Linking K12 Assessment To College Outcome Assessment Is Needed

Prior blog recommends book by Richard Shavelson on better ways to assess what students learn in college. He is the co-creator of the Collegiate Learning Assessment that measures cross cutting skills like analysis and synthesis. CLA is being used by more colleges to assess seniors. K-12 assessments need to examine this new movement in colleges. CLA is far removed from the multiple choice format that is so widely used in statewide k12 assessments, so the gap will grow between the assessment concepts used by k-12 and colleges.

How To Measure Learning In College

Measuring College Learning Responsibly
Accountability in a New Era

Richard J. Shavelson

Accrediting boards, the federal government and state legislatures are now requiring a greater level of accountability from higher education. However, current accountability practices, including accreditation, No Child Left Behind, and performance reporting are inadequate to the task. If wielded indiscriminately, accountability can actually do more harm than good. This innovative work looks broadly at how accountability is being considered by campuses, accrediting boards, higher education organizations, and governments in the US and abroad. It explores how new demands for accountability and new technologies are changing the way student learning is assessed.

The author, one of the most respected assessment researchers in the nation, provides a framework for assessing student learning and discusses historical and contemporary debates in the field. He details new directions in assessment, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment he helped develop, analyzes exemplary campus assessment programs, and proposes considerations necessary for designing successful accountability systems.

More info at: http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16434

Disarray In College General Education Requirements Provides Scant Guidance For K12 Preparation

  The American Association of Colleges and Universities has a new report showing little consensus and much flux in college general education requirements.  Only 11% of colleges report they are not making changes in general ed now, or made them recently. Carol Schneider head of AAC&U said distribution requirements at many colleges are seen as something to get through, not significant intellectual experiences- general ed is a confusing passageway to college. How can k-12 prepare students for college if the colleges have no intellectual core? Yes, there are general skills needed for college, but we need a seamless k-14 course underpinning to help guide secondary school course sequences. See report at www.aacu.org

Governance Of Education Is Shattered Between k12 And Postsecondary Education

The last several blogs have examined the disjuncture between k12 and broad access postsecondary education for teacher education, curriculum, and community colleges. This one focuses on goverance, but all four together make a compelling case. Students are caught between the misalignment of the two systems, and often cannot succeed becuse the two systems cannot work together for better college preparation.

Agencies governing high schools and postsecondary institutions have evolved along with the institutions themselves. From 1950 to 1980, higher education grew so dramatically that the need for increased state coordination became a priority. In 1940, the majority of states did not have a higher education governing, coordinating, or planning agency with responsibility for all public higher education. By 1979, all states had such an agency (Richardson et al., 1999). In 1940, 70% of public campuses had their own board, but by 1976, only 30% did. State subsystems developed as branch campuses of major public universities, and as a way to govern former normal schools that had been under state boards of education. But these postsecondary statewide agencies were not linked with K-12 governance or policymaking. New higher education state bureaucracies operated in isolation from their K-12 counterparts as regulations grew from 1960 to 1980 at both levels. Richardson, Bracco, Callan, and Finney (1999) stated that “A 1969 study of 12 large states found little political or budget conflict between K-12 and postsecondary education. The two levels basically ignored each other and proceeded in their separate ways (p.9).

In addition, the structure and organization of state legislative committees responsible for education traditionally reinforce the divide between K-12 and postsecondary education. Georgia and New York have separate K-12 and higher education committees in both houses, while Oregon and Florida have committees that oversee both (in both houses). Florida does have K-20 committees, and it will be important to learn from their work over time. Having separate bodies makes policymaking and appropriating funds across sectors very difficult. Appropriations committees are of crucial importance, and they usually have different subcommittees, making it virtually impossible to change the status quo. Higher education governance structures, in general, can be a major impediment to K-16 reform. The variation in state higher education governance is quite large. Some states, such as California have three tiers, while Georgia has a single Board of Regents governing community colleges through research universities. The ways these bodies interact with each other, and with K-12, depend on the history and culture of each state.

Community Colleges Move Away From K12 And Students Suffer

Just as teachers’ colleges moved away from K-12 education over the past century, community colleges have distanced themselves from secondary schools. Today, over 45% of undergraduates attend a community college, an increase of 10% in the last decade . This number has been increasing because of heavy use of community colleges in fast growing states like California, Texas, and Florida. California, for example, enrolls two-thirds of its college freshmen into the community college system . After 1960, community colleges became the primary institution for increasing college opportunity. Originally, community colleges were funded like public schools with mostly local support, state supplements, and no tuition. In California, community colleges originated as part of the local K-12 system and were considered the 13^th and 14^th grades. For some students, however, the four-year systems dictated much of their curricula in order to facilitate transfer . It was not until the 1950s that community colleges across the nation began to have their own governing boards and some were termed junior colleges. Between 1950 and 1970, the number of community colleges more than doubled and enrollment increased from 217,000 to 1,630,000. Between 1969 and 1974, community college enrollment increased by 174 percent contrasted to 47 percent for four-year institutions .

This growth was accompanied by a much expanded mission and a loss of interaction with and focus on secondary education. The colleges expanded their mission to vocational education and community service. New and neglected populations beyond recent high school graduates were added, including displaced housewives, immigrants, older adults, and laid-off industrial workers. The comprehensive community college sent fewer and less clear signals to high school students about necessary academic preparation and skills needed to obtain vocational certificates. The impact of this detachment from secondary education has been profound, with many students entering community college unprepared for its demands. For example, 95 percent of first-time students enrolled in Baltimore City Community Colleges (BCCC) in the fall of 2000 required remediation in math, English, and reading. Nationally, about 60 percent of students entering community colleges require remediation, a major risk factor for non-completion of degree or certificate programs (Adelman, 2001). Of all the English and math courses offered at the community college, 29 percent and 32 percent, respectively, are remedial (Cohen and Brawer, 2003). The majority of the students enrolled in these remedial courses (60%) are of traditional college age and enter the college directly after high school. This implies that the high level of remediation is not just a result of having to refresh the skills of individuals who have been out of school for a while, but also of having to teach skills that were not received in high school. Increasingly, four-year institutions transfer their remediation to community colleges. At least ten states currently discourage four-year universities from offering remedial education by not providing state funding .

Compounding this remediation problem is the fact that many of the students who enter community colleges today fit the characteristics of those who are less likely to have access to college information and preparation. Community colleges serve a large proportion of low-income, ethnic minority, and first-generation college students (Tinto, 2004). According to Stanford’s Bridge Project, student’s from lower SES levels and ethnic minority students are less likely to receive college counseling, be placed in college-preparation courses, and obtain information about college admissions and placement (Kirst and Venezia, 2004).

The lack of college preparation and information possessed by students entering community college is reflected in low transfer and degree completion rates. Although 71 percent of beginning community college students plan to obtain a bachelor’s degree, only about 25 percent transfer to a four-year school (Bradburn and Hurst, 2001). Several studies demonstrate that students who enter community colleges and seek a four-year degree have much lower completion rates than students who proceed directly to a four-year school (Fry, 2004; Cabrera, 2004). Whereas 63 percent of students attending a four-year school earn a bachelor’s degree, only 18% of those who begin in a community college do so (Wellman, 2002).

Despite low transfer and completion rates, community colleges continue to be an attractive option because of their proximity to students’ residence, low enrollment fees, and “open door” policy that admits students with few entrance standards. Unfortunately, students often mistake the “open door” policy to mean that the college has few academic standards. High school students often believe that they are free to enter any community college-level courses, they choose. (Rosenbaum, 2001). However, community colleges often use placement exams for specialties like nursing as well as for general subjects. Stanford’s Bridge Project found that most secondary school students going to community colleges were unaware of college placement standards, and thought their minimal high school graduation standards were adequate preparation (Kirst, Venezia, and Antonio, 2004). High school students view community college as a souped-up high school, even though community colleges must align their courses to four-year transfer standards. Most beginning students do not even learn that they need to take a placement exam until they enter the community college. High school counseling for prospective community college students is particularly weak. They are not told that their high school achievement will affect the amount of time it will take for them to finish transfer requirements, thus decreasing their chances of ever completing college. In short, the colleges that are closest to high school students have stepped as far away from them, with respect to academic preparation, as any four-year institution.

Historical Evolution Of The Curriculum Disjuncture Between K-12 And Postsecondary Education

The origin of the fissure between lower and higher education in the United States stems, in part, from the laudable way the nation created education systems to deliver curriculum for both K-12 and higher education. In the 1890’s there was no organized system or common standards for college admission. Nearly half the colleges had either low entrance requirements or none at all (Ravitch, 2000, p.41). Some colleges accepted students from pre-approved secondary schools or used their own exams. High school educators wanted a more uniform and less haphazard system. In 1892, the National Education Association appointed the nation’s first blue ribbon education commission to recommend secondary school academic standards. The commission included five college presidents, a college professor and the U.S. Commissioner of Education (Ravitch, 2000). The Committee of Ten was chaired by Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard.

The committee envisioned only a tiny proportion of high school graduates going on to college. But the report recommended all pupils should be prepared for any path in life by “melding the objectives of liberal education (i.e. a curriculum of rich content) and mental discipline (i.e. the training of the mind”) (Ravitch, 2003, p.43). The Committee of Ten supported adding subjects like history, the sciences, and classical languages (e.g. Latin) that would be taught through active learning instead of memorization. The report was attacked for its support of an academic education for all students, and some critics praised the European approach of different schools based on career choices of pre-teens.

The Committee of Ten’s report influenced education policy and led to the College Examination Board with its common college examination for diverse colleges. But by 1918 a new report with a very different vision appeared, called the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education. High school enrollments were expanding and many students were viewed as incapable of learning the traditional academic curriculum (Tyack and Cuban, 1995).

The Cardinal Principles were to be a blueprint for social efficiency, and students should be offered vocational training and courses on family life, good health, citizenship, ethical character, and the worthy use of leisure. Students were given intelligence tests to put them in the appropriate academic track. The expanded and differentiated curriculum would retain more bored secondary students and better adapt them to a changing society.

Traditional academic subjects and pedagogy was deemphasized, but courses multiplied to provide something practical and engaging that would retain students in high school. This influential report helped spawn a shopping mall high school that lacked coherence and was not focused upon adequate college preparation for most students (Power, Farrar, and Cohen, 1985). National groups starting in the 1950’s have tried to push the high school curriculum closer to the 1893 Committee of Ten’s vision with mixed results (Kirst and Venezia, 2004). In sum, the American comprehensive high school was designed for many – often conflicting – purposes, and did not focus primarily on college preparation. Today’s comprehensive high school was designed to include, vocational education, the worthy use of leisure, ad many elective courses. High quality college preparation could be relegated to a minority of students, in a track of challenging courses, that now feature advanced placement and honors. Over time the chasm between secondary and postsecondary education in the United States has grown greater than that in many other industrialized nations (Clark, 1985), but before the development of comprehensive high schools, U.S. colleges and universities did play an important role in influencing high school curriculum. In 1900, for example, the College Board set uniform standards for each academic subject and issued a syllabus to help high school students prepare for college entrance subject-matter examinations. Soon after, the University of California began to accredit high schools to make sure that their curricula were adequate for university preparation. As the number of high schools grew rapidly, however, universities could no longer do accreditation. After the number of postsecondary institutions expanded greatly, the regional high school accrediting associations split with higher education accreditation to lessen the workload, but doing so de-emphasized K-16 alignment.

Moreover, in the years after World War II, the notion of academic standards shared across the sectors vanished. “Aptitude” tests like the SAT replaced subject-matter standards for college admission, and secondary schools placed more emphasis on elective courses in nonacademic areas. Today, K-12 faculty and college faculty may belong to the discipline-based professional organizations, but they rarely meet to discuss curricular alignment. K-12 policymakers and higher education policymakers cross paths even less often. It was not until 1982 that the Carnegie Foundation organized the first national meeting ever held between K-12 state school superintendents and college presidents to discuss the growing chasm between them. (Stocking, 1985, p.258). Many groups mediate between high schools and colleges, but they have competing agendas that tend to work against curricular alignment. The number and influence of mediating groups, such as College Board, Educational Testing Service, and American College Testing Program (ACT), is, for Stocking, an indicator of the “amount of disorder and confusion that has grown through the years in the relationship between the school and the university in America” (p. 263).

Today the nationally aligned standards effort across the sectors is the AP (Advanced Placement) program – a stalactite that extends from universities, which dictate the course syllabus and exam. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program attempts to align secondary and postsecondary curriculum, but its scope is limited. Some of the fastest growing courses are college courses in high school such as AP and remedial education in postsecondary education. This suggests that the better high school students are becoming more closely aligned with higher education through AP and IB, but the weaker students are becoming more disconnected. Beyond the AP and IB programs, there are no major efforts to provide curricular coherence and sequencing across secondary schools (Conley, 2005). Nor has anyone proposed a conception of liberal education that related the academic content of the secondary schools to the first two years of college. Instead, students face an eclectic academic muddle in Grades 10-14 (Orrill, 2000) until they select a college major.

Thus, the high school curriculum remains unmoored from the freshman and sophomore college curriculum and from any continuous vision of liberal education that would help students prepare for college coursework. For example, in California, “literature” is the focus of high school English course work for college preparation. But the initial community college courses focus upon grammar and writing, while the University of California stresses rhetoric. Nationally, the policymaking for K-16 has been more concerned with access to postsecondary education than with the academic preparation and college knowledge needed to complete a postsecondary degree or certificate. Access, rather than preparation, is also the theme of many of the professionals who mediate between the high schools and the colleges: high school counselors, college recruiters, and college admissions and financial aid officers.

Does College Ready=Career Ready?

  A major debate is growing about whether secondary students who want to attend technical colleges or work oriented programs in community colleges need the same academic preparation and college placement scores as students who go to four year colleges ,or intend to transfer there from community colleges. Some contend the academic standards should be identical for both groups. Others say the academic prep in high school should be different for students who want to pursue  postsecondary courses in welding or automotive repair. Achieve  Inc. is a national group led by business and Governors that contends there is a “strong convergence” in expectations of employers and colleges, so there should be no difference in standards. But I have never seen the conclusive evidence to support these statements, and wonder if a remediation placement cut score should be the same for all types of postsecondary aspirations. We need better  and more inclusive data from the technical trainers and employers before I will be convinced of equal demands for all types of occupational training and college 4 year degrees. For Achieve”s view see www.Achieve.org May Perspective Newsletter

Georgia Remediation in College Despite High Grades In High School

Teacher Education Enhances Disjuncture Between K-12 and Postsecondary Education

A constant theme of this blog has been the disjuncture between levels of education that causes secondary students to experience different academic standards  and expectations when they reach  broad access colleges. Students enter colleges not knowing about placement exams or what they need to do to be successful. For more on this theme see the Stanford Bridge project at http://bridgeproject.stanford.edu

The disjunture beteen education levels has deep historical roots. One root is teacher preparation for K-12 where the linkage of teacher education programs and the K-12 sector has weakened over time. Elementary teachers were originally prepared in two-year postsecondary normal schools – normal meaning according to rule, model, or pattern. In 1910, there were 264 normal schools enrolling 132,000 students (Dunham, 1969). The next development was from a normal school for elementary teachers to a teachers college to prepare secondary teachers as well. These institutions were linked to K-12 schools, and interactions across K-16 levels were frequent.

But as demands for increasing higher education grew, teachers’ colleges expanded functions and enrollment become multipurpose state colleges, often governed like normal schools by K-12 state boards of education. This growth caused recruitment of arts and sciences professors who sought higher academic prestige. Education schools or departments were typically viewed by the colleges more diverse faculties as having low prestige. The final step was for the former normal college to become a university lacking close contact with K-12 teachers and students except those enrolled in the education school. As institutions of higher education – including teacher education programs themselves – detached from K-12, secondary school students increasingly failed to receive clear signals about college placement exams and about what first-year university students need to know in order to be prepared. Western Michigan University is an example of this institutional evolution. Founded in 1903 as a normal school, it became Western State Teachers College in 1927, Western Michigan College of Education in 1941, and then Western Michigan University in 1957 with 18,500 students in 1969 served by 900 faculty members. The first doctoral degrees were conferred in 1968.

Thus, many former normal schools have become broad-access institutions that typically admit all qualified applicants, but use placement tests for first year students to preserve standards. Secondary school students know that it is easy to get in, but know little about placement tests and curricular demand. An historical irony of this evolution is that postsecondary institutions established to prepare teachers to follow  k12 standards no longer communicate these k12 standards to teachers in enough depth..

Paper Provides Guidance For Research On College Transition

  Policy and discussion on the transition from secondary school to college has exploded in the last decade. But how can we figure out what works and why policy is growing across the states? A new paper by Michael McLendon at Vanderbilt and Donald Heller at Penn State is an outstanding review of much research to date. But their real objective is to provide concepts, data bases, and methods to understand policy diffusion and impact in the 50 states. This is the best compilation I have seen for scholars of state policy, and enumerates the needed data. But this kind of large scale research is difficult to implement as the authors stress.

 See Educational Policy, volume 23, No.2 , March 2009. On line at http://online.sagepub.com