Pleasant Valley High School team develops comprehensive program to guide adolescent students towards postsecondary pathways.
A team of school counselors from the Quad Cities region has authored a new career development program designed to help high school students explore and plain their futures.
The Career Compass: Guiding Adolescents to Their Futures, scheduled for release in Summer 2026 from Research Press Publishers, offers a structured framework to support adolescents as they identify their strengths, interest, and long-term goals while preparing for life after graduation.
The book was developed by five counselors at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa: Leslie Spiller, Ellie Curtis, Scott Rice, Nicole Shea, and Ellie Thomas.
Drawing on their shared experience in postsecondary planning and career exploration, the authors designed the program to provide schools with practical tools for guiding adolescents through key decision-making years.
“We see every day how much students benefit from intentional time to reflect on who they are and what they want for their futures,” the authors write in the book’s introduction. “Career development is not just about choosing a job—it’s about building the self-awareness and planning skills that help students move forward with purpose.”
The Career Compass is designed for use in classroom guidance, small-group counseling, or individual planning sessions. The program includes reproducible lessons, reflection activities, and planning tools that help students assess their strengths, explore career options, and connect personal interests and values to future academic and career pathways.
Organized into two complementary sections, the curriculum guides students through a sequence of exploration and planning activities. Early lessons focus on self-assessment and career research, while later sections support goal setting and next-step planning. A final lesson invites students to envision themselves in a future role and outline the steps needed to move toward it.
The program aligns with national expectations for comprehensive school counseling, including guidance from the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), which identifies career development as a core component of preparing students for postsecondary success. By offering a clear, adaptable structure, the book is intended to help schools deliver consistent career development programming across counseling and academic settings.
The authors’ collaboration reflects a shared commitment to helping students make informed, confident decisions about their futures and to providing educators with a practical resource that can be implemented across high school environments.
The Career Compass: Guiding Adolescents to Their Futures is expected to release in Summer 2026. Preorders are currently being accepted by phone and email through Research Press Publishers. The title is available at a preorder price of $35.99 (with a regular listing price of $44.99), with a 20% off savings.
To place a preorder, call 800.519.2707 or email orders@researchpress.com.
About Research Press
Research Press is an independent publisher of practical, research-informed resources for school counselors, educators, psychologists, and other professionals who support the mental health, behavior, and development of children and adolescents. For more than 55 years, Research Press has partnered with practitioners to publish materials that help students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.