College and career readiness platform

Yes. I researched the current leading options, with particular attention to what matters to a high-school counseling department rather than simply which platform has the most career content.

My recommendation: SchooLinks

For most high schools—especially in Texas—I would put SchooLinks at #1.

The biggest reason is that SchooLinks is designed not just as a student career-exploration tool, but as a counselor/district operating system for college and career readiness. It combines student planning, college applications, course planning, CCMR tracking, work-based learning, FAFSA/scholarship support, counselor caseload management, and reporting in one environment.www.schoolinks.com+1

My ranking

1. SchooLinks — Best overall

What really separates SchooLinks is the breadth of the counselor and administrative workflow.

It offers:

• 4- and 6-year course planning
• College search and application management
• Common App integration
• Transcript/recommendation management
• FAFSA and scholarship tracking
• Career assessments and exploration
• Work-based learning
• Industry/employer partnerships
• Counselor caseload management
• Counselor meeting notes
• Personalized graduation plans
• CCMR tracking
• State-specific reporting
• Post-graduation/alumni outcomes
• Parent portal
• Dashboards and analyticswww.schoolinks.com+1

For a Texas school, this becomes an even stronger recommendation. SchooLinks specifically supports Texas PGPs, CCMR indicators, endorsements, certifications, course planning, and student-level readiness reporting.www.schoolinks.com+1

That matters because you're not merely asking students, "What career do you like?" You're trying to answer:

Which students are on track, what do they need next, and how can my counseling team intervene before they fall behind?

SchooLinks is particularly strong at that.

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2. Xello — Best for student engagement

Xello would be my strongest alternative.

Xello is excellent at getting students to actually engage with career and postsecondary planning. Its assessments, career profiles, college exploration, plans, resumes, portfolios, and guided activities are well integrated.help.xello.world

I particularly like Xello for schools where the primary objective is:

"We need every student actively exploring careers and building a meaningful postsecondary plan."

Its student dashboard gives students customized tasks, progress tracking, assessments, career exploration, course planning, portfolios, and assignments in one place.help.xello.world

The tradeoff is that, in my assessment, SchooLinks has the stronger counselor/administrator infrastructure, particularly for Texas CCMR, WBL management, reporting, and end-to-end workflows.

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3. Naviance — Best established college-counseling platform

Naviance remains a very serious option.

PowerSchool says Naviance serves 10+ million students and approximately 40% of U.S. high schools, so there is a huge installed base.www1.powerschool.com

It has strong:

• College research/application management
• Career exploration
• Assessments
• Course planning
• Postsecondary planning
• Work-based learning
• Reporting
• Family/student collaboration
• PowerSchool ecosystem integrationwww1.powerschool.com

And Naviance is continuing to evolve; PowerSchool announced significant 2026 enhancements including improved WBL, document management, pathway exploration, course planning, roster management, and AI-powered guidance.www1.powerschool.com

I'd seriously consider Naviance if your district is already heavily invested in PowerSchool and wants tight ecosystem integration.

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4. MajorClarity — Best if career/CTE is the centerpiece

MajorClarity is worth putting on the demo list, particularly for a school with a strong CTE/career pathway emphasis.

Its differentiator is connecting career exploration to actual career "test drives," academic planning, postsecondary exploration, work-based learning, and credentials.majorclarity.com

I'd rank it below SchooLinks for a traditional comprehensive high school that needs a single system for everything, but it could move up substantially if your priority is CTE and career pathway development.

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What I'd choose as a counselor

If I were evaluating these for my own high school, I'd use this weighting:

25% — Counselor workflow/caseload management
20% — Student engagement/usability
20% — College/postsecondary planning
15% — Career + CTE + WBL
10% — State/accountability reporting
10% — Integrations/data/implementation

Using that lens, my approximate assessment would be:

Important caveat: these scores are my decision framework, not vendor-independent benchmark scores. Vendors naturally emphasize their strongest features, so I would validate the top two or three through live demos with your actual workflows.

The biggest question I'd ask vendors

Don't let vendors simply give you a feature tour.

Give each one the same scenario:

"I have 400 students on my caseload. Show me how, in 10 minutes, I can identify which students are off-track for graduation, which seniors haven't completed key postsecondary milestones, which students need FAFSA/application support, and what I should do next with each student."

Then ask them to demonstrate it live.

That's where you'll see the difference between a platform that is primarily a student activity/career exploration tool and one that can genuinely become the operating system for your counseling program.

Bottom line

If you're choosing today, I'd demo SchooLinks first, Xello second, and Naviance third.

For a Texas high school, I would be particularly inclined toward SchooLinks because of its purpose-built CCMR/PGP/course-planning/reporting capabilities.www.schoolinks.com+1

SchooLinks official platform overview
Xello official high-school platform
Naviance by PowerSchool
MajorClarity by Edmentum

If you tell me your state, approximate enrollment, number of counselors, SIS (PowerSchool/Infinite Campus/Skyward/etc.), and whether CCMR/CTE is a major priority, I can narrow this to a 1–2 platform recommendation and build a counselor-focused evaluation/rubric you can use for vendor demos.