Improving College-Readiness of Florida High School Students: Lessons from a Statewide Initiative Christine Mokher, Ph.D. CNA Education Lou Jacobson, Ph.D. New Horizons Economic Research Connections Conference May 8-9, 2014 The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Science, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305E120010 to CNA. The report represents the best opinion of CNA at the time of issue and does not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
Topics 1.Description of the Florida College & Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) 2.Genesis of the initiative and study 3.Description of the study 4.Year-1 findings 5.Year-2 findings 6.Your views on how to make the FCCRI more effective 2
Genesis of the Initiative In the mid-2000 s the FL-DOE examined ways to increase college enrollment and completion. Dev-ed enrollment was found to be a major stumbling block: About 65% of state college students were required to take dev-ed courses in math and about 50% in English. Only about half of dev-ed students successfully completed these courses. Many students failed to get AA degrees purely because they could not meet the math requirements. Solution: Have high schools do more to prepare students for college. This was recommended because: Many juniors who barely passed the FCAT thought they were college ready. Many seniors did not take rigorous college-prep courses. 3
The Florida College and Career Initiative (FCCRI) Current mandatory program starting in the fall of 2011 requires: PERT testing in 11 th grade of juniors likely to obtain high school diplomas, but unlikely to be college-ready. Enrolling seniors not testing college-ready in college readiness and success courses. Former voluntary program starting in the Fall of 2008 required: Offering of testing and college-prep courses. 4
Course-Taking Implementation Results The voluntary program showed modest increases in course enrollment starting at a very low base. The mandatory program showed very large increases in course enrollment. Number of enrollments in college readiness and success courses, by year 75,000 Math English 68,628 60,000 56,084 45,000 30,000 15,000-5,614 12,257 564 1,993 18,649 6,270 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Year 5
Genesis of the Study We used FL data to examine how HS-GPA affects college completion and how college field-of-study effects earnings for the Gates Foundation. We asked our contacts at the FL-DOE if there is interest in working together on an evaluation of any topic related to high school to college/career transitions. They recommended that we study the FCCRI. We won an award from the US-DOE, which each year has a special state and local initiatives competition. 6
Description of the 5-year Study Component-1: statistical analysis of data similar to what we previously used to assess the effect of the FCCRI on: Testing college ready on the PERT Enrollment in college Completion of college-level courses Persistence and degree completion Not enough time has elapsed to analyze the mandatory program. Component-2: providing feedback to stakeholders to increase FCCRI s effectiveness using Providing feedback is rarely done because most grants examine demonstrations after they are completed. 7
Feedback Activities Year 1 Activities: Statewide survey of 225 teachers of college readiness and success (CRS) courses Small group discussions with 63 CRS teachers in 8 locations across the state Year 2 Activities: Conduct site visits at 2 large, 2 medium, and 2 small counties Each includes interviews at 2 high schools, the district office, and a state college Re-survey teachers of college readiness and success courses about: The extent to which their expectations of further increases in effectiveness of the FCCRI were realized The extent to which impediments have been ameliorated What impediments remain, and recommendations for removing them. Collect student feedback from an essay contest 8
Year 1 - Overall Effectiveness of FCCRI Most CRS teachers: 5.0 Extremely effective Support the goals of the FCCRI Believe their CRS classes are effective at helping students test college-ready 4.0 3.7 Predict the effectiveness of the FCCRI will increase even more next year 3.0 3.2 Next year More experienced teachers rate the FCCRI even more highly 2.0 This year 1.0 Not at all effective Effectiveness of all FCCRI components 9
School climate influences teachers perceptions of FCCRI effectiveness Teachers indicated schools should be placing more emphasis on college and career readiness. Teachers perceptions of and wishes for their school s priorities 10
Year-1: Identifying Impediments Teachers told us that the main impediments that reduced course effectiveness were that: They did not know what subject matter was being tested on the PERT. They did not know the format of the Qs because the PERT was an adaptive test different from other tests students were taking. They lacked teaching materials, texts, exercises, and practice tests. These are problems common in any program that is initiated with little lead time and uses a new, innovative, test. 11
Year-1: Removing Impediments We creating an Edmodo site with info on: Topics covered on the PERT from FL-DOE. Dev-ed syllabi and course materials from state colleges. We sent emails about the site to the teachers to: All CRS teachers in participating schools from year 1 Curriculum specialists in all districts statewide Staff at Florida Department of Education, who passed the information on to their contacts https://edmo.do/j/ufvvtx 12
Year-1: Identifying Impediments that were Difficult to Remove Teachers also told us that: The FCCRI was effective for students interested in attending college who did not test college ready. But it was difficult to engage the interest of students not planning to attend college. They had difficulty individualizing instruction to meet the needs of students with diverse basic skill levels. Possible solutions: Including practical applications of interest to non-college bound students. Providing information about careers and related postsecondary training to motivate students to prepare to attend postsecondary programs. Allowing students to opt out of the college readiness courses after appropriate counseling. 13
Your views on issues raised in year-2 site visits and student essays. Issue-A: How can HSs take advantage of features that contribute to the effectiveness of state college dev-ed programs. Questions for discussion: 1. Have we correctly identified factors that make state college dev-ed programs effective? 2. Why is it that college dev-ed programs have key features often missing from similar high school programs? 3. How could high schools integrate those features into their college-prep programs? 14
College dev-ed strengths identified from site visits 1. A separate dev-ed division with separate math and language arts directors. 2. Well-developed curriculum and materials that all instructors use. 3. Monitoring student performance to increase effectiveness. 4. Use of computer-aided instruction with: a. Assessments b. Enhanced instruction c. Feedback on exercises and quizzes d. Individualized self-paced instruction e. Ability to use the material off-site. 5. Computer labs and tutoring solely for use of dev-ed students. 6. Study-skills courses to complement the academic preparation. 7. Orientation and counseling programs to appropriately place students in dev-ed and provide additional support. 15
Why is it that college dev-ed programs have key features often missing from similar high school programs? Focus students need to pass rigorous math and English courses to complete degrees Leadership individuals are made responsible solely for the dev-ed programs. Time dev-ed courses have matured over many years. Resources: There are large investments in infrastructure such as computer labs. Colleges expend a lot of funds on instruction and program development. College students expand a lot of cash on texts and computer access. 16
Question: How could high schools integrate key college features into their college-prep programs? Possible Answer: Increase collaboration between colleges and high schools Background At FCCRI s inception, colleges: Were required to work with high schools to provide CPT testing. Often provided syllabi and materials to HSs at no cost. With advent of the PERT testing: Cooperation was no longer required. Provision of syllabi and materials became rare. Today there mostly is informal collaboration: High school teachers who are/were college adjuncts base their collegeprep courses on college dev-ed syllabi and materials. Sometimes these teachers share their lesson plans and materials with other teachers in their school. 17
Examples of Initial CC-HS Collaboration Miami-Dade College s Wolfson Campus partnered with a local high school to develop comprehensive resources: o Pre- & post-tests o In-class exercises & activities o A pacing guide o Map between the high school and college competencies. Piloted at one high school, then shared with the district. The district created its own pacing guide: o It was supposed to take priority. o But some schools & teachers continued to use the materials. Chipola College provided flash drives with curricular materials and syllabi 18
Examples of Initial CC-HS Collaboration, continued Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) collaborated with 5 Duval HSs to develop college-prep courses: Used a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to provide: o An online platform. o Course materials and assessments. FSCJ faculty visited HSs every 2 weeks to provide instructional support. Only lasted one year due to funding constraints. 19
Examples of current college-high school collaboration Tallahassee Community College held a College Readiness Conversations Conference last summer for high school teachers and college faculty Presentation on PERT scores at local high schools Discussion of Common Core State Standards and how they relate to postsecondary readiness competencies Teachers reviewed and discussed TCC syllabi in their subject area Miami-Dade College has a grant to work with 6 high schools where high school teachers are paired with college faculty for a 4-week program Observation period both pairs observed each other s classes Participants wrote reflections on their experiences Group discussion of lessons learned 20
Questions for Discussion Would be worthwhile to revive college to high school collaborations? If so, what are the impediments that would need to be overcome? Organizational Resource-based What could be done to remove the impediments? 21
Issue B: Can HSs increase student engagement by helping students develop plans for high school, postsecondary education/training, and careers no later than 9th grade? Information from high school interviews High school college-prep course teachers identify lack of student engagement as a crucial factor limiting the effectiveness of their courses. They frequently note that: o o It is very difficult to reverse patterns that have formed years earlier. A key source of disengagement is students views that there is little need to work hard in high school because they are not interested in careers requiring college education. 22
Information from Student Essays Seniors in college prep courses entered an essay contest posing these questions: What are you post-hs plans? How did your high school shape those plans? What could your high school have done differently to improve your plans? The quality of student plans varies greatly within, and especially, across high school. Many students said that starting in 9 th grade they would have liked to have more information about: Careers. The connections between careers and courses in HSs and postsecondary education/training institutions. 23
Information from Student Essays, continued The essays indicate that some HSs had programs that: Required students to develop plans in 9 th grade and periodically update these plans. Had outside speakers discuss career and college connections. Had field trips to colleges. Provided high-quality career-oriented programs such as culinary arts. These programs appeared to positively affect student engagement and interest in getting postsecondary training. 24
Colleges provide valuable information to high school students Colleges have dual enrollment programs for high achieving students Colleges have recruiters make regular visits to cooperative HSs describing: Programs and related careers. Costs and how to obtain financial aid. Hard and soft skills needed to successfully complete programs Work with students on a regular basis (in some cases) Some colleges had special outreach activities: TRIO programs where college students work with high school students. Visits from college faculty to discuss specific programs. Summer PERT boot camps for incoming students. Campus visits. Opportunities to use college online career & academic assessment tools. Special events like writing competition for high school students. 25
Questions for Discussion Would it be worthwhile to improve the planning process? If so, what are the impediments that would need to be overcome? Time Organizational Resource-based What could be done to remove the impediments and put longer-lasting and more effective programs in place? 26
Summary There was strong support for improving collaborations between HSs and colleges key areas for collaboration are development of: o Syllabi and materials. o Programs to help high school students: Obtain information about careers and connections between college programs and careers. Develop coherent plans for high school, college, and careers. o Programs for high school and college instructors to work together to improve the delivery of relevant instruction 27
. Thank you for your interest and participation. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this presentation further: o We will be available during the rest of this conference. o You can reach us by email or phone: Christine: MokherC@cna.org Lou: New.Horizons.LJ@gmail.com 28