How to Convince Your Principal to Move Forward with Scoir

To our high school counselors, college counselors, directors, post-secondary advisors, CTE directors, and supervisors: we know you wear many different hats each day at school.

Your responsibilities may evolve and rotate depending on the time of year, the students you’re working with, or the needs of your school. 

The good news? You’ve done your research. After taking a look at your post-secondary planning program and Scoir’s high school solution, you know Scoir will provide many opportunities and benefits to your school community. 

But, there’s one hurdle. How do you convince your principal to move forward with Scoir? Budgets are tight and your principal may not fully grasp the unique needs of your department. 

Whether it’s your high school’s first time considering a guidance management system or if you’re planning to transition away from your current alternative, let’s explore ways to explain Scoir to your school’s administrative team and its benefits to your students, families, and school community.

What is Scoir’s guidance management solution?

Scoir is an online college and career guidance management system designed to expand access and improve student outcomes. Scoir supports students and families through the college search, planning, and application process while providing counseling staff with the information and tools they need to support families and guide with impact. 

For students seeking post-secondary pathway options other than a 4-year college degree, Scoir supports students with character-based assessments, career discovery, 2-year, tech, and trade college search, resume building, and more. You can learn more on our Career Readiness for High Schools page. We also have a Career Readiness solution for middle schools! 

Why should we use Scoir at our high school?

So, why are high school counselors, students, and families switching to Scoir? 

Here are three of the most common reasons:

1. Intuitive platform experience for all stakeholders: Scoir provides a user-friendly platform for Gen Z students that increases student engagement. More than 1.6 million students and parents/guardians are on Scoir! 
2. Cost-effective solution: Scoir remains the lowest-cost solution in the space. In support of our mission to expand college access for all students, Scoir discounts our solutions for students receiving free or reduced lunch. 
3. Student privacy protection: Protecting student privacy is a top priority at Scoir. In addition to being a proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, Scoir is committed to never selling, lending, leasing, or otherwise exchanging Student Personally Identifiable Information (PII). 

If your principal would like a thorough review of Scoir’s high school features, we encourage them to check out our blog post, Considering Scoir for Your High School? Here's What You Need to Know. 

The Benefits of Scoir for Your Students 

Self-discovery

Students using Scoir can begin discovering and learning about themselves as early as ninth grade. This can be done using a web browser or with Scoir’s mobile app! Scoir provides students the ability to engage in self-discovery. Students can match their innate attributes to career pathways with PrinciplesYou and Interest Assessments on Scoir. 

Career exploration

As students learn more about themselves and their interests, they can take career assessments on Scoir. They can then easily access career info in their Scoir account, including income, education needed, outlook, and similar careers. With the option to save careers to their profile, students can build a list of careers of interest to explore in further detail. 

College-bound pathway

Students interested in pursuing a college degree can learn more about collegiate opportunities through Scoir’s college search and discovery that is tailored to their interests. When they’re ready, they can seamlessly transition from search to discovery to application all within Scoir’s platform. 

School counselor collaboration

Students use Scoir to make meaningful connections with colleges, engage with their school counselor and college admission reps, collaborate on their college lists, and request document delivery for school supporting documents. Fee waivers, early decision agreements, letters of recommendation, and transcripts can all be sent through Scoir.

Events and webinars

Throughout the year, students are invited to attend Scoir events for high school students, including our recent webinar on How to Stand Out On Your College Essays This Fall hosted by College Essay Guy. Students can also listen to the Scoir Inside Admissions Podcast for tips on dorm shopping, the digital SAT, and more!

The Benefits of Scoir for Your Families

More informed college search process

Parents and guardians using Scoir can access affordability information and the probability of admission across colleges to reduce college debt.

Connect with colleges

Families hear directly from colleges where they indicate their interest in relevant information, like financial aid and open houses.

Research database

Parents and guardians can research schools, view their student’s college list, suggest colleges to their student, and collaborate with other supporters.

Events

Parents and guardians are encouraged to attend Scoir’s events hosted with parents in mind like our recent  Back to School with Scoir for Parents/Guardians Webinar and The Admissions Game Webinar with guest speaker, Peter Van Buskirk. They can also tune in to the Scoir podcast for episodes dedicated specifically to parents.

Check out Scoir’s Students & Families page for more information on how Scoir supports students and families.

The Benefits of Scoir for Your Counseling and Administrative Teams 

Work smarter, not harder

Counselors using Scoir boast that our system allows them to work smarter, not harder. With Scoir’s Counselor Dashboard, counselors can quickly track student progress and proactively identify students who may require more support. We also recently released Admission Intelligence, a series of tools to help balance college lists and demystify acceptance chances, powered by tens of millions of de-identified outcome records!

Streamline college processes

Counselors have the ability to schedule in-person or virtual college visits with college admission representatives. They can also manage the delivery of application-related documents to colleges directly through Scoir. 

Reporting and communication

We know reporting on student engagement, academic performance, and application results is critical each year. Counselors can conveniently run standardized reports in Scoir or they can choose to create their own customized reports based on your school's needs. Additionally, counselors can use Scoir to message students/families, create surveys and forms, assign tasks, and send emails.

College and Career Readiness Curriculum

With over 50+ American School Counselor Association-aligned lesson plans spanning from career exploration to financial and digital literacy, counselors can always access lesson plans for their students. Each lesson plan provides a comprehensive overview and lesson flexibility. 

Professional development

For counselors who enjoy keeping up with their own professional development, Scoir offers thought leadership webinars on relevant topics in the college and career space throughout the year for free. Additionally, counselors can take professional development courses through Scoir U on college counseling and social-emotional learning and they can tune in to Scoir's Inside College Admissions Podcast to hear conversations with intellectuals in the field of education and college admissions. 

For a complete list of Scoir’s high school and counselor features, check out Scoir's High School Features page!

The Benefits of Scoir to Your School Community 

With Scoir, all school stakeholders benefit! Scoir was intentionally designed to provide support, resources, and guidance to students and their supporters for a streamlined experience.

School communities using Scoir help their students begin to discover their postsecondary fit through our one-stop-shop resource for students, parents/guardians, counselors, and administrators. If your school principal is interested in improving student outcomes, they’ll quickly see the positive impact Scoir has on school communities across the country.

The Value of Scoir for Private Schools

• Highly customizable settings (such as setting when students can start requesting letters of recommendation) that allow Scoir to work for your school’s unique timeline and goals
• We make reporting on application outcomes a breeze

The Value of Scoir for Public Schools

• The most affordable college and career readiness solution in the market (with the most bang for your buck)
• We make reporting from a district level easy
• We can help your school meet state requirements

We’re in! How do we get started?

Woohoo! Your principal is on board to move forward with Scoir! 🎉

They’ll be pleased to know our onboarding process is quick and easy regardless of whether this is your school’s first college guidance solution or if you are switching from another platform. 

Each school is assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) who will work with your team to ensure the onboarding and rollout process works for your unique school. 

With the assistance of your assigned CSM, they will walk you through our onboarding process, including data and account setup, Scoir training, and a 45-minute pre-rollout meeting to ensure everything is set for students, faculty, and staff to dive into the exciting world of Scoir! 

Once you introduce Scoir to your school community, your assigned CSM will continue to provide proactive check-ins and support throughout the year. Your team will always have access to Scoir’s technical support team and our 24/7 extensive help center.

Schedule a Walkthrough 

At Scoir, we know the schools we support take a team approach when discussing new solutions for students and families. If your principal or head of school has additional questions, let’s continue the conversation!

Don’t hesitate to contact your Regional Manager of High School Partnerships with any questions or schedule a Scoir walkthrough for your school’s lead decision-makers. 

This article was originally published on September 21, 2023. It was updated on October 9, 2024 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.