We believe that school choice for students is a multi-faceted, complicated, and intensely personal and family-driven process. Our work will always keep your family and student’s needs in the center of every conversation.

We believe in every child’s capacity for growth over time—academic, athletic, emotional and spiritual—and we will be relentless in supporting your dreams to see your child emerge as the person they were meant to become.

We believe that “school fit” is a reality-alignment exercise that marries your hopes and dreams for your child with the hard truths of school admission processes. At Clear Path, we will be fierce advocates for your child’s most appropriate school outcome.

We believe that “the more you give of yourself, the more you’ll love what is left.” Our holistic approach to school-choice counseling will help your child build a personal portfolio profile (PPP) that does more than look good on paper. Our counseling process will encourage your child to create impact in their community, and to use our process to begin building a fulfilling life.

We believe that while a well-rounded education is a foundation for success in college and beyond, we recognize that schools are looking for “pointy” applicants. What makes you special? What have you done that is unique, different, and raises the profile of our college/university? How have you led? How will your ‘pointiness’ help you make a difference in college? These are questions we’ll help you answer.

We believe that participation in athletic and artistic activities are essential building blocks for healthy living, and we will encourage and help develop your child’s talents in order to leverage those gifts in the school choice process.

We believe that competitive greatness is generative over a long period of time, and requires athletes/musicians/actors take risks in order to achieve sustained success. Athletes should try a sport that not their specialty, musicians should embrace different musical genres, actors should step out of their preferred performances—all of this creates a superior work ethic and humility.

We believe every school has a portrait of excellence. Too often school improvement discussions center on what children are not doing, or how curriculum is flawed or how parents are making a mess of things. At Clear Path we will help school leaders should the discussion by framing the picture in the community of what the school looks like when school is outstanding.

We believe that culture building in schools is the responsibility of every facet of school life. Too often departments—Athletics, Math, Theater, even entire divisions—are pulling at the fabric of mission-based schools because there’s a lack of cultural unity. At Clear Path, we will help you perform department inventories and improvement plans as well as create school-wide strategies to sustain a positive, student-centered culture at your school.

We believe in student growth over time, and every meeting and memo should focus on that end. Remember: the kids that are admitted with the best test scores leave with the best test scores.There is an unhealthy fascination with the SAT and ACT numbers. Sure, it’s nice when your school has a high SAT/ACT mean: it has become attractive to high achievers. However, great schools are gauged not only by the standardized test scores but how it supports and promotes measurable student growth over time in a variety of different ways—the arts, athletics, global appreciation and servant leadership are just a few of the ways that schools work to produce engaged and compassionate young people.

We believe in the power of team. One of our goals at Clear Path is to help administrative teams become cohesive, empathetic, strategy-driven groups that are seen as entities for inclusive, data-driven change.