liked using Naviance, four counselors (10%) neither agreed nor disagreed, and seven (18%) somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed. When asked about having a favorable attitude toward Naviance, 23 (61%) strongly or somewhat agreed, 5 (13%) neither agreed nor disagreed, and 10 (26%) disagreed or strongly disagreed. Twenty-three school counselors (61%) reported on the open-ended survey question that Naviance was desirable to use for academic and related counseling purposes. Several counselors indicated that multiple training opportunities contributed to comfort level and positive attitudes. However, one high school counselor whose attitude was less than positive stated, “I would prefer to use Californiacolleges.edu, which is a free program that essentially offers the same activities for our students instead of Naviance. Plus, the system specifically caters to counselors and students in California, unlike Naviance.” Two challenges identified by several school counselors that interfered with having a positive attitude about Naviance related to bandwidth issues and access to schools’ computer labs. Counselors expressed frustration by the slow internet connection at their schools, which they reported was due to limited bandwidth capacity. One counselor commented, “due to bandwidth limitations, Naviance does not always work.” Another challenge identified that interfered with overall satisfaction of Naviance was limited access to computer labs. One high school counselor stated, “Computer labs are scarce and accessibility to use Naviance with students is difficult.” Actual Usage Drawing from the Naviance usage and engagement reports, actual Naviance usage and engagement among school counselors was high. Since the implementation of Naviance, school counselor usage has increased each year (see Table 1). Counselor-supported engagement within Naviance is highest among high school counselors (see Table 2).