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Vol. 5, Issue 6
September 2008
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the OSSE Ed Digest.
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The 2006 Double the Numbers report – a research effort supported by the DC College Access Network, the DC State Education Office, DC Public Schools and the DC Education Compact - painted a stark picture: 43 percent of District of Columbia public school students who started ninth grade in 2001 graduated from high school within five years, and only 29 percent enrolled in postsecondary educational programs within 18 months after graduating high school. It is estimated that only nine percent will attain a postsecondary degree within five years of enrolling in college. Those rates are far below the national average and unreasonable in a society where an estimated two-thirds of new jobs will require some education after high school. Increasing college awareness – and subsequently college-going and college success rates – is among the major priorities of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). In this issue of the OSSE Ed Digest, we present a range of research, information and resources on creating a college-going culture within schools.
Articles
- Center for American Progress, College-Ready Students, Student-Ready Colleges
- Education Week, Chicago District Focusing on Pathways to College
- Education Week, Higher Graduation Rates, or Better Prepared Graduates?
- Education Week, States Move Forward on College Readiness
- Journal of College Admission, Going to College: How Social, Economic, and Educational Factors Influence the Decisions Students Make
- The Chronicle of Higher Education, New Study on College-Going Rates Gives Mom Something Else to Worry About
- The New York Times, Making a Hard-Life Story Open a Door to College
- The New York Times, Many Going to College Are Not Ready, Report Says
- University of Arizona News: Creating a College-Going Culture in Arizona’s Schools
Resources
Books/Reports/Papers
- ACT. Crisis at the Core
- Alliance of Excellent Education. High School Teaching for the Twenty-first Century: Preparing Students for College
- Blanco, S, Crowe, E., et al. Student Success: Statewide P-16 Systems. State Higher Education Executive Officers
- Cabrera, A., Deil-Amen, R., Franklin, R., Lee, C., Prabhu, R., Terenzini, P., Increasing the College Preparedness of At-Risk Students
- Callahan, P., Finney, J., Kirst, M., Usdan, M., and Venizia, A. Claiming Common Ground: State Policymaking for Improving College Readiness and Success. National Center Report #06-1. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
- College Board: College Ed Creating a College Going Culture
- Conklin, K. Improving the High School-to-College Transition Through Leadership and Governance
- Corwin, Z.B. and Tierney, W.G., Getting There–and Beyond: Building a Culture of College-Going in High Schools
- Cunningham, A., Erisman, W., and Looney, S., From Aspirations to Action: The role of Middle School Parents in Making the Dream of College a Reality
- Fenzel, L.M. and O'Brennan, L.M., Educating At-Risk Urban African American Children: The Effects of School Climate on Motivation and Academic Achievement
- Kirsch, I., Braum, H., Yamamoto, K., and Sum, A. America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future. ETS Policy Information Center
- Lippman, L., Guzman, L., Keith, J. D., Kinukawa, A., Shwalb, R., Tice, P., & Mulligan, G. M. , Parent Expectations and Planning for College: Statistical Analysis Report
- MacAllum, K., Glover, D. M., Queen, B., & Riggs, A. , Deciding on Postsecondary Education: Final Report
- McClafferty, K.A., McDonough, P.M., & Nunez, A. , What is a College Culture? Facilitating College Preparation Through Organizational Change
- McGrath, D. Convergence as Strategy and as Model: Linking P-16 Education Reform and Economic Development
- Pathways to College Network, How Is School Reform Tied to Increasing College Access & Success for Low Income & Minority Youth?
- Venezia, A., Callan, P., Finney, J., kirst, M., Usdan, M. The Governance Divide: A Report on a Four-State Study on Improving College Readiness and Success. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
 
Articles
Resources
This report examines the failure of U.S. high schools to graduate students who are college- and workplace-ready, based on ACT college-readiness benchmarks. ACT concludes that “even with a diploma in hand, many high school graduates do not have all of the skills to succeed in college-level coursework or workforce training.” The report argues that the high school “core” curriculum—four years of English and three years each of math, natural sciences and social studies—is no longer enough to ensure success in college or the workplace. The report urges schools to strengthen the high school core curriculum to help improve students' readiness for college and the workforce. Students in grades K-8 who are not learning the foundational skills for rigorous high school coursework should be identified earlier and provided with supportive interventions, thus preparing them for higher level math and science courses such as trigonometry, pre-calculus, chemistry, and physics. The report suggests that these conclusions are also applicable to students who have no intention of going to college. It points to recent research which indicates that the skills required for workforce training beyond high school are the same as those expected of a first-year college student. Finally, the report suggests that educators alone cannot be responsible for making the changes. Policy makers, business and community leaders, parents, and students themselves must also be involved in the process.
Studies show that college remediation rates are high and college completion rates are low, signaling that a fundamental disconnect exists between the way that high school teachers prepare their students for the future and what students truly need to know to meet the demands of college. Decades of reform have focused on restructuring high schools or increasing course requirements for graduation, but the nation has so far failed to address the biggest factor in improving student success—the type of teaching that occurs inside the classroom. This report focuses on policy-related issues concerning college readiness—meaning the course work and teaching needed to prepare students for most two- and four-year programs that lead to an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree, respectively. A sustained focus on college readiness can inform, assess, and improve high school teaching for the twenty-first century.
This publication draws on examinations of P-16 systems in California, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Rhode Island. It includes essays focusing on the following components of an integrated education system: early outreach, curriculum and assessment systems, high quality teaching, student financial assistance and data and accountability systems.
Cabrera, A., Deil-Amen, R., Franklin, R., Lee, C., Prabhu, R., Terenzini, P., Increasing the College Preparedness of At-Risk Students (2003)
Over the past thirty years, a number of private organizations and state and federal level agencies have implemented a variety of college preparation and outreach programs all intended to increase the likelihood of the children of low-income parents will be ready for college at rates comparable to those of their more affluent peers. The public and private financial commitment to this goal has been substantial, and yet low-income students’ level of preparation for college and college-going rates remain substantially below those of their counterparts from middle and upper income families.
Today, when the vast majority of high school students aspire to attend college, states need policies that require K–12 and postsecondary education to collaborate to improve the college readiness of all high school students. This report identifies four state policy dimensions for improving college readiness and success: the alignment of coursework and assessments; state finance; statewide data systems; and accountability.
The recommendations in this report build from previous collaborative work among the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the Institute for Educational Leadership, and the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research.
Promoting a college-going culture in high schools benefits both the students and the schools, improving preparation, college access, and college attendance rates among students and helping schools to achieve goals and improve accountability.
This issue brief suggests that the fragmented education system in states is a result of several factors: high school curricula and assessments not aligned with post-high school work and college expectations; state data systems that do not measure the effectiveness of high school improvement efforts; and separate K-12 and higher education accountability systems. This brief offers three strategies for streamlining education governance and improving the alignment of state policies across education systems – creating a single P-16 governance structure, creating a permanent statewide education commission and strengthening statewide governance of higher education – and highlights state policies applying these solutions.
This report argues that high school students are best served by schools with a strong college-going culture that cultivates aspirations and behaviors conducive to preparing for and enrolling in college. It discusses key elements, common challenges, and strategies that schools can use to strengthen their college-going culture.
To explore issues related to the need for early college planning efforts targeting middle school students and their families, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) commissioned a nationwide survey to ask parents of middle school students about the steps they have taken to start planning for college.
This conference paper reports the results of a survey of African American middle school students intended to help determine whether "school climate," as perceived by the students, had an independent effect on school achievement that is not otherwise explained by underlying motivational or academic factors.
This report documents and describes the confluence of three forces that are having a considerable impact on America: (1) divergent skill distributions among U.S. population groups, (2) a changing economy and (3) demographic trends of a growing and more diverse population. The report also projects the impact of these interactions on the nation 25 years into the future. The authors warn that the U.S. must change course and take effective action or “gradually lose ground in relation to other countries, becoming more divided both socially and economically in the process." Consequently, America must equip its citizens with the ability to perform highly-valued work and with opportunities to renew their skills as the nature of that work evolves.
Lippman, L., Guzman, L., Keith, J. D., Kinukawa, A., Shwalb, R., Tice, P., & Mulligan, G. M. , Parent Expectations and Planning for College: Statistical Analysis Report (2008)
The National Center for Education Statistics’ new report draws on data from the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program Parent and Family Involvement Survey to examine characteristics associated with the educational expectations parents had for their children and the postsecondary education planning practices families and schools engaged in.
A new publication from the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative's Project on Improving Information for Student Decisions About Postsecondary Education increases our understanding about how underserved students make decisions about postsecondary education.
This paper presents a template for creating a school environment in which college is a reasonable expectation for all students. Drawing from the research literature and lessons learned from more than 4 years of partnership work between a public research university and a cluster of urban K-12 schools, the paper outlines a set of conditions that are consistent with the creation of a "college culture”.
“Convergence” is a new form of civic organizing that has grown out of the focus on P-16 (preschool through college) education initiatives. It is a strategic approach that permits communities to pursue a comprehensive vision of local and regional development, to maximize resources by aligning and coordinating programs, to use data to set priorities and to bring promising initiatives to scale. This paper reports on the trend toward convergence by examining four representative efforts throughout Ohio: The Stark Education Partnership, Inc, which established the P-16 Compact for Stark County in 2002; Southern State Community College and Southern Ohio Center of Excellence, a regional center that builds collaborative relationships connecting school systems, community organizations, and higher education institutions; EDvention, Dayton regional STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) initiative; and Strive of Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, a broad-based collaborative of leaders from the education, business, nonprofit, philanthropic, faith, and civic sectors.
This paper examines the predictors of college-going behaviors and how they have been addressed within the school reform movement.
This report proposes a set of state policy levers that can be used to create meaningful changes for students, identifies other factors states face as they seek to improve transitions between high school and college, provides state leaders with real-world policy choices, and offers recommendations to help states transform ad hoc approaches into sustained action and institutionalized, long-term K-16 reforms.
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