West Springfield student Laylah Debian (left) and Counseling Department Chair Dina Sibilia (right) discuss the platform Xello to the School Committee at its Oct. 14 meeting.
Photo credit: West Side Media
WEST SPRINGFIELD — During the Oct. 14 School Committee meeting, West Springfield High School Counseling Department Chair Dina Sibilia gave a presentation about a platform the department started using last year called Xello.
Xello is a college and career readiness platform used to discover skills, interest and pathways for students in grades 9-12. It is data driven, Common App ready and meets the state and national standards.
Students can insert achievable goals, define their career plans and build actionable road maps. They also can begin creating a portfolio in ninth grade that includes their activities, projects and work.
“We’re really excited about continuing to use it,” Sibilia stated, “It is data driven, meaning that insights are based on real data to help students discover their unique skills and interests. This is a personalized approach and allows students to express and explore various pathways throughout their high school career that align with their future.”
Another key feature is that it is Common App ready, which means it is connected to the Common App, which is an application that students fill out and send to various colleges and universities.
Previously, the school district used MEFA Pathways, but Sibilia said it did not meet the district’s needs.
She talked more about the switch to Xello, stating, “The Counseling Department set out to find a new platform for our students. The Massachusetts Department of Education had set forth an expectation that all students have a post-secondary plan and they call it MYCAP which stands for My Career and Academic Plan.”
Sibilia said one of the main components that the department was looking for with a new platform was being able to interact with the students and assist them with their portfolio. She also said they were looking for a platform that was translatable. Xello provides 25 professionally translated languages.
“We really wanted a program that would help all students find a plan, find their future. It had to be very user friendly. We wanted to be able to make sure kids liked it,” Sibilia said.
The platform also provides data and trends such as career based interests, tracks college applications and acceptances, and allows students to set goals and keep track of their progress.
Sibilia talked about the benefits of being able to see the trends and data. She said, “We can really see some career based interests based on how the students answer things and that can help set us up; we share it with administration, we share it with department chairs [because] it could talk about future planning, future courses that we might want to run, events, guest speakers, all of that. We can start to identify students based on their pathways.”
The platform also has a built-in grades 9 to 12 curriculum with completion standards where students are assigned tasks by grades. Teachers and counselors can track progress as well as tailor it to each individual student.
Once a month, students are required to sign in to Xello and spend 15 minutes during their lunch period to complete an activity. Sibilia said the department were able to meet with people from Xello to select topics and assignments for each grade level.
Sibilia said the hope is by the end of October that Xello will be introducing a course planner tool which will allow students to create a four year graduation plan to map out their journey and adjust as needed.
Class of 2026 student Laylah Debian discussed her student experience with Xello.
Debian said, “It’s very accessible and easy to log in to without any problems. What I like is how it provides to-do lists, we get lessons to complete, they’re different career paths we can explore and even colleges we’re interested in as we get older are implemented into the system, and it’s very easy to navigate and I like how you’re able to start with a blank slate from the beginning so you can organize it grow with the app basically.”
Debian encouraged parents and staff to have students use the platform. The funding for the platform ends in 2027 but Debian said they are also looking at expanding the implementation of Xello starting at sixth grade.
