What is College and Career Readiness?
College and career readiness has become a key priority for the PK-20 education community and the nation at large. The increasingly competitive global economy makes it imperative that more students enter career fields that enable higher wages and greater potential for growth, but institutions of higher education and the business community have long expressed concerns about the inadequacy of a traditional high school education in preparing students for the postsecondary education or training necessary to succeed in these careers (Carnevale, et al., 2010; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009).
However, high schools face many challenges in ensuring all students are college and career ready. Not only must high schools raise the expectations they place on students and help them set more ambitious postsecondary goals, but they must also provide a wider array of supports to help students meet their individual goals. Furthermore, the growing consensus on the importance of all students mastering a broad range of knowledge and skills – such as the English Language Arts and mathematics standards set forth by the Common Core State Standards Initiative; key learning skills, such as social and emotional and academic success skills; and knowledge of and exposure to a diverse range of postsecondary pathways – is made even more challenging by the fact that there is also subset of college and career readiness skills that are directly tied to individual postsecondary goals for college and career (Educational Policy Improvement Center, 2009; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009).
The increased focus on college and career readiness, combined with the complexity of the challenges associated with the topic, have led to a rapidly expanding college and career readiness community, rich with resources yet replete with confusion. The National High School Center conducted a scan of organizations that address college and career readiness and identified more than 70 such organizations, including those focused on policy, practice, advocacy, access and research. Through this scan, the Center identified three major strands of work (see below) and created the College and Career Development Organizer. The organizer is intended to help users traverse the vast CCR landscape, encouraging conversations on each of the three strands and serving as a tool that can support the development of strategies and initiatives to better prepare all students for college and careers. Additionally, the National High School Center has created a series of tools and briefs to extrapolate on the College and Career Development Organizer and provide further insight into this increasingly complicated field of college and career readiness initiatives. An invitation-only symposium on April 24, 2012 in Washington DC encouraged further conversations about the topic.
View a PDF version of the College and Career Development Organizer.
College and Career Development Organizer
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About the College and Career Development Organizer
The
National High School Center has created a college and career development
organizer to synthesize and organize an increasingly complicated and crowded
field of college and career readiness initiatives. The organizer, composed of
three strands, can be used to map the efforts of SEAs and LEAs as well as the
many organizations devoted to researching and providing support for college and
career readiness. By mapping these diverse initiatives against an organizer, it
becomes easier to see how the many components of career and college readiness
fit together, and how organizations and other entities can be leveraged to
establish meaningful collaborations in helping high school students actualize
their goals.
The
organizer can also be used to help SEA, LEAs, schools, and other organizations
develop college and career readiness strategies and initiatives to address
student needs. Stakeholders can use the components of the organizer to ensure
that they are designing comprehensive college and career readiness definitions
and strategies that address all aspects of the field that are essential to
their context. Many schools and organizations may choose to limit the organizer
components they plan to address because some of the components do not apply to
their local context. Similarly, components may be prioritized to allow schools
or organizations to harness limited resources to effectively address their most
pressing college and career readiness needs. The mapping aspect of the
organizer can also be referenced to identify organizations and relationships to
leverage once schools have identified areas that they need additional
assistance to address.
As
with any building blocks, identifying the components that will be used to
structure ongoing efforts is only part of the planning process. It is also
essential to consider the relationships between these components and how they
fit together to create a coherent and cohesive college and career readiness
effort and to align concurrent strands of work. While the organizer is intended
to serve as a planning tool to help frame these efforts, we recognize that the
planning, alignment, and implementation of college and career readiness
initiatives are and should be driven by local contextual factors, stakeholder
needs and interests, resources, policies, and priorities. Therefore, the
organizer intentionally does not provide a universal framework or model for
addressing the selected components.
Goals and Expectations for College and Career Readiness
What should high school graduates know and be able to do?
Core Content
Common Core State Standards
- English/language arts, literacy, and mathematics content standards
Individual State Standards
- English/language arts, mathematics, science, foreign language, and technical standards
Pathways Content
College and Career Knowledge and Access
- College and work trajectories, environments, and eligibility requirements
College and Career Goals
- Student-declared educational and career aspirations
Pathway Content Standards
- Programs of Study standards (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), health, business)
- Career and technical education standards
Lifelong Learning Skills
Social and Emotional Skills
- Self-management
- Responsible decision-making
- Self-awareness
- Social awareness
- Relationship skills
Higher-Order Thinking Skills
- Problem solving, critical thinking, and reasoning
- Synthesis and precision
Academic Success and Employability Skills
- Inquisitiveness and intellectual openness
- Organization, study, and research skills
- Attendance and engagement
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Effective communication
Civic/Consumer/Life Skills
- Civic engagement
- Financial literacy and management
- Information technology and social media skills
Pathways and Supports for College and Career Preparation
What policies, programs, and structures will help high school graduates meet expectations?
Personalized Learning Supports
Individualized Learning Strategies
- Individual learning plans
- Flexible grouping and differentiated instruction
- Mentoring and counseling
Targeted Interventions
- Content/credit recovery and tutoring
- Health and wraparound family services
- Tiered interventions / Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
- Student, family and community engagement
Rigorous Programs of Study
Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
- Middle school preparation and pathway selection (career exploration, academic preparation)
- Accelerated learning programs
- Blended learning
Well-Defined Pathways with Postsecondary Alignment
- PK-20 initiatives
- Multi-disciplinary programs of study
- Alternative pathways and Graduate Equivalency Diploma Pathway (GED)
Postsecondary Experiences and Preparations
- College visits and career fairs
- Dual enrollment, internships, and work experience
- Enrollment and financial aid applications and enrollment preparation
Aligned Resources, Structures, and Supports
Physical and Organizational Structures
- Block scheduling, increased learning time, and advisories
- Career academies and smaller learning communities
Human Capital
- Recruitment and hiring
- Professional development and support
- Supervision and evaluation
Community Partnerships and Resources
- Tutoring/mentoring programs and service learning
- Internships
Fiscal Resources
- Funding, facilities, and equipment
Outcomes and Measures for College and Career Success
How do we know when high school graduates meet expectations?
On-track Indicators
Academic/Technical Performance and Engagement
- Credit accumulation and recovery
- Attendance and grade point average
- Participation in accelerated learning programs and/or college - and career-ready courses of study
- Performance on aligned assessments of high school core content (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and Smarter Balance assessments, high school end of course and exit exams)
- Performance on career and portfolio assessments
Postsecondary Access and Enrollment
- Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and postsecondary applications completed
- Postsecondary program enrollment
- Employment applications completion
- Internship or employment opportunity acceptance
Attainment and Authentication
Secondary Certification
- High school diploma (standard, alternative, college and career ready) or GED
- College credits in dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, or International Baccalaureate courses
- Postsecondary degree(s)
- Awarded industry-recognized credential or certificate
Postsecondary Success
- Post-secondary education graduation certificate
- Post-secondary training certification
- Earning wage in "middle-skills" (jobs that require an associate's degree, a vocational certificate, on-the-job training, or some college) or higher skills job
- Postsecondary remediation not needed
Accountability and Improvement Feedback
Accountability Reporting Systems
- High school and district report cards, reporting college and career readiness measures
- Performance-based assessments
Data-Informed Improvement Cycles
- High school and district diagnostic assessments
- State and district improvement plans
- Early warning systems for dropout and college and career readiness
