Creating College and Career Readiness: What Secondary and Postsecondary Institutions Have to Do and How They Can Work Together

Transcription

1 Creating College and Career Readiness: What Secondary and Postsecondary Institutions Have to Do and How They Can Work Together David T. Conley, Ph.D. Professor, University of Oregon Director, Center for Educational Policy Research CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center Transition to College Conference June 2, 2010

2 Key Assumptions College readiness and career readiness are similar but not the same. The definition of ready is a student who can succeed without remediation in credit bearing general education courses or a two year certificate program. Succeed is defined as being able to progress successfully in the chosen program. New relationships between high schools and colleges will be necessary if more students are ever to enter college ready to succeed 2

3 The Four Dimensions of College Readiness Key Cognitive Strategies Problem formulation, research, interpretation, communication, precision and accuracy. Key Content Knowledge Key foundational content and big ideas from core subjects. Academic Behaviors Self-management skills: time management, study skills, goal setting, self-awareness, and persistence. Contextual Skills and Awareness Admissions requirements, college types and missions, affording college, college culture, and relations with professors. Contextual Skills and Awareness Academic Behaviors Key Content Knowledge Key Cognitive Strategies 3

4 Today s Talk Is Based on Findings and Recommendations Contained In: 4

5 Detailed Definition of Career Readiness We define career ready as the degree to which a student is prepared to succeed in two year certificate programs in areas that lead to occupations with career pathways or trajectories Career readiness is different from work readiness or job training College readiness and career readiness have areas of significant overlap Foundational knowledge and learning skills Academic behaviors and self management College knowledge The differences that exist are not sufficient to sort students into different groups based on their post high school goals 5

6 College Readiness and Career Readiness: Same or Different? EPIC s research on the content of courses in two year certificate programs is identifying the overlap between college readiness and career readiness knowledge and skills. Several examples illustrate the types of knowledge, skill, and behaviors that career certificate programs require for students to succeed 6

7 Welding Technology Certificate (A.S.): Sample Student Learning Outcomes (from Los Rios Community College) Select the correct electrode classification and parameters for various thickness of material and welding positions on ferrous and nonferrous metals. Define principles of gas metal arc welding. Interpret GMA electrode and classification and specification. Select correct electrode amperage settings for the job application. Interpret graphic welding symbols. Describe shielded metal arc welding operations of various positions using selected electrodes on different joint designs. Explain the reason for the formation of each discontinuity type and distinguish different discontinuities. Interpret fabrication blueprints using a systematic process. Relate the requirements for welding ferrous and nonferrous metals. 7

8 Landscaping or Nursery Certificate (A.S.): Sample Student Learning Outcomes (from Los Rios Community College) Identify and select plant materials that are used for landscapes in the northern California regions. Analyze a landscape site and create a complete landscape design for that site. Analyze a landscape design and apply the installation procedures necessary to implement the design. Assess a soil analysis and apply the appropriate steps for plants health and soil sustainability. Demonstrate horticulture skills in a work environment. Apply safe operating procedures and practices to all landscape operations. Assess a landscape and apply the maintenance operation techniques required. 8

9 Automotive Collision Technology Certificate: Sample Student Learning Outcomes (from Los Rios Community College) Identify and estimate automotive collision damage. Develop a repair plan. Repair automotive collision mechanical damage. Repair automotive collision body damage. Refinish automotive collision damage. Electrical Systems This course covers the principles, operation, and diagnosis of automotive electrical systems including fundamentals of electricity (DC), electrical circuits, battery operation, fundamentals of magnetism, charging systems, starting systems, and electrical schematics. 9

10 10 If Only It Were This Easy

11 Seven Key Principles of College Readiness Principle 1: Create and maintain a college going culture in the school. Principle 2: Create a core academic program that is aligned with and leads to college readiness by the end of 12th grade. Principle 3: Teach key self management skills and expect students to use them. Principle 4: Make college real by preparing students for the complexity of applying to college and making the transition successfully. Principle 5: Create assignments and grading policies in high school that more closely approximate college expectations. Principle 6: Make the senior year meaningful and challenging. Principle 7: Build partnerships with and connections to postsecondary programs and institutions.

12 Principle 1: Create and maintain a collegegoing culture in the school Identify and implement the key elements of a college going culture. Signal to students that the school is about preparing students for postsecondary success, not just admission. Work with teachers to establish student expectations consistent with a college going culture. Identify the minimum that all students are expected to do to be college ready. Provide options to students with aspirations to enter the work world that enable them to stay on a path to college readiness. Revise social and award events so that they emphasize a college going culture. Engage parents and teach them what to do to help support a college going culture. 12

13 13 Principle 2: Create a core academic program aligned with college readiness Begin by getting an accurate picture of how the current core academic program well is aligned with college readiness. Adopt a formal set of college readiness standards that establish terminal expectations for all students. Institute a process for teachers to review the content of their syllabi to determine alignment with the college readiness standards and with one another. Support syllabus revision as necessary. Check the instructional program s overall design to ensure it now covers systematically key content, develops key cognitive strategies, improves academic behaviors, and provides opportunities to learn key college knowledge.

14 Expect seniors to be more responsible than freshmen by developing a progression of responsibilities students assume each grade level. Establish group agreements among teachers to develop certain academic behaviors, such as keeping track of assignments, completing assignments on time, developing study skills. Ensure the classes really require development of academic behaviors by having assignments that require multiple days to complete and where out of class collaboration is expected. 14

15 Principle 4: Prepare students for the complexity of applying to college 15 Introduce students to the realities of college each successive year from ninth grade on. Help students practice applying to college before their senior year. Prepare students for local college placement tests and give them opportunities to improve if they will likely not do well on placement exams. Institute a comprehensive program for parents starting in ninth grade that includes information on types of colleges, applying to college, financial aid, AP and dual enrollment, support resources available in college.

16 Develop junior and senior year assignments in particular to begin to approximate college level expectations. Grade these assignments in ways that approximate college grading, then allow time to correct and resubmit. Be cautious in the granting of extra credit, limiting it to additional academic opportunities, not substitute activities. Expect students to apply key cognitive strategies increasingly and do not settle for work that reflects little cognitive effort. 16

17 Principle 6: A meaningful and challenging senior year Ensure that all students have a full, academically challenging schedule senior year. Use the senior year to introduce college like experiences, campus visits, dual enrollment opportunities, Advanced Placement opportunities for all, senior seminars. Utilize mentoring by recent grads and local college students where this is appropriate and feasible, focusing on necessary academic preparation and not the social aspects of college. Consider instituting a culminating project that demands high engagement and student ownership and is scored against the school s college readiness criteria. 17

18 Connect with local postsecondary institutions. Help high school teachers understand the expectations of their postsecondary colleagues. Take advantage of physical proximity to any postsecondary institution. Collect data on student performance in college and use such data to develop new programs and modify existing ones. Let students experience some college when they are ready. 18

19 Things All Teachers Need To Be Able To Do Teach reading throughout high school so that all students know how to: read textbooks and technical material close read take notes annotate decode unfamiliar words. Develop student key cognitive strategies as they apply to writing. Give assignments and class work that requires use of the Key Cognitive Strategies. Have cognitively challenging assignments with lighter literacy loads. 19

20 Things All Teachers Need To Be Able To Do Scaffold lessons to keep challenge levels consistent while varying student supports instead of giving different students different assignments. Assign research projects that cause students to develop their ability to simultaneously complete research papers and increase their college knowledge. Assignments can require students to: study institution type and programs learn about financial aid understand admissions requirements. 20

21 21 Things All Schools Can Do Design down from exit criteria derived from college and career readiness standards to create high school, middle school, and elementary programs of study. Build the program around learning progressions that incorporate key content knowledge and cognitive skill development and that are progressively more complex and challenging. Ensure students write a lot in all courses. Make sure there s lots of expository, descriptive, analytic, and persuasive writing. Limit the amount of narrative and expressive writing. Have students rewrite and edit work to produce quality products. Score writing on a consistent scale schoolwide. Track how much writing is actually occurring in all classes.

22 22 Things All Schools Can Do Emphasize data analysis, graphical and tabular data arrays, statistics, probability, functions, mathematical reasoning, problem solving and not just algorithmic fluency. Integrate these applications of mathematics into science and social sciences. Strongly emphasize research skills. Expect students to utilize citations and a range of sources to support all points. Explicitly teach skills such as locating, selecting, evaluating sources. Have students write syntheses of literature, research proposals, comparative analyses. Define and monitor plagiarism closely and do not tolerate it.

23 23 Things All Schools Can Do Expect all students to develop a core set of technology skills. Be able to type accurately and rapidly (with all ten fingers). Be proficient with major office productivity programs. Understand web based apps (e.g., Google cloud computing ). Expect all students to be active participants in their own learning. Have many opportunities for presentations, demonstrations, scored projects. Have at least some complex team projects that require out of class work, cooperation, and coordination. Use teaching methods that demand student involvement.

24 Things All Schools Can Do Explicitly teach academic behaviors such as: time management goal setting and goal adjustment persistence with difficult tasks self evaluation of competency study skills including how to organize and use study groups outside class. 24

25 Some Ways to Connect Secondary and Postsecondary Education Better Alignment workshops Data sharing Performance in entry level courses shared with high schools Placement tests given in high school High school students take placement test while they still have time to improve Reference courses Paired courses College ready assignments College readiness Performance Assessment System School Diagnostic 25 High quality dual credit/dual enrollment offerings with targeted support

26 Steps High Schools Can Take Develop a profile of the school s college readiness capacity. Collect data on key aspects of readiness in high school and performance in college Identify outcome measures of success. Assess the organizational capacity to support improvements. Institute specific programs to address the four dimensions of college and career readiness. Make small, incremental changes. Make larger systemic changes. Engage outside partners. 26

27 How To Get There Institute professional development to support college readiness. Help teachers strengthen content knowledge, instructional strategies, and awareness of college knowledge. Use the power of professional learning communities. Build partnerships with local postsecondary institutions. Recognize the importance of culture and change culture. Change behaviors to change beliefs. Make symbolic changes. Gauge the progress of changes in the high school. Determine the effects on student performance in college. 27

28 28 In Summary It s not easy to align high school and college, but it s more important than ever to do so. The number of students who want to go on to post high school education is likely to continue to increase, and those students will be more challenging to prepare. One key way to improve preparation and success is a strong, sustained, substantive partnership between secondary and postsecondary education Each level will need to adapt and focus better on the readiness levels of students and the supports they need to succeed

29 For more information, attend the afternoon breakout session, or contact us at: Educational Policy Improvement Center

30 The CollegeCareerReady System A comprehensive system that measures and diagnoses a school s capacity to make students college and career ready and provides tools to bring about the necessary changes DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS Diagnostic School SCHOOL REDESIGN Pathways Course Performance Assessment Student Profile Alignment Course Syllabus Maker INSTITUTIONAL REDESIGN Secondary/Pos Partnerships tsecondary CollegeCareerReady 30

31 College-readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS)

32 32 Conceptual Design The Key Cognitive Strategies

33 C-PAS gauges development of the five Key Cognitive Strategies. C-PAS includes: Classroom-embedded performance tasks. Common scoring guides. An online system that manages task administration. Overview 33

34 Secondary- Postsecondary Partnerships

35 Examples of Secondary Postsecondary Partnerships EPIC Has Implemented Paired Courses Last high school course is designed to align with first college course Placement exams in high school Students take and get results of placement exams while still in hs with time to improve Senior seminars jointly taught College like experiences at the high school Better dual credit/enrollment programs More careful selection of college courses for students to take Alignment workshops Joint scoring of student writing College Ready Assignments Creation of exemplar assignments and student work samples Early college high schools Way to get some students more engaged in college earlier

36 South Carolina Paired Courses Video describing Paired Courses Project 36

37 Where Are We On Common Core Standards and Assessments? Common Core Standards to be released this week and next They are receiving generally positive reviews, even from critics It is still unclear how many states will ultimately sign off on them It is worth taking a close look at how they are sequenced and what they emphasize Common assessments are being designed by two consortia The assessments won t be implemented until at the earliest They will likely be computer adaptive and have more complex item types and performance tasks It is possible that some of the assessment will be classroom based and scored by teachers

38 For more information: Educational Policy Improvement Center