Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Chandler Unified details ‘Grad Tracker’ digital planner and Tableau alerts to help counselors, parents track graduation progress
Loading...
Summary
District staff described a Grad Tracker tool that converts paper credit checks into a digital academic planner tied to Infinite Campus and Tableau; the district will pilot the tool at three high schools next semester and plans district rollout for 2026–27.
Chandler Unified School District staff and counselors presented “Grad Tracker” on Oct. 22, outlining a year‑long project to replace paper graduation credit checks with a digital academic planner linked to Infinite Campus and a counselor alert dashboard in Tableau.
Dr. Dela Torre, the district’s lead on the project, said the Grad Tracker work began after staff recognized that the paper binders counselors use for senior credit checks are time consuming, error prone and not easily shared with families. “Our current process … is not really conducive. It’s very time consuming, we’re killing lots of trees,” counselor Maria Kalia Anderson said, showing an example binder and describing how counselors photograph or scan pages to share them with parents.
The Grad Tracker effort has three data inputs: the historical transcript, in‑progress grades and a student’s planned future courses (a four‑year plan). The district is using Infinite Campus’ Academic Planner module for students’ course plans, then bringing requests into the master‑schedule process. Dr. Dela Torre said counselors will meet with students to refine plans and that the district has built templates to streamline common course sequences.
Dr. Kent Woods described a Tableau dashboard that will surface students who fall off track. “We’re developing an email alert system for the counselors,” Woods said, showing a mock‑up that lists off‑track students by counselor and prioritizes those most credit‑deficient. The dashboard also breaks down counselor caseloads and highlights whether off‑track students have attendance, grade or behavior indicators that may explain deficiencies.
The district said it will pilot Grad Tracker next semester at three high schools — Arizona College Prep, Perry and Casteel — chosen because they have existing capacity and registration expertise. Staff plan communications and parent training so families can view their child’s planner through Parent Portal. The team expects to expand Grad Tracker to all sites for the 2026–27 school year after pilot revisions.
Board members raised workload and equity questions: President Serrano and other members noted the district’s high counselor‑to‑student ratios (the presentation cited an average of 1 counselor per 424 high‑school students) and asked whether the system accounts for students with IEPs or 504 plans and families who need non‑English communications. Dr. Dela Torre said the academic planner can accommodate extended graduation timelines (fifth‑year students) and that administrators and case managers will support counselors when caseload needs are higher. Staff said the digital planner will be accessible via Parent Portal and that they will pilot communications and supports in multiple languages.
The board received the presentation as an information item; the district will return with pilot results and a rollout schedule after next semester’s testing.
Ending: District officials said Grad Tracker aims to reduce counselor paperwork, give parents real‑time visibility into graduation progress and allow counselors to be proactive with alerts; a pilot is scheduled next semester with broader rollout planned for fall 2026.
