Jennifer Stephan, Ph.D. Researcher Dean Gerdeman, Ph.D. Acting Director February 2013

1. REL Midwest College and Career Success Research Alliance: Perspectives on College and Career Readiness Jennifer Stephan, Ph.D. Researcher Dean Gerdeman, Ph.D. Acting Director February 2013

2. Today’s Presentation • Introduction to REL Midwest and the College and Career Success Research Alliance • College and Career Readiness Initiatives in Midwestern States • Alliance Interests and Work • Study: Predictors of College Readiness Using State Data • Resources Related to College and Career Readiness

3. REL Midwest REL Midwest is operated by American Institutes for Research.

4. REL Midwest • Our charge is to improve academic outcomes for students by doing the following: • Helping states, school districts, and schools systematically use data. • Conducting and supporting high-quality research and evaluation. • Promoting evidence-based decision making.

5. Research Alliances • REL Midwest conducts work primarily through research alliances—groups of practitioners, policymakers, and other education stakeholders interested in working together to address shared problems of practice. • REL Midwest works with alliance members to develop and carry out a research agenda through the following alliances: • College and Career Readiness • Early Childhood Education • Educator Effectiveness • Low-Performing Schools and School Improvement

6. College and Career Success Research Alliance • Aims to identify and understand factors that support college readiness, college completion, and workforce success • Members come from • Six of seven Midwestern states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio). • State-level education and higher education agencies. • Not-for-profits supporting college-access organizations across their states.

7. Context for College and Career Readiness Initiatives • Increasing demand for college-educated workers • A shortage of three million college-educated workers is projected by 2018 (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). • More than 55% of job openings in the Midwest are projected to required some college by 2018 (70% in Minnesota). • Hurdles on the path to college completion • 97% of seniors plan to attend college, but just 75% enroll within two years of high school graduation (Berkner & Chavez, 1997). • More than one third of college students take a remedial education class (NCES, 2011). • Certificate/degree completion rates are less than 60% (NCES, 2011).

8. College and Career Readiness Initiatives in the Midwest

9. Challenges to College and Career Readiness Initiatives in the Midwest • Limited financial resources • Initiative fatigue • Large scope and scale of changes • Effectively collaborating with multiple stakeholders • Deciding on metrics to track to assess college or career readiness • Building consensus on what measures to collect and report • Assessing “hard to measure” components of college readiness (e.g., college-going culture) • Technical difficulties

10. Research and Technical Assistance Needs and Interests

11. Alliance Projects

12. Alliance Projects

13. What does research say about predictors of college readiness? • Definition of college readiness • The level of preparation needed to enroll and succeed in college (ACT, 2007; Conley, 2011; Wiley, Wyatt, & Camara, 2010) • Multifaceted (e.g., Conley’s framework: key cognitive strategies, key content knowledge, academic behaviors, contextual skills and awareness) • Measures of college readiness • High school performance (e.g., course-taking patterns, high school GPA, standardized tests, student portfolios) • College performance (e.g., taking only nonremedial coursework, earning all credits attempted, persistence, college GPA, certificate/degree completion)

14. What does research say about predictors of college readiness? • Student-level predictors of college achievements • Academic achievement (i.e., ACT/SAT test scores, high school GPA) • Academic intensity (i.e., enrollment in AP, dual-credit, or other advanced courses) • Completing key college application actions (i.e., college admissions exams, multiple applications, Free Application for Federal Student Aid) • Personal-social readiness (i.e., academic goals, self-efficacy, study skills, problem-solving skills) • Context • High school (i.e., average achievement, socioeconomic composition, assistance in the enrollment process, locale) • College (i.e., selectivity)

15. What does research not say about predictors of college readiness? • Unanswered questions • Do the predictors of college readiness in prior research (often based on national samples) also predict college readiness in individual states? • To what extent do early test scores predict college readiness? • Do behavioral measures (i.e., absences, suspensions/expulsions) predict college readiness? • How much overlap is there in different measures of college readiness? • How useful is a prediction of college readiness based on the data that we have?

16. Study: Predictors of College Readiness Using State Data • Purposes: To identify… • Student-level measures in Indiana’s longitudinal data system that predict college readiness • How different indicators of college readiness relate to each other • Whether high school or college characteristics predict college readiness after accounting for student-level characteristics • Usefulness of measures in Indiana’s data for predicting college readiness

17. Study Design: Predictors of College Readiness Using State Data • Population • 2009 Indiana public high school graduates enrolled in a public Indiana college in fall 2009 • Measures of College Readiness • Enrolled in and completed only nonremedial courses during first year • Earned all credits attempted in the first semester of college • One-year persistence • Combination of (1) – (3)

18. Study Design: Predictors of College Readiness Using State Data • Predictors of College Readiness • Student-level • Demographic characteristics: race/ethnicity, gender, free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL) status • Academic characteristics: 8th- and 10th-grade state test scores, ACT or SAT scores, high school GPA, diploma type, dual credits earned, AP exam scores • Behavioral: absences, ever suspended/expelled • High school-level • Urbanicity, % FRPL students, % passing end-of-course exams, % passing an AP exam • College-level • College selectivity based on Barron’s rankings

19. Resources Related to College and Career Readiness • What Works Clearinghouse College and Career Preparation Publications and Reviews • Recent expansion to include additional studies related to postsecondary education • What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide • Helping Students Navigate the Path to College: What High Schools Can Do (Tierney, Bailey, Constantine, Finkelstein, & Hurd, 2009) • National High School Center website: http://www.betterhighschools.org/CCR/overview.asp • REL Midwest website: www.relmidwest.org

20. Jennifer Stephan P:312-283-2409 >F:312-288-7601 E-Mail:jstephan@air.org REL Midwest 1120 East Diehl Road, Suite 200 Naperville, IL 60563-1486 General Information:866-730-6735 Website: www.relmidwest.org