Synopses & Reviews
Praise for College and Career Ready"David Conley offers a profoundly insightful and clear blueprint for designing high schools that will prepare students for post-secondary success. Anyone interested in supporting and leading schools principals, superintendents, school leadership coaches will benefit from College and Career Ready."
—Sue Fine, executive director, The Urban Assembly Schools Network
"College and Career Ready takes Conley's humanistic approach to high school improvement giant steps forward. A must-read for anyone serious about producing results with underprepared, urban students."
—Nancy Hoffman, vice president, Jobs for the Future
"David Conley is a powerful and articulate voice on the critical subject of college and career readiness. His new book serves as a substantive and practical guide, with both research and case studies, for those of us who are on the front lines of the effort to transform our schools and ready our students for the future."
—Jim Nelson, executive director, AVID Center
"This book is one-stop shopping for all crucial college and career readiness concepts and components. Complete with in-depth descriptions of numerous exemplary schools, College and Career Ready will be indispensable to policymakers, administrators, and teachers who seek to implement comprehensive college readiness initiatives in a variety of state and school contexts."
—Michael Kirst, professor emeritus, Stanford University
"At last, a compelling roadmap for preparing all of our high school students for postsecondary and workplace success. The rich case studies should be required reading for school superintendents and their boards."
—Uri Treisman, professor of mathematics and of public affairs, University of Texas at Austin
Synopsis
Giving students the tools they need to succeed in college and workCollege and Career Ready offers educators a blueprint for improving high school so that more students are able to excel in freshman-level college courses or entry-level jobs-laying a solid foundation for lifelong growth and success. The book is filled with detailed, practical guidelines and case descriptions of what the best high schools are doing.
- Includes clear guidelines for high school faculty to adapt their programs of instruction in the direction of enhanced college/career readiness
- Provides practical strategies for improving students' content knowledge and academic behaviors
- Offers examples of best practices and research-based recommendations for change
The book considers the impact of behavioral issues-such as time management and study habits-as well as academic skills on college readiness.
Synopsis
College and career readiness for all students is an idea whose time has come. Across the nation, increasing numbers of high schools are working to prepare more students to pursue learning beyond high school—whether or not they go to college. This marks a dramatic shift from the old view that college and vocational preparation were two separate tracks and that formal learning had an endpoint. Now it's clear that whether entering college or a vocational position, all students need to be prepared with new skills and knowledge that adequately prepare them for the challenges they will face in today's complex and competitive academic and workplace environments.
College and Career Ready offers educators and policymakers a better understanding of the rationale and methods necessary to redesign high schools so that they focus on both college and career readiness. In addition, it contains a variety of practical methods by which high school faculty can adapt their programs of instruction in the direction of enhanced college/career readiness and thereby meet the needs of all their students. This includes helping students develop the cognitive strategies and content knowledge they will need to succeed. The book also considers the impact of key behaviors necessary foracademic success—such as time management and study habits. Numerous case examples highlight practices in schools that are doing these things well.
Step by step, David T. Conley—an expert in the field of educational policy—presents detailed, practical evidence and strategic guidelines high schools can use as a framework for improving alignment with postsecondary success. By putting in place recommendations outlined in College and Career Ready, schools will be providing students the tools they need to succeed in college, work, and life.
About the Author
David T. Conley is professor of Educational Policy and Leadership; founder and director of the Center for Educational Policy Research at the University of Oregon; and founder and CEO of the Educational Policy Improvement Center in Eugene, Oregon. Conley spent twenty years as a teacher and administrator in public schools. He works nationally and internationally with governments, education organizations, states, and school districts. For more information, go to www.CollegeCareerReady.org or www.epiconline.org.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Author xv
Introduction 1
Should and Can Today's High Schools Prepare All Students for College and Careers?
College Ready and Work Ready: One and the Same?
The New Challenge
What We Mean by "Ready for College and Careers"
Part One: Redefining College and Career Readiness
1 The Four Key Dimensions of College and Career Readiness 19
General Elements of a More Comprehensive Defi nition of College and Career Readiness
Current Means to Determine College and Career Readiness
An Examination of the Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness
Differences Between High School and College Courses
Operational Examples of College Readiness
2 Ways to Develop Key Cognitive Strategies and Key Content Knowledge 53
Focusing on the "Big Ideas"
Aligning Courses and Expectations Between High School and College
Formative Assessment for College Readiness
3 Ways to Develop Self-Management Skills and "College Knowledge" 72
Elements of Self-Management
"College Knowledge"—Contextual Skills and Awareness
4 Key Principles of College and Career Readiness 104
Principle 1: Create and Maintain a College-Going Culture in the School
Principle 2: Create a Core Academic Program Aligned with and Leading to College Readiness by the End of Twelfth Grade
Principle 3: Teach Key Self-Management Skills and Academic Behaviors and Expect Students to Use Them
Principle 4: Make College and Careers Real by Helping Students Manage the Complexity of Preparing for and Applying to Postsecondary Education
Principle 5: Create Assignments and Grading Policies That More Closely Approximate College Expectations Each Successive Year of High School
Principle 6: Make the Senior Year Meaningful and Appropriately Challenging
Principle 7: Build Partnerships with and Connections to Postsecondary Programs and Institutions
5 Case Studies of Schools That Succeed 133
Alternative School: University Park Campus School, Worcester, Massachusetts
Magnet School: Fenway High School, Boston, Massachusetts
Comprehensive High School: Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, Colorado
Charter School: Minnesota New Country School, Henderson, Minnesota
Early College High School: Manhattan Hunter Science High School, New York, New York
Comprehensive High School: Garland High School, Garland, Texas
Magnet School: Polytech High School, Woodside, Delaware
Private School: Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Chicago, Illinois
6 Putting It All Together 176
Develop a Profile of the School's College Readiness Capacity
Identify Outcome Measures of Success
Assess the District Capacity to Support Improvements
Institute Specific Programs to Address the Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness
Institute Professional Development to Support College Readiness
Recognize the Importance of Culture and Change Culture
Gauge the Progress of Changes in the High School
What Are the Eff ects on Student Performance in College?
Part Two: Steps on the Road to Readiness
7 Steps High Schools Are Taking to Make More Students College and Career Ready 205
Small Schools and High School Conversions
Career Academies
Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Programs
Early College High Schools
Dual Credit
Learning from the New Models
8 Steps States Are Taking to Make More Students College and Career Ready 219
State Actions to Date
Examples of State Actions
State College Readiness Standards: The Example of Texas
Clear Messages States Can Send to the Secondary System
Clear Messages States Can Send to Th eir Postsecondary Systems
Concluding Observations
Afterword 265
Appendix A: Two Examples of Tasks Th at Develop and Assess Key Cognitive Strategies 269
Appendix B: Example Items from the School Diagnostic 303
Appendix C: Resource List 307
Index 311