Beyond Business as Usual—Key State Actions to Boost College and Career Readiness

1. Beyond Business as Usual—Key State Actions to Boost College and Career Readiness David T. Conley, Ph.D. Professor, University of Oregon Director, Center for Educational Policy Research CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center

2. Today’s Talk Is Based on Research and Ideas Summarized in:

3. Nature of the Challenge: More Students Going to College • The proportion of students going on to postsecondary education has steadily increased over the past 100 years and is likely to continue to increase. • Surveys of 9th graders indicate 80%-90% aspire to college • However, more students struggle in college even as more are admitted. • Remediation rates remain constant • College completion rates remain constant • Surveys also indicate most high school students do not know what they need to do to be college ready

4. Nature of the Challenge: Getting More Students Ready • It should be no surprise that so many students struggle when they get to college. • The information used to determine college eligibility is quite limited and problematic in a number of ways. • Increasing the proportion of students going on to college means educating a more challenging student population. • The good news is that the capacity of students to achieve is malleable and not fixed. • Achievement is a function of the interaction of effort and ability. • Some students may need to work harder than others to become college ready. • Getting more students ready for college requires more information about what it means to be truly ready.

5. Need for a More Complete Definition of “Ready” • The new goal of high school should be to equip as many students as possible for college and career success, in other words, to be able to continue to learn beyond high school. • Today’s high school diploma certifies college eligibility via specified courses taken and grades received. • College eligibility is not the same as college readiness. • College and career readiness is more complex and multi-dimensional than meeting eligibility standards. • The definition of “ready” is a student who can succeed—without remediation—in credit-bearing general education coursesor a two-year associates or certificate program that leads to a career in the O-NET job zone 3 classification.

6. The Four Dimensions of College Readiness Contextual Skills and Awareness Contextual Skills and Awareness 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 (College Knowledge) • Admissions requirements, college types and missions, affording college, college culture, and relations with professors. Academic Behaviors Academic Behaviors Key Content Knowledge Key Content Knowledge Key Cognitive Strategies Key Cognitive Strategies 6

7. What Is Key Content Knowledge? • Components: • Key terms and terminology • Factual information • Linking ideas • Organizing concepts • The human brain retains this information to the degree to which it can: • create connections or links among the pieces to create a “schema” or “scaffold” structure • associate emotions, positive or negative, with the knowledge • find the knowledge meaningful, relevant, or useful • apply or use the knowledge in a variety of authentic situations • receive timely feedback on how effectively it uses the knowledge.

8. Acquiring Key Content Knowledge:If Only It Were This Simple • In this brief clip from “The Matrix,” Our hero, Neo, has just escaped another predicament and is on a rooftop with his rescuer, Trinity, with no other means of escape than a helicopter that has been abandoned on the roof. What to do? Who can fly it?

9. Definition of Key Cognitive Strategies • What is a strategy? • A systematic approach or plan to achieving an objective • An elaborate plan of action that chooses among alternative approaches and anticipates potential problems that must be addressed for the objective to be achieved successfully • What are cognitive strategies? • Systematic approaches to achieve key learning goals that take into account the rules and methods of the academic disciplines that are necessary to achieving the goal • Elaborate plan of action that chooses among alternative approaches and anticipates potential problems that must be addressed to solve a problem or complete a complex task

10. C-PAS Conceptual DesignThe Key Cognitive Strategies

11. Consider the Cognitive Strategies Students Would Need to Use to Complete This Task Projecting Incarceration Rates in the United States  Recent news has given much coverage to the growing prison population in the United States. Criminal justice organizations need to know the number of people who will be under correctional supervision in the future in order to plan ahead. The numbers will affect their budgets and the need for prison beds and support services. You have been hired to study the situation and make projections about future incarceration rates. You are to include the numbers of people in prisons, jails, and on probation. • You will provide a report that presents your projections and explains how you developed them. Two specifics you have been asked to address in your report are: • Projections of the incarcerated population for the years 2020, 2025, 2030, and 2050. • A prediction whether, and if so, when the rate of incarceration can be expected to exceed 10% of the overall US population

12. Experts: are faster and more accurate organize facts into “chunks” for better recall and application integrate pieces of knowledge into systems frameworks connect new knowledge to existing knowledge learn through example and analogy use analytical skills to apply knowledge and select procedures generalize knowledge to new settings and circumstances create mental cues to facilitaterecall How Novices and Experts Solve Problems Novices: • are slower and more deliberate • know individual facts about topics • learn about pieces of systems • memorize bits of information and encode the bits superficially • tend to focus on discrete knowledge in isolation of the structure of a discipline • reason in specific contexts by using recently-acquired information • recall information by rote

13. C-PAS Novice-to-Expert Scoring Scale at Four Benchmark Levels Grades 6-12 Green indicates the student is on the pathway to college readiness. Gray indicates performance levels not scored at that benchmark level.

14. Tracking Readiness in Multiple Skill Areas For An Individual Student This line shows the student’s content knowledge, which is stronger than the optimal This Line shows an optimal trajectory This line shows academic behaviors, which dip precipitously in 10th grade, but show a comeback by 12th grade This line shows the student’s growth on key cognitive strategies, which levels off in high school This line shows student college knowledge strengthens late in high school but remains below optimal This profile describes a student whose content knowledge is strong, but for whom some concerns remain: cognitive strategies are not developing, college knowledge is below optimal and academic behaviors are somewhat erratic. This profile could be used to diagnose and prescribe in high school or to link the student with support services in college

15. 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. • Necessary academic content knowledge varies among in two-year certificate programs and between certificate programs and general education courses at four-year institutions. • However, almost all certificates require a strong academic foundation, and students in certificate programs need strong skills in the area of Academic Behaviors

16. 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. Welding Technology Certificate (A.S.): 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.

17. 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.

18. Exemplar State Policy Frameworks • Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative (HB 1, HB 3) • Link to Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative • Ohio’s Promise (HB 1) • Link to Ohio's Promise

19. The CollegeCareerReady System ™ The system improves college readiness by diagnosing schools and students, aligningthe instructional program, and strengthening connections between high schools and colleges. DIAGNOSE ALIGN PARTNER Reference Documents School Diagnostic QualityCourse Design System (formerly SyllabusMaker) Aligned Courses Performance Assessment (C-PAS) QualityCourse Alignment System Secondary–Postsecondary Connections Student Profile QualityCourse Pathways CollegeCareerReady System ™ 19

20. Some Example Recommendations • Key Content Knowledge: • Standardize placement tests statewide and familiarize high school students with the test and allow students to take the test while in high school • Increase dual enrollment, AP, IB • Key Cognitive Strategies: • Require senior assignment or project that requires a research paper as one required element • Consider “senior seminars” where students are exposed to college-level assignments that require cognitive strategies • Academic Behaviors: • Require schools to adopt common policies regarding the content of syllabi, including dates for all assignments and tests • Provide resources for students to learn time management, study skills, goal setting • College Knowledge: • Expect students to access online college prep systems • Encourage college campus visits

21. An Unconventional Recommendation for State Policy Makers • Diagnose the capacity of schools to build college and career readiness on all four dimensions, not just content knowledge. • Institute opportunity-to-learn requirements for the Academic Behaviors and College Knowledge • Review high school course syllabi to ensure they address development of Key Cognitive Strategies • Provide extensive resources online in all of these areas

22. To Continue the Conversation… • …see you at 10:15 in Salons B & C • For a copy of this presentation, visit: • www.epiconline.org