Transcript Document

Measures that Matter
Making College and Career Readiness
the Mission of High Schools
Achieve
Education Trust
ADP Leadership Team Meeting
September 11, 2008
Measures that Matter
 What we set out to do
• Develop a framework for states looking to align their
assessment and accountability systems with the goal of collegeand career-readiness for all
 What we have created
• Policymaker’s guide identifying key questions states need to
address along with options and promising practices
• Additional tools and papers going deeper in key areas
 How we did it
• Working with an advisory group of state and national
policymakers, practitioners, and researchers and learning from
you
Measures that Matter
Align High School Standards with the
Demands of College and Careers
Measures that Matter
 K-12 standards must be anchored in real world
expectations
 College ready = career ready
 Standards must be globally competitive and reflect 21st
century skills
 Vertical alignment through the grades
 Standards must reflect tough choices about what’s most
important—fewer, clearer, higher
Measures that Matter
Assure that Students Enroll in a Course
of Study Aligned with College and
Career Readiness Standards
Measures that Matter
 Rigorous course taking matters, especially for lowincome and minority students
 Graduation course requirements are critical lever for
ensuring all students take a rigorous curriculum
 Mandatory vs. “opt-out” strategies
 Monitor course taking patterns carefully
 Ensure sufficient number of teachers with knowledge and
skills to teach all students more rigorous courses
 Encourage all students to earn college credits while in
high school
Measures that Matter
 What courses should students be required to take?
 Will the requirements be mandatory for all students or will
there be an opt-out provision?
 How will the state ensure consistent rigor across the state?
 Can the state create multiple but equally rigorous
pathways?
 How can the state invest in sufficient teacher and student
supports?
 Don’t let floor become the ceiling—encourage student to
aim higher (e.g., earning college credit in high school)
Measures that Matter
Measuring Student Learning:
A College- and Career-Ready
Assessment System
Measures that Matter
The Problems:
 Too many tests and the purposes are disconnected
 State high school assessments not challenging enough to
measure college and career readiness…so no currency
with higher education and the business community
 Assessments do not measure the full range of college- and
career-ready knowledge and skills (such as research,
analysis, critical thinking, and collaboration)
 Tests are not generating diagnostic information for
educators and students
Measures that Matter
The Vision:
 Testing should be streamlined
 Proficient should mean prepared – anchored in college and
career readiness
 Tests should measure the full range of college and career
readiness skills –better summative and more performance
based assessments
 High school tests should open the door for students to
higher education and good jobs
 Testing should support good teaching
Measures that Matter
 What tests do high school students in your state take right
now?
• State? District? Other?
 What are the purposes of each?
• Instructional improvement
• Student credentialing
• School accountability
 Where could tests be subtracted as new ones are added?
Measures that Matter
 Does your state have a college and career readiness
“anchor assessment” in high school?
• If so, is there a statewide readiness score used for placement into
credit-bearing courses? Careers?
• If not, what is the strategy for building such a measure?
Measures that Matter
End-of-Grade Tests
Benefits
 Designed to measure state
standards
 Known quantity in K-12
system
 Won’t dramatically
increase testing time
Challenges
 Not designed to measure
college and career readiness
 Limited credibility with
higher education/employers
 Most feasible if tests given
in 11th grade
Measures that Matter
College Admissions Tests
Benefits
 Currency with higher
education and students
 May not increase testing
burden for many students
 Common and comparable
results across states
Challenges
 Not designed to align with
state standards, school
curriculum
 Lack of coherence with
rest of assessment system
 Require augmentation
Measures that Matter
End-of-Course Tests
Benefits
 More useful to educators—
aligned to course content
 Can be used to monitor
quality and consistency of
course rigor
 More flexibility—students
take test when they take
course
Challenges
 May increase overall
testing time
 To assess college/career
readiness, need EOCs in
higher level courses
 Timing of when students
take test can be challenge
for postsecondary use
Measures that Matter
 How does the state ensure that the anchor assessment has
credibility with higher education and employers?
• How does test development process need to change?
• What studies need to be done to demonstrate a connection
between performance on the test and success in postsecondary?
 What type of stakes or incentives can or should be
attached to the anchor assessment to make it meaningful
for students?
Measures that Matter
 Collaboration to develop and use the tests – in higher
education
• California Department of Education (CDE) and California State
University (CSU) modified 11th grade assessment
• Placement tests waived for students who score college-ready
level and continue to take challenging courses
• Students who do not score at readiness level can get targeted
support
Measures that Matter
 Collaboration to develop and use the tests – with
employers
• Hawaii K-12, higher education and business leaders working
together
• Encouraging students to “opt-in” into college and-career ready
course of study
• Tying employer incentives to “opt-in” diploma, which requires
Algebra II assessment
 Secured commitments to access apprenticeship programs (state
carpenters’ union)
Measures that Matter
 Are traditional tests able to measure full set of college and
career readiness standards?
 Yes and no
 We can make summative tests better
 But some important skills better using performance-based
measures (team projects, essays, portfolios,
demonstrations, presentations and exhibitions)
Measures that Matter
Performance Measures
Benefits
 Limits of paper and pencil
test to measure full range
of college and career
readiness skills
 Support richer instruction
and deeper student
engagement
Challenges
 Cost
 Workload burden on
teachers
 Consistency of scoring
Measures that Matter
 Is testing at the end of the year or grade sufficient?
 No…not if goal is to improve teaching and learning
 How can the state ensure local schools and districts have
access to high quality interim assessments throughout the
school year?
Measures that Matter
Goal is not more testing
it’s smarter testing
Measures that Matter
Provide High Quality Curriculum and
Teacher Support Materials
Measures that Matter
The problem:
 Curriculum development has been left to individual
districts, schools, and teachers, leading to uneven—and
inequitable—course content and instruction.
Students in Poor Schools Receive ‘A’s for Work
That Would Earn ‘Cs’ in Affluent Schools
Source: Prospects (ABT Associates, 1993), in “Prospects: Final Report on Student Outcomes”, PES, DOE, 1997.
The Odyssey
Ninth Grade
High-level Assignment
Comparison/Contrast Paper Between Homer's Epic Poem,
The Odyssey and the Movie "0 Brother Where Art Thou"
By nature, humans compare and contrast all elements of their world.
Why? Because in the juxtaposition of two different things, one can
learn more about each individual thing as well as something about the
universal nature of the things being compared.
For this 2-3 page paper you will want to ask yourself the following
questions: what larger ideas do you see working in The Odyssey and "0
Brother Where Art Thou"? Do both works treat these issues in the
same way? What do the similarities and differences between the works
reveal about the underlying nature of the larger idea?
The Odyssey
Ninth Grade
Low-level Assignment
Divide class into 3 groups:
Group 1 designs a brochure titled "Odyssey Cruises". The students
listen to the story and write down all the places Odysseus
visited in his adventures, and list the cost to travel from place
to place.
Group 2 draws pictures of each adventure.
Group 3 takes the names of the characters in the story and gods and
goddesses in the story and designs a crossword puzzle.
Chicago Public Schools: Many teachers report
spending huge amounts of instructional time on
ACT practice during 11th-grade core courses
Percent of Teachers
100
80
60
58
40
40
39
23
23
21
Science
Math
English
20 or more hours
12 to 20 hours
20
0
Source: Consortium for Chicago School Research, From High School to the Future: ACT
Preparation – Too Much, Too Late, Why ACT Scores are Low in Chicago and What It Means for
Schools, May 2008.
“Exams are being used as instructional
tools, although they are not designed
for learning. These practices steal
instructional time that could be used
for deep, challenging course work that
actually would prepare students for
the ACT and for college study.”
Source: Consortium for Chicago School Research, From High School to the Future: ACT
Preparation – Too Much, Too Late, Why ACT Scores are Low in Chicago and What It Means for
Schools, May 2008.
Measures that Matter
The Vision:
 Getting students into courses with the right names is just
the beginning
 State policymakers need to provide greater leadership on
the issues of curriculum and instructional supports
 States should invest in course redesign strategies to
deliver the same content in more accessible and applied
ways
Measures that Matter
 Who provides detailed guidance to teachers on what they
are expected to teach?
• Who devises the curriculum? Do ALL teachers have access to
detailed curriculum frameworks?
• What about well-designed units, lessons and assignments, and
links to supplementary resources?
 Are teachers in your state expected to “compose” and
“conduct”?
Measures that Matter
 How do your teachers in your state know what “good
enough” student work looks like?
• Has your state created exemplar or “anchor” assignments, along
with scoring rubrics and examples of scored student work? Does
EVERY teacher have access to model assignments?
• If these are local responsibilities in your state, how does the state
ensure adequate guidance and resources for teachers in districts
that lack the capacity to develop high-quality materials?
Measures that Matter
 Is your state prioritizing the “redesign” of priority courses for
organizing the same content into different packages?
• A LOT of energy and resources on this effort in higher education.
• If CTE is part of the plan, how is the state ensuring these programs
include the academic rigor that students need?
• Do CTE programs meet the Perkins “Program of Study”
designation. If not, what’s the plan for assuring alignment?
Measures that Matter
Getting Everybody Pulling in the Same
Direction: An Information and
Accountability System Focused on
College- and Career-Readiness
Measures that Matter
The Problems:
 Stakeholders do not have access to critical information
about college- and career-readiness.
 Accountability systems are not based on what it means to
be college- and career-ready, nor are they based on what
happens throughout high school.
 Accountability systems do not establish expectations for
performance that reflect where we need our schools and
students to be.
 Accountability goals are perceived as something to meet
to avoid state interference rather than something
meaningful to work toward.
Measures that Matter
The Vision:
 Stakeholders need real-time information to support decisionmaking.
 Accountability systems need to reflect key indicators of
progressing toward, achieving, and exceeding college- and
career-readiness.
 States should set stretch goals that are ambitious and
achievable.
 Accountability systems should provide incentives for
students and schools that meet expectations – and real
consequences for continually failing to meet expectations.
Measures that Matter
 What information do stakeholders need to support
college- and career-readiness? Are data available to
meet these information needs?
• How many students are taking and successfully completing a
college- and career-ready course of study? Where are there
gaps between groups and districts?
• How are students performing on assessments of college- and
career-readiness?
• How many students are graduating, and what happens after
they leave high school?
Measures that Matter
Measures that Matter
 Do accountability indicators reflect the goal of
college- and career-readiness?
Measures that Matter
Along the way toward
college and career
readiness
-Timely credit
accumulation
-Credit recovery
Along the way
toward college and
career readiness
-Successful
completion of
college- and careerready course of study
Exceeding collegeand career readiness
Achievement
-Performance on aligned
assessments early in high
school
-College-level
performance on AP
and/or IB exams
Attainment
-Graduation
-Meeting standards
on anchor assessment
-Postsecondary
remediation rates
-Earning a collegeand career-ready
diploma
Course
completion
and success
-Participation in AP, IB
and dual enrollment
-Earning credits in dual
enrollment courses
-Application to and
enrollment in
postsecondary
Measures that Matter
 Does the accountability system include stretch goals
and progress targets that communicate a clear path
from where students, schools, and districts are to where
we need them to be?
• Are all schools and students, regardless of where they stand
relative to goal of college- and career-readiness, expected to
make gains?
Measures that Matter
Graduation-Rate Progress Targets for Two Tennessee Schools
100.0%
80.6%
81.5%
82.4%
83.3%
84.2%
85.1%
85.9%
86.8%
Graduation-Rate Target
80.0%
60.0%
52.9%
56.6%
60.2%
63.9%
67.5%
71.2%
74.9%
78.5%
87.7%
82.2%
88.6%
85.8%
89.5%
89.5%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
Data Source: Tennessee Department of Education – Office of Innovation, Improvement and
Accountability
Measures that Matter
 Does the accountability system set expectations for multiple
indicators while maintaining focus on college- and careerready graduation?
• This can be accomplished through performance indices that
weight the most important indicators and most important
levels of performance most heavily, but credit other indicators
and other performance levels as well.
Measures that Matter
Weights for different student outcomes in
Louisiana’s accountability system
Measures that Matter
 Do the metrics used in the accountability system
evaluate both current-year performance and progress?
• Status: What percentage of students is meeting college- and
career-ready standards this year?
• Growth-to-standards: What percentage of students is on
trajectory to meet standards by a certain date?
• Improvement: Are schools making sufficient year-to-year
improvement in the percentage of students meeting standards
to meet the goal by a set date?
Measures that Matter
 What are the positive incentives– for schools and
students—to work hard and reach the college- and
career-ready level and beyond?
• We cannot motivate excellence only by avoiding
sanctions.
Measures that Matter
 The key to this process is COHERENCE.
Measures that Matter
Making College and Career Readiness
the Mission of High Schools