Closing the Expectations Gap 2007 - Achieve

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Standards Alignment by StateCAAKORplans to re-examine their high schoolstandards to ensure that they alignwith the expectations of the highereducation and business communities.ChallengesWANVMTWYCONMPostsecondary and BusinessEngagementFor the alignment process to be successful,states’ postsecondary andbusiness communities must play aformal role. The value of their rolehinges on the ability of postsecondaryand business representatives to ensurethat the standards produced reflectthe demands of higher education andemployers and engender real buy-infrom those communities. Achieve hasworked with — or is currently workingwith — 23 states to align theirstandards, and each state has madehigher education and businessinvolvement a top priority.In Georgia and Louisiana, for instance,postsecondary representatives areequal partners at the table withK–12, defining their expectations forIDAZUTHISource: Achieve Survey/Research, 2007VT MENDNHMNNY MASDWIMICTRIPAIANJNEOHIL INDEWV VA MDKS MO KYNCTNOK ARSCStandards aligned —GAreviewed formally orMS ALverified by AchieveTX LAState reports alignedFL standardsAlignment in processPlans to alignstandardsincoming students and helping toshape the new high school standards.They understand the necessity ofadopting a single set of college-readystandards across all postsecondaryinstitutions, rather than differentstandards for each institution. As partof the process, postsecondary representativeshave reviewed syllabi andstudent work from freshman coursesto clarify expectations for success inthose courses. They also have analyzeddata on high school course-taking andpostsecondary success. The highereducation systems in these states viewthis work as part of a larger strategyfor increasing the number of studentswho can enter their institutions preparedto succeed. Not only have theyhelped shape the high school standards,but they also plan to use those standardsin teacher training programsand as part of the process for placingstudents in credit-bearing courses.Engaging employers in the alignmentwork has proven more challenging forstates. Unlike colleges, employers arenot in the business of defining educationstandards. During the originalresearch phase of ADP, Achieve and itspartners brought together focusgroups of employers from across theparticipating states to review drafts ofthe readiness benchmarks as they werebeing developed. The goal was toensure that the standards reflected thecore set of skills necessary for workreadiness and to identify specific standardsthat are especially critical forparticular jobs. It was more efficientand effective to ask employers to reactto draft standards than to create theirown from scratch.Vertical AlignmentOnce expectations at the end of highschool are aligned with the expectationsof colleges and employers, statesmust then back-map their standardsfrom the end of high school all theway down through the lower grades toensure that their K–12 standards arevertically aligned. This may requirerevising high school standards as wellas standards for elementary and middleschool. The goal is to have a systemof standards that reflects a steady progressionof knowledge and skills culminatingin college and work readiness.To assist states in this work, Achieveis creating a set of model standards inEnglish and mathematics that areanchored in the ADP end-of-highschoolbenchmarks. The math standardswill be grade by grade from kindergartenthrough grade 8 and course bycourse in high school. The Englishstandards will reflect a continuum frommiddle school through high school.8Achieve, Inc.
Lessons from Aligning High SchoolStandards with the Demands ofCollege and WorkThe 29 states in Achieve’s ADP Network are committed toaligning their high school standards with what it takes tosucceed in postsecondary education and the workplace.The goal of this effort is to ensure that students whomeet high school standards are prepared to enter andsucceed in credit-bearing courses in two- or four-year collegesor gain entry-level positions in high-skill jobs thatoffer opportunities to advance.An important step in this process is for K–12 leaders towork with a broad spectrum of postsecondary and businessleaders to define the core reading, writing and mathematicsknowledge and skills graduates need to be ready for collegeand work. When actively engaged in determining thestandards for readiness, postsecondary and business leaderscan help ensure that students are better prepared forwhat awaits them after high school. Since February 2005,Achieve has worked with — or is currently working with —23 ADP states in their efforts to create standards that meetthis goal.Already, important lessons are emerging:English Language Arts• Although high school English standards and coursestend to emphasize literature, most of the reading studentswill encounter in college or on the job is informationalin nature (e.g., textbooks, manuals, articles,briefs and essays).• Most of the writing students will do in college andwork is to inform or persuade, often requiring studentsto use evidence to support a position. Researchalso is cited as an important skill for college andwork. State standards tend to give these types ofwriting short shrift, emphasizing narrative writinginstead.• The ability to work in teams and orally present one’swork is cited by professors and employers as criticalfor success. State standards do not always sufficientlycover these skills.States Participating in Achieve’s Formal AlignmentReview ProcessCAAKORWANVIDAZUTMTHIWYCONMMathematicsVT MENDNHMNNY MASDWIMICTRIPAIANJNEOHIL INDEWV VA MDKS MO KYNCTNOK ARSCStandardsGAMS ALaligned —TX LAformally reviewedFL by AchieveAlignment inprocess• College faculty and employers cite a broad range ofmathematics content as important, including numberconcepts, geometry, algebra, data analysis and statistics.State standards sometimes fall short on data analysisand statistics and often give only superficial treatmentto important geometric concepts, such as proofs.• Reasoning and solving mathematical problems areoften cited as the most important skills for incomingfreshmen and employees. Yet state standards do notalways cover them explicitly.K–12 leaders in ADP states — in partnership with postsecondaryand business leaders — are working to fillthese gaps. Successful efforts result in standards that are:• Adopted by the state board of education as definingthe knowledge and skills in math and English that allstudents should acquire by the end of high school;• Adopted, endorsed or otherwise recognized by statepostsecondary systems and institutions as definingthe knowledge and skills necessary for placementinto credit-bearing courses; and• Verified or endorsed by employers and the businesscommunity as constituting skills necessary to enterand succeed in the 21st-century workplace.Over time, these new college- and work-ready standardswill be incorporated into a range of state policies andpractices, such as high school graduation requirements,course descriptions, high school assessments, and postsecondaryplacement policies and assessments.Closing the Expectations Gap 2007 9
Page 1 and 2: Closing theExpectations Gap2007An A
Page 3: Table of ContentsExecutive Summary3
Page 6 and 7: • P-16 DATA SYSTEMS — Five stat
Page 8 and 9: American Diploma Project NetworkWAO
Page 12 and 13: Align High School Graduation Requir
Page 14 and 15: Struggling students need these ando
Page 16 and 17: 14Achieve, Inc.Overview of Key Surv
Page 18 and 19: Align High School and Postsecondary
Page 20 and 21: do not currently have tests at this
Page 22 and 23: Hold High Schools and Postsecondary
Page 24 and 25: Progress Since theSummit: Accountab
Page 26 and 27: schools have the largest numbers of
Page 28 and 29: are qualified to teach more rigorou
Page 30 and 31: Endnotes1. Greene, Jay P. and Marcu
Page 32: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas Cal

Closing the Expectations Gap 2007 - Achieve

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?