Final Progress Reports - Southern Regional Education Board

Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). The goal of PARCC is to create an assessment system
that will help states dramatically increase the number of students who graduate high school ready for college and
careers and provide students, parents, teachers and policy-makers with the tools they need to help students — from
grade three through high school — stay on track and graduate prepared. Maryland is one of 11 governing states
who will be leading the assessment development effort on behalf of the larger partnership.
Curriculum and Transitional Courses
Ensuring that the school curriculum incorporates and targets the revised readiness standards is a key element in
SREB’s readiness model. The model asserts that the public school curriculum should be modified as necessary to
target the specific statewide readiness standards, using the standards and performance levels established by the
end-of-course assessment aligned with college readiness and mapping back to at least grade eight. Supplemental
curriculum or transitional courses designed to teach and assess the skills needed to succeed in first-year college
courses should be available to help students in 12th grade who, based on 11th-grade assessments, are on track to
graduate without being college- and career-ready.
The Maryland Department of Education (MSDE) has decided not to focus specifically on developing and implementing
transitional courses until after the state has fully implemented the Common Core Curriculum
Frameworks and implemented a nationally accepted Common Core assessment. The idea is that such transitional
courses will be based on the Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards and will reflect the direction
of the national assessments on readiness currently being developed by the national assessment consortia, with the
goal of connecting performance on the national assessment with enrollment in transitional courses. MSDE plans
to begin developing transitional courses for all high school students, not just seniors, in 2014, after the National
Assessment Consortia’s goal date for final CCSS-based assessments. Transitional course plans are only being lightly
discussed by the state, and successful local collaborations to provide transitional courses between public high
schools and community colleges are being examined.
SREB views the efforts of CCSS curriculum development and transitional course development to be simultaneous.
The state does not need to wait for national CCSS assessments to begin developing transitional curriculum, as it
can do so based on the already adopted CCSS, just as it is doing for the Curriculum Frameworks. Underprepared
students could benefit from transitional courses far earlier than 2014, and the courses could and should be adjusted
over the years based on student performance on state and national assessments. Once completed, this work would
address key components of SREB’s college-readiness agenda, as well as the fourth recommendation from the P-20
report.
Teacher Development
What will maximize the conditions in which classroom teachers statewide can best help students be ready for college
study The answer arguably provides the most critical element in pursuing a systemic, connected approach to building
a college-readiness initiative. Linking all actions and decisions to what will motivate and help a classroom teacher
to use the readiness standards in instruction provides a common, clear thread connecting standards to testing to
curriculum to teacher development (both pre-service and in-service) and to school and college accountability.
Effective statewide teacher development plans should focus specifically on the state college-readiness standards, to
help teachers understand the specific college-readiness standards and how to teach them effectively in grades eight
through12. Plans should also address how teachers should implement the new 12th-grade courses or activities
designed to bring students up to readiness standards once 11th-grade assessments are reviewed. In addition, teacher
preparation programs need to be reviewed and revised as needed to include an emphasis on the core readiness standards
and appropriate adjustments need to be made in relevant teacher licensure and certification state regulations.
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