Measures for a College and Career Indicator: Final Report (original) (raw)
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This report documents the progress made by the 10 states in the 51st State Working Group to transform their systems of accountability to support more meaningful learning opportunities for all students. The authors highlight state progress in the five key areas of the proposed framework: Seamless pathways to college and career Flexibility and strategies for innovation Systems of assessment for and of learning Professional capacity-building Accountability systems that draw on multiple sources In addition to descriptions of each states activities in the key areas, the report looks ahead to new potential directions for accountability under ESSA.
Predictors of Postsecondary Success
College and Career Readiness and Success Center, 2013
We began our review of the research looking for studies that identify measures of postsecondary success. Our goal was to identify factors at all levels of education that predict future academic attainment and economic security. Not surprisingly, we found very few studies that link early childhood, elementary, or middle school characteristics with postsecondary success. Even at the secondary level, the limited research linking secondary characteristics to postsecondary readiness and success focuses primarily on course taking, test scores, and early postsecondary outcomes, such as college enrollment and attainment of industry certification. The fact that state longitudinal data systems have not been in existence long enough to support such analyses is Prepared for the College and Career Readiness and Success Center
New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee Report on College Readiness
The importance of postsecondary education is clear: in ten years, it is projected that 60 percent of all new jobs will likely require a college education; however, only 29 percent of New Mexico’s 25-to 35-year-old population currently has higher education credentials. The state has successfully increased access to postsecondary education for large numbers of students, but too many of those students show up unprepared to earn college credits. Instead, time and money are wasted on a sequence of developmental, or remedial, courses, rarely leading to program completion. This evaluation focuses on state efforts to prepare high school students for college, communication between colleges and high schools about student expectations and performance, and colleges’ implementation of redesigned models to help students succeed in credit-bearing classes.
2015
With recent calls for increases in the number of postsecondary credentialed citizens, refocusing attention toward more informed, solution-oriented college readiness activities has become necessary. A few specific foci are to improve the transition from high school to postsecondary education by addressing issues such as limiting the number of developmental education courses through aligned curriculum approaches; minding the high schoolto- college alignment gap through advising, support, outreach, and exposure initiatives; and facilitating and accelerating students’ progress toward college. The result of these various activities is full system alignment, whereby high school and postsecondary systems collaborate through shared alignment of instruction and advising, shared information and/or data to assess alignment impact, and shared authority and power to ensure both systems’ needs are met. The scope of this research report is not to introduce new activities associated with college readiness, but rather to provide an overview of existing ones, including exemplars of national best practices. Indeed, many efforts to align PK-12 and postsecondary systems exist, including activities targeting college and career initiatives, discipline-specific efforts, foundational advising and structures, as well as professional development. However, this report presents a short analysis of several key national best practices at the high school level that target learner-centered and gap-minding activities in three major areas: Catch-Up, Outreach-Exposure, and Speed-Up. The Catch-Up activities are those specific to the needs of high school students who are not considered on track for postsecondary studies. Outreach- Exposure activities are those that assist target student populations with understanding college expectations and requirements, including navigating the space between the secondary and postsecondary systems. Speed-Up activities allow for advanced students to begin earning college credits while still enrolled in high school. Postsecondary institutions do not all share the same collegeready expectations and definitions, nor do they explain them. Thus, it is important to note that these three categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In other words, what may be implemented as a Speed-Up activity in one high school context could also serve to help students identified as underprepared to Catch-Up in another context. Although the focus of the three broad categories represented in this document is on activities implemented within high school, ultimately the goal is for more widespread, cross-system efforts for bridging gaps between high school and college. Thus, one goal for this document is to begin facilitating conversations toward System Alignment or specific implementations of these various transition activities at institution or district levels for purposes of informed, collaborative, context-specific reform. Although defining college readiness and exploring informed transition efforts is a complex and difficult matter, each of the three activity analyses revealed distinct characteristics attributed to their designation as college readiness efforts. Three significant characteristics identified were ensuring equality, honoring context, and fostering collaboration. Discussion of these characteristics is included in this report as areas of consideration for designing, supporting, or implementing college-readiness transition efforts. First, with respect to ensuring equality, in all three transition areas (Catch-Up, Speed-Up, and Outreach-Exposure), it is important to note that access to college does not necessarily guarantee success in college. And, given that the two focal areas for educational reform currently are college readiness (access) and college completion (success), we must consider approaches that consider these two as working together, not working in isolation. For instance, for students who may benefit from catching up, getting on track is not enough because reaching the expected level only allows for the potential of access. Aiming for success in college, defined as completion, requires that students must be propelled forward as well. Similarly, Outreach-Exposure activities also provide access to college, specifically by trying to close the college-going gap for student populations who tend to be academically marginalized, but without continued support, access may not result in success. Second, despite many attempts to define the construct, a single universal definition of college readiness simply does not exist. Individual states have varying expectations and methods to measure and assess college readiness, and individual systems and institutions have varying missions, goals, and learner populations. Therefore, these local contexts must be honored; otherwise, identifying transition activities amounts to little more than a cafeteria-style approach. Finally, some of the most impactful transition efforts appear to be the System Alignment activities which are highly localized collaborations, often between higher education institutions and high schools located in the same geographic area. Such efforts honor the local context by bringing together high school teachers and college faculty to better understand the challenges of student transitions between the sectors. The reality is that, in isolation, many of these activities would not be impactful; however, through well-considered collaboration and multiple touch points, true system alignment can be achieved.
Dual credit cost effectiveness and impact on remediation and on-time degree completion in NM
The New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee program evaluation of dual credit cost-effectiveness and impact on remediation and on-time degree completion, in cooperation with the Center for Education Policy Research at the University of New Mexico, assessed state resource allocation to dual credit courses and materials, dual credit student and program enrollment trends, and the impact of dual credit participation on high school and postsecondary performance outcomes.