College and Career Ready
Resources for Teacher
Educators
DAVID W. TEST
NATIONAL SECONDARY TRANSITION
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
JOANNE CASHMAN
IDEA PARTNERSHIP
MINDEE O’CUMMINGS
THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CENTER
The Issue
 All students access high school curriculum
 Legislative mandates and initiatives in high schools
include and impact students with disabilities
 Postsecondary education outcomes are not good
Summary of Graduation and College Preparedness by Ethnicity
College
Preparedness
Variable
African
American
Hispanic
1. On-time grad.
with regular
diploma
55%
58%
78%
2. Left prepared for
college
23%
20%
40%
White
CCR: Reauthorizing NCLB/ESEA
 “Every student should graduate from high school
ready for college and a career, every student should
have meaningful opportunities to choose from upon
graduation from high school.” President Obama in
Blueprint for Success, 2010
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html
 The administration has a goal that by 2020, the U.S.
will return to having the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world
So What’s Happening?
 Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and
National Governors Association (NGA) developed
and then released the Common Core State
Standards June 2010
 “fewer, clearer, higher”
 Federal grant funds: Race to the Top and Investing
in Innovation required use of CCSS for applicants
 Currently 45 states & Washington, D.C. have
adopted the standards
Assessment Consortia: General Assessments
 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers (PARCC)
 Fiscal state: Florida (26 States)
 Management partner: Achieve
 Amount: $186 million
 SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
 Fiscal state: Washington (31 States)
 Management partner: WestEd
 Amount: $176 million
Rooney, 2011
PARCC States
SBAC States
Assessment Consortia:
Alternate Assessment
 Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment
System Consortium (DLMAASC)
 University of Kansas (13 states)
 National Center and State Collaborative
Partnership (NCSC)
 University of Minnesota (3 centers and 19
States)
Dynamic Map States
NCSC States
Assessment Implementation
 2011-2012 School Year
 Technology audit of states and districts
 Writing and piloting test items
 Create item bank and digital resources
 Develop participation and accommodations policies
 Begin teacher institutes in “governing” states
 2012-2013 & 2013-2014 School Years
 Enlarge field testing
 Continue state and educator professional development
 Design and implement test platform
 Setting performance level descriptors
 2014-2015: first live administration
Are College and Career Ready the same?
 Academic skills only?
 Some suggest that being Career Ready involves
more than core academic skills.
 What about employability skills and technical, jobspecific skills?
 “Soft-skills” – problem solving, communication,
teamwork, technology, adaptability…
www.academicinnovations.com/report.html
College Readiness
 Key cognitive strategies
 Academic knowledge
and skills
 Academic behaviors
 Contextual skills and
awareness
Conley (2007)
Career Readiness
 Work Based Learning Experiences (Luecking,2009)
 Career Exploration
 Job Shadowing
 Work Sampling
 Service Learning
 Internships
 Apprenticeships
 Paid employment
 Self-Determination (Kearns et al., 2011)
 Conley (2007) components of college readiness expanded to
include self-determination
Can we Find the Right Balance?
 Need for standards
Standards
Transition
Writing
Employment
Reading
Life Skills
Math
SelfDetermination
Standardized
Individualized
 Individualized to
preferences,
interests, and
needs
 Shift as students
get closer to
graduation
Anxiety
“…While I like the idea of everyone in the
nation finally (with skepticism) being taught
and held to the same academic standards, I
wonder how that will have an impact on
students with exceptionalities…” (Richard,
on CEC blog)
Emerging Guidance
 College and Career Ready 101 at
www.nsttac.org
 CCSS Collection at www.ideapartnership.org
 College and Career Development Organizer
at www.betterhighschools.org
NSTTAC’s College & Career Readiness 101
 College and Career Ready Standards
 Career Ready Standards
 SCANS Skills
 Career Clusters/Essential Standards
 Related Initiatives
 21st Century Skills
 Next Generation Learners
 P-16: Cradle to College and Career Ready
 Race to the Top
 Examples of infusing transition skills into CCSS
Infusing Secondary Transition Skills
into CCSS Table
Making Curricular Content
More Meaningful and Relevant
Standard:
Congruence:
Experiment with
transformations in the
plane
Academic Context:
Geometry class
Real life Skill:
Setting the table
Instruction:
Teach students about transformations in the plane using a place setting.
Real Life Skill:
Transformations in the Plane
Slide
Rotation
NSTTAC Homepage
CCR Document for Download/Print
IDEA Partnership Resources
 Partnership Collection on Common Core State
Standards
 www.ideapartnership.org
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Guiding Principles
Fact Sheet
Grounding Assumptions
Needs of the Field
Glossary
Resource Guide
PowerPoint
Dialogue Guide
Partnership Collections
An Introduction
Bridging tools to…
 Translate
 Build
research to practice
understanding
 Use common language
 Use by any stakeholder
 Engage all stakeholders
To provide information…
 Fact
Sheet
 Glossary
 Resource Guide
 PowerPoint with
Presenter Guide
Fact Sheet
Tools and
materials
available in the
collection
Glossary
User-friendly,
plain English,
definitions
Resource Guide
Relevant
resources,
annotated for
ease of use
Power Point
with
Presenter Guide
Critical
information and
supports for the
presenter
To initiate discussion…
 Needs of
the Field
 Grounding
 Guiding
Assumptions
Principles
Needs of the Field
Gaps between
current practice
and vision of
effective
implementation
in the future
Grounding
Assumptions
Fundamental
concepts that
ground
implementation
of the work
Guiding
Principles
Role definition
and guidance
in content
development
To engage deeply…
 Essential
Elements
 Dialogue
Guides
Essential
Elements
Parameters of
working together
Dialogue
Guides
Focused
interactive
conversations
To grow the work nationally…
 Your
voice
Looking at each component…
 Fact Sheet
 Grounding Assumptions
 Glossary
 Guiding Principles
 Resource List
 Essential Elements
 PowerPoint with
Presenter Guide
 Dialogue Guides
 Needs of the Field
 Your Voice
National High School Center
College and Career Ready
Resources for Teacher Educators
Mindee O’Cummings, Ph.D.
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
CCR Technical Assistance
Network At-a-Glance
IES
Regional
Labs
OSEP
TA&D
Centers
including
NSTTAC and
IDEA
Partnership
Content Comprehensive
Centers including the
National High School Center
16 Regional Comprehensive
Centers (RCCs)
State Education Agencies
Local Education Agencies
CCR
TA and
Service
Providers,
Resource
Developers,
and
Stakeholder
Groups
Local High Schools
CCR High School Students
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
CCR Challenges
1. What it means to be college and/or career ready
is neither explicit, shared, nor easily measurable
2. The mission, organization, structures, and
cultures of many high schools aren’t currently
designed to support CCR for ALL students
3. A wide variety of service providers and
implementers are targeting specific components
of the broader CCR landscape with only minimal
alignment of their efforts
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
CCR Definitions Word Cloud
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
College and Career Development
Organizer
• Goals and Expectations - College and Career Readiness
– Core Content
– Pathways Content
– Lifelong Learning Skills
• Pathways and Supports - College and Career Preparation
– Personalized Learning Supports
– Rigorous Programs of Study
– Aligned Resources, Structures, and Supports
• Outcomes and Measures - College and Career Success
– On-track Indicators
– Attainment and Authentication
– Accountability and Improvement Feedback
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
Organizer and Additional College
and Career Readiness Resources
The Organizer and accompanying resources are located on the
National High School Center’s Web site at:
http://www.betterhighschools.org/CCR/overview.asp
– College and Career Development Organizer [Brief]
– Goals and Expectations for College and Career
Readiness: What Should Students Know and Be Able to Do?
– Pathways and Supports for College and Career Preparation:
What Policies, Programs, and Structures Will Help High School
Graduates Meet Expectations?
– Outcomes and Measures for College and Career Success: How
Do We Know When High School Graduates Meet
Expectations?
– College and Career Readiness Action Planning Template
– Defining College and Career Readiness: A Resource Guide
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
College and Career Readiness
Community of Practice
• Open online community for technical assistance
(TA) providers and education stakeholders
interested in college and career readiness
implementation.
• Members of this interactive group can:
– Interact with college and career readiness resources and
tools as “social objects”
– Participate in discussions around college and career
readiness resources, strategies, and initiatives
– Learn about upcoming events
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
College and Career Readiness
Community of Practice
http://community.betterhighschools.org/
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
College and Career Readiness
Community of Practice
• Use the navigation buttons on the group’s main page to:
– Interact with college and career readiness resources
– Interact with other members in discussion forums
– Get information on college and career readiness events
– Get tips for participating with the community
– Ask for support
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
College and Career Readiness
Archived Webinar Series
http://betterhighschools.org/webinar/default.aspx#CCRWebinars
1. The Complexity of College and Career Readiness
2. College and Career Readiness and Linked Learning (cohosted with the Alliance for Excellent Education)
3. College and Career Readiness and Students with Disabilities
4. Aligning Resources, Structures and Supports for Actualizing
College and Career Readiness
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
For more information.....
For more information on the National High School
Center, please visit us online at
www.betterhighschools.org
Follow us on Twitter @NHSCatAIR
Become our Fan on Facebook
Find us on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NHSCenterMedia
Visit our Blog, http://blog.betterhighschools.org
©2012
American Institutes for Research®
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•www.betterhighschools.org
Discussion Questions
1. How you might use the resources presented in your role as
teacher educator/personnel development provider?
2. How can we best prepare professionals to provide secondary
students with skills necessary to become college and career
ready?
3. What are the barriers to preparing professionals to provide
secondary students with skills necessary to become college and
career ready?
4. How can we help develop knowledge of the complexities related
to CCR that have been discussed in the session?
Additional Resources
 www.corestandards.org – resources and current
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information on the adoption and implementation of the
Common Core State Standards
www.commoncore.org – a curriculum mapping project for
resources regarding instruction and curriculum design,
associated with the Core Standards
www.ideapartnership.org - Collection on Core Standards
www.nsttac.org 101 Documents on Secondary Special
Education issues, including College and Career Readiness
www.cast.org
www.careertech.org
www.p21.org
www.ncwd-youth.org
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetopassessment/index.html
www.parcconline.org; http://www.k12.wa.us/smarter/
Contact Us
David W. Test
dwtest@uncc.edu, 704-687-88853
www.nsttac.org
Joanne Cashman
joanne.cashman@nasdse.org, 703-519-3800
www.ideapartnership.org
Mindee O’Cummings
mocummings@air.org,
www.betterhighschools.org