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Toward a Comprehensive View of College Readiness. David T. Conley. What does it mean to be college and career ready?. Ability to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities successfully, without remediation, and to have a variety of options open
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Toward a Comprehensive View of College Readiness David T. Conley
What does it mean to be college and career ready? • Ability to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities successfully, without remediation, and to have a variety of options open • Career readiness assumes the need for additional education immediately or eventually • Complexity of career options suggests need for broad academic foundation rather than specific job training
What are the key elements of a model of readiness? Who “owns” them? • Four elements of college readiness • Key cognitive strategies • Key content mastery • Academic behaviors (self-management) • Contextual awareness (college knowledge) • The educational system must agree on what constitutes the first two elements • The system must be organized to provide an education to all students that develops student capabilities on these two elements • The system must provide more support for first-time college attenders to master the second two elements in high school and college
What are the implications for policy makers, administrators? • Understand the limitations of course-based requirements • Promote high school course quality and consistency • Specify college readiness standards • Make the system more transparent • Exemplars, model practices • Value thinking in addition to content knowledge • Promote local high school-college partnerships that lead to state policy solutions
What have states learned about K-12 postsecondary alignment? • Separate governance and budgeting systems make alignment difficult • Demand is leading to solutions for some students while states debate options and some students are excluded • Dual enrollment, AP, IB, early college high schools, local partnerships • Course-based and proficiency-based strategies for college readiness have not been reconciled or integrated
What are legislative perspectives on college and career readiness? • Legislatures are still conflicted on the degree of state vs. local control of K-12 schooling • This makes alignment more difficult to achieve • Few legislatures direct postsecondary systems to align admissions, placement, entry-level courses • Current system: multiple standards for admissions, placement, remediation, awarding credit • Texas HB 1: Legislatively-directed alignment process • Legislatures often focus on alignment as a means to reduce remediation not to increase success
How well have New Englanders defined readiness? • Most states define readiness in terms of course titles • Few states nationally adopt high school standards and exams that gauge postsecondary and career readiness • Few states systematically identify key knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for postsecondary and career success