More Comprehensive College Readiness Indicator System Created For Secondary Schools

Education leaders across the country are faced with a growing phenomenon: too many students are not college-ready when they leave high school.

A new paper, reporting on research under way by the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at the Stanford University School of Education, details the implementation of a College Readiness Indicator System framework, or CRIS, designed to significantly increase the number of students who graduate high school ready to succeed in college.

The paper appears in the fall edition of the journal Voices in Urban Education, which is a special issue on CRIS. “Many school districts use Early Warning Systems based on academic measures such as course credits and GPA to identify students at risk of dropping out or not being college-eligible,” said the paper’s co-author, Gardner Center researcher Oded Gurantz. “With CRIS, we are adding measurements of the skills, competencies, and attitudes needed to stay the course and attain a postsecondary degree.” The other co-author, Graciela Borsato, is also a researcher at the Gardner Center.

The new findings come midway in a national, three-year study taking place in five urban school districts, and they identify key factors that influence the speed and depth at which districts can build their CRIS.

The CRIS initiative was launched in August 2010 with a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gardner Center is leading the initiative in partnership with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. More recently, the Stanford and Brown researchers have begun to work closely on the project with the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which has also been funded by the Gates Foundation to develop and test CRIS-related tools based on their work in Chicago Public Schools.

The need for CRIS arose out of a growing awareness that a high school diploma does not ensure college readiness. CRIS aims to address that problem. It enables school administrators to concentrate on more than just students’ academic preparedness when assessing college readiness, by also including indicators of “college knowledge,” the knowledge that enables students to access and navigate college, and “academic tenacity,” the underlying beliefs and attitudes that drive student achievement.

CRIS is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to college readiness but, rather, an approach based on a menu of indicators from which districts can select those best attuned to their local context. All indicators in the CRIS menu are variables that have a consistent and predictable relationship with college readiness; can be influenced through actions under the purview of K-12 teachers and administrators; and can be measured at the individual (student), setting (classroom), and system (district) levels.

For example, the paper cited how one district chose a CRIS indicator that involved tracking students’ completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which offers a quick read of students’ college knowledge at particular schools. Another district began using an indicator of “academic press” — the extent to which teachers press students for effort, perseverance and rigor — to help them gauge tenacity.

In addition to the menu of indicators, CRIS includes a Cycle of Inquiry tool to help districts think through the conditions that need to be in place for effective use of their indicators. Districts accustomed to collecting data that assess student performance at the end of the school year find that the CRIS Cycle of Inquiry encourages them to engage earlier with students before they go off track. The first two years of this study produced valuable lessons related to successful implementation including the need for acceptance and “buy-in” from a wide range of school stakeholders, and the staff and technical resource capacity to undertake the program from development to evaluation.

“Districts will develop a stronger CRIS if the indicators align with their strategic plans and internal capacity,” the co-authors Gurantz and Borsato wrote, emphasizing that CRIS is about more than gathering information. “Ultimately, collecting more data will not lead to better outcomes for youth unless a system is in place that helps turn those data into meaningful action,” they added.

In the third year of the study, the researchers are looking to help each of the participating districts to fine-tune a CRIS that boosts students’ postsecondary success.

Nancy Mancini is the communications manager at the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at the Stanford University School of Education.

National Groups Call For Big Changes In College Remediation

Remedial courses meant to get underprepared students ready for college-level work are often not an on-ramp but a dead end, leaders of four national education groups said, recommending sweeping changes in how such students are brought up to speed. The report — by Complete College America, the Charles A. Dana Center, the Education Commission of the States, and Jobs for the Future — is based on studies that have concluded that remedial-education systems are broken. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/13/12)

Recession’s Impact on College Finance

How hard did the Great Recession of 2007-09 hit nonprofit colleges and universities?

Were sharp increases in tuition enough to offset declining per-student public funding during the period 2000-10?

The latest report from the Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research (AIR) explores the financial situation of nonprofit colleges and universities between 2000 and 2010. Findings from College Spending in a Turbulent Decade, the final installment of this year’s Delta Data Updates, show that (1) among nonprofit colleges and universities, community colleges suffered the greatest financial hardships of the decade; and (2) institutional subsidies reached a decade-long low in 2010 across most types of institutions as students covered a larger portion of educational costs.

IS This The End Of College Teaching Democracy?

WHAT COLLEGE SHOULD BE
Democracy, as we know it, is in danger. In recent decades we have seen many great discoveries, but we have also seen the steady demise of one of America’s most important democratic institutions: the college. A new book by Andrew Delbanco, matter-of-factly titled “College: What It Was, Is and Should Be” (Princeton University Press) delivers a story that is part nuanced history, part “State of the University” address, and part swan song. College, he says, is close to extinction. He ends his story with a plea for the future of the college: “Democracy depends on it.” The article is in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

posted Jul 30, 2012 08:48 am

8 Writing Tools For College Students

Guest Blogger:Phillip Garret

Students now have a wide variety of writing tools they can use to write and publish their works. Thanks to some of the world’s top web publishing companies like Google and the like, being a student has never been easier. Some of these online writing tools are paid whereas most of them are offered free to students to make their writing work easy. It also important to note that, some of these tools can be downloaded while others can only be used online.

Online writing tools also have tremendous benefits for the students. Some of them allow students to collaborate on writing projects and this is invaluable to the quality of work that comes out of it. This interactivity in the writing process is one of the biggest motivators for these tools. This article looks at 8 online writing tools for students.

Plagiarism checker PlagTracker.com

This tool is crucial to a students’ writing prowess as it helps them become authentic writers by keeping their works original. The effectiveness of Plagtracker lies in the fact that its database across a wide variety of content online makes sure that student term papers and other assignments pass the plagiarism test by their teachers and professors.

Google Documents

Google Docs as it’s popularly known is one of the most popular web-based, word processors students can use for their writing. It’s produced by Google and among its functions includes spreadsheets support, presentations and forms from Google.

Students can thus use Google Docs as a tool for their different writing functions like creating and sharing word documents, preparing presentations, storing projects they are working on, etc.

ReadWriteThink

This is not an average writing tool as it’s a resource for students to get online writing tools. It’s a perfect match for grades k-12 and has many tools for students; most of them interactive. There are templates for different writing tasks, comic creators, and so much more.

3D writer

This is an older replica for Microsoft word and students can use this tool to write and compose. It’s available for PC only but the way its text is created, allows students to add notations in their work, increasing its credibility and authenticity. The tool also comes with ability to upload work in programs like Dreamweaver which are crucial for students.

Button talk

This is similar to the 3D writer, but for the Mac computers. This tool is crucial for story composition and especially good in the composition of fiction stories. The interactivity offered on this platform is top notch and one doesn’t necessarily have to have the Mac to enjoy its hyperlink benefits.

Poetry Forge

Poetry is not one of the most amusing subjects for most students as most of them literally struggle to understand it, let alone compose it. Poetry Forge is one of the best tools students can use to learn to write poetry. Moreover, this tool has the ability to help students add lines to poetry, which is an ability that is truly refreshing, insightful and direct.

Word counter

This tool is crucial as it helps students know how many times certain words have been used in a document. This tool can help students discover if they have overused words in the text like constant use of passive voice which makes the use of language sticky and hard to read.

Citation MachineCiting sources is one of the most important parts of the writing process. This tool enables students cite their work properly, using the best practices and methods. The tool also helps students determine where the sources are for certain information and the method to use to cite.

[mailto:phi2132676@maricopa.edu]
Phillip Garret writes tech tips for students.

College Graduates End Up In Low Skill Jobs

COLLEGE GRADS TAKING LOW PAYING JOBS
Throughout California, 260,000 recent college grads under the age of 30 are working on the front lines of food service and retail industries where historically those jobs have gone to workers without a degree. “We’re seeing graduates in humanities and some of the arts fields struggling because perhaps what their degree is in doesn’t translate well to the global current economy,” said Ian Moats, a staffing consultant. Currently, the healthcare and technology sectors are growing. The article is in the Santa Barbara Key.

USA Ranks 18th In 2 Year Degrees.

For the U.S. to improve on its No. 5 world ranking in the number of 25- to 64-year-olds possessing some form of college degree, it must boost the number of two-year degree holders by instilling a national focus on enrollment and success in community colleges and trade schools, according to a new report. America ranks 18th when it comes to two-year degree graduates. (Huffington Post, 12/06/12)

Report On Improving Postsecondary Efficiency And Accountability

Credentials after high school are increasingly tied to secure, family-sustaining jobs in the United States. But college costs are rapidly rising while public resources are dwindling. Across the nation, postsecondary leaders, policymakers and members of the philanthropic community are searching for remedies to these issues. IN Pennsylvania, Gov. Corbett’s Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Education has advanced recommendations for making the state’s colleges and universities more efficient, effective, and accountable to the public.

The brief examines three important aspects of postsecondary accountability addressed by the Commission – performance funding that links state appropriations with system-wide goals and results; data systems that track student progress to better measure performance; and transparency laws that allow public access to system records.

The Research For Action PACER brief provides an accessible summary of available information on these levers and compares their presence in Pennsylvania and neighboring states. This brief signals important questions for policymakers, educators, families, and students. We hope it also equips stakeholders with information to confront these questions.

Click here to read this brief.

Does Student “Grit” Help College Success

Here is a video of the most visible proponent of the grit theory:

Paul Tough on the concept of grit as an element of academic success. Two-minute video

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2012/12/video-paul-tough-on-grit.html

Helping Transfer Students To Succeed

SCHOOLS FIND NEW WAYS TO WELCOME COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFERS
The 200 transfer students ate Huli Huli chicken and wore plastic leis at a recent luau held in their honor at USC. But more important than food or party favors, participants said, was the camaraderie and encouragement to join the campus mainstream. Among the organizers was Rebecca Obadia, who transferred from Santa Monica College to USC last year and experienced the stress of starting at a new university midway through a degree program. Obadia, 26, a public relations major, helped revive a transfer student group at USC and is now its president. Transfer students “don’t have the same needs as freshmen and were not welcomed the way they should have been all these years,” she said. That reception and other new efforts at private and public schools are part of a trend here and nationwide to better address the needs of these students and ease “transfer shock” as they jump into new academic and social lives long after other students. Colleges and universities are tailoring orientation sessions for them, requiring special classes, bolstering counseling, establishing clubs, setting aside housing and offering more scholarships. The article is in the Los Angeles Times via Carnegie Foundation.