Comal Compass Helps Students Navigate the Future

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Answering that question just got a bit easier for Comal ISD students, who in October gained access to a student-preparedness platform called Comal Compass.

The program helps students discover their passions and provides them with a road map of how to pursue them.

“We are excited to finally unveil Comal Compass to all secondary students, sixth through 12th grade, and their parents,” said Tiffany Newkirk, Comal ISD’s director of academic counseling. “We have designed it to be an intentional approach, a road map, so to speak, for students and parents to plan for their futures after graduation.”

Comal Compass offers a variety of tools students can use to plan their futures including academic courses, career options and college choices. To learn more, click here. To enjoy a carpool karaoke about Comal Compass featuring Comal ISD Superintendent Andrew Kim and Newkirk, click here.

The district partnered with Naviance, which provides the software and tools for Comal Compass. Naviance has a well-established system that helps students find their strengths, interests and opportunities and then offers them the best post-secondary and career options available to them.

In October, Comal Compass was introduced to students with specific grade-level tasks.

For example, ninth-grade students took a strengths-finder assessment; eighth-grade students took a career cluster-finder assessment; and seventh-grade students took an interest-inventory assessment to find their passions.

“These initial assessments are providing students with their own positive strengths and natural talents which they can focus on and possibly build their future around,” Newkirk said.

Currently, only students have access to Comal Compass, which will be rolled out over the next two years. The parent/family connection piece will be introduced during the 2020-21 school year. Meanwhile, parents may review the results of student assessments and view the new platform from the Comal ISD website. They just need their student to log-in and show them how it works.

Comal Compass will house a student’s academic history and will be used for course registration beginning this spring. Eventually, this platform will allow students to build their resumes, prepare for interviews and track their progress beyond high school graduation.