New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools
Rethinking College and Career Ready Testimony
Before the State Board of Education May 19,2010
In the coming months, the State Board of Education will be asked to consider the
adoption of "common core" standards for math and language arts literacy. At the high
school level, these standards seek to define the skills and knowledge all students need to be
"college and career ready." I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the NJ
Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools' position on the common core standards,
as well as some evolving national debate about what it means to be college and career
ready.
As outlined in the attached submission to the National Governor's Association and
Council of Chief State School Officers, the latest draft of the math standards took a step in
the right direction by recognizing that there is not a single set of high school math
standards appropriate for every youngster. Differentiating between the math content
needed by students pursuing advanced studies and careers in the STEM fields and the
content appropriate for students with non-STEM goals is a positive approach that will help
educators, students and parents understand the mathematical skills needed for success in
college and beyond.
However, we remain concerned that the draft standards include many elements that
are not essential skills and knowledge for all students. The central question that applies
well beyond consideration of the common core standards is how should college and career
readiness be defined for the purpose of setting curriculum standards and graduation
requirements?
. Is it readiness to succeed at a competitive four-year college?
. Is it readiness to enter credit-bearing academic courses at a public
.
college/university or a community college, with no need for remedial courses in
college?
Is it adequate preparation for technical training or success in the workplace?
The Council believes the appropriate benchmark for defining the standards all
students should achieve by the end of 12th grade is the knowledge and skills that will
enable students to graduate from high scllOol ready to succeed in credit-bearing
academic college courses, workforce training programs, and entry-level jobs. Our
concern is that while improved, the draft common core standards still exceed this
benchmark, including many concepts that may be desirable but not essential for all
students to master.
210 West State Street - Trenton - New Jersey - 08608 609-392-6222
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This has significant implications because these standards will ultimately drive high-stakes
exams that detennine whether students graduate from high school. If New Jersey adopts common
core standards, multi-state exams will soon follow. If these exams measure too many skills that
exceed the entry-level college benchmark, emphasis will shift from foundational skills that
students need for successful entry into collegiate study or the workplace to the higher-level skills
measured on the exams. Setting the bar too high could have the unintended consequence of
squeezing out time available for career and technical education programs, trustrating marginal
students who cannot pass graduation exams, and even reducing student's facility with basic
calculations due to over-reliance on calculators.
Is College and Career-Readiness the Same?
The Association for Career and Technical Education points out in a new paper that being
ready for credit-bearing college work is not necessarily synonymous with career readiness.
ACTE notes that in addition to academic skills, career-ready students must be able to apply
academics in context, demonstrate 21st century skills such as critical thinking, adaptability and
problem-solving, and have some job-specific skills. While the large majority of students who
graduated from county vocational-technical schools last year went on to postsecondary
education, we believe that New Jersey must continue to provide opportunities for students who
want or need to move directly into the workplace after high school. While such students need
strong academic skills, they also need a chance to apply learning in a hands-on environment and
build career-ready skills. CTE programs provide this critical opportunity.
For your infonnation, I have attached two recent articles from the New York Times and
the Associated Press citing experts who question whether college after high school should be the
goal for every student. Both articles point to the high cost of college and poor completion rates,
and recognize that technical training leading to a certificate is a valuable alternative for many
individuals. Some students may opt to pursue a degree as part of advanced career training, while
others will benefit from continued technical training that does not tenninate in a college degree.
As the Board moves forward with consideration of common core standards, we ask you to
keep the college and career readiness question in mind. The bar should be set at an appropriate
level to prepare students for entry into college or workforce training. While all students need
strong academic foundations and 21st century skills, not everyone needs to master the advanced
mathematical concepts included in the draft common standards. Please ensure that New Jersey
does not adopt multi-state standards that are not appropriate for all students. We must not limit
opportunities for those who wish to pursue career and technical education, or other pathways that
will lead to a fulfilling and sustainable career.
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N
ational dialogue has escalated around the concepts of
college and career readiness. Influential national and
state policymakers have called for high schools to prepare students to be ready for both college and a career.
But what do these terms really mean?
All too often, the terms "career ready" and .college ready" are used
interchangeably, and discussions around career readiness are lim
ited to traditional academic skills that allow students to successfully
enroll in postsecondary education. While there is no debate that a
rigorous level of academic proficiency, especially in math and literacy,
is essential for any post-high school endeavor, the reality is that it takes
much more to be truly considered ready for a career.
Career readiness involves three major skill areas; core academic
skills and the ability to apply those skills to concrete situations in
order to function in the workplace and in routine daily activities; employability skills (such as critical thinking and responsibility) that are
essential in any career area; and technical, job-specific skills related to
a specific career pathway. These skills have been emphasized across
numerous pieces of research and allow students to enter true career
pathways that offer family-sustaining wages and opportunities for
advancement.
ACADEMIC SKILLS
As has been documented by such organizations as ACT and
Achieve, career-ready core academics and college-ready core
academics are essentially the same, thus creating overlap in the
preparation students need to be ready for postsecondary education
and careers.' All students need foundational academic knowledge,
especially in math and English language arts, and, in today's eco
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nomic environment, all high school students need the academic skills
necessary to pursue postsecondary education without remediationthe
measure many consider .college readiness."
However, to truly be career-ready, students also need to be able to
apply academics in context, and some academic skills need more
attention and development. For example, employers often cite deficiencies in English and written communications, such as memos,
letters and complex technical reports. This supports the idea that
most of the written material students will encounter in their careers
is informational in nature, such as technical manuals and research
articles, and they must be equipped academically to analyze and
use these materials. Too often, these skills are not emphasized in
traditional academic classrooms. Workplace deficiencies in math are
also commonly noted, with more attention needed on areas such as
data analysis and statistics, reasoning, and solving mathematical
problems.2
Students must also be able to apply academic knowledge to authentic
situations they may face in their careers, a skill that takes practice and
intentional instruction that may need to be tailored to a student's
specific career goals. For example, students preparing to be nurses
need to be able to calculate and apply ratios, proportions, rates and
percentages to determine drug dosages,3 while construction students
need to be able to apply geometrical principles to design and implement building plans.
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Employability skills have often been cited by employers as the skills
most critical to workplace success in the 21 st-century economy.
These skills include (but are not limited to) critical thinking, adaptabiJ
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ity, problem soMng, oral and written communications,
collaboration and teamwork, creativity, responsibility,
professionalism, ethics, and technology use. Numerous groups have
worked with business and industry leaders to identify employability
skills critical to employee success, including the 1990 U.S.
Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills that produced the report "What Work Requires of
Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000," and, more recently,
such groups as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
The report "Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing
Workforce;4 by SHRM, stated that, "Overall, employers placed the
greatest weight on employee adaptability and critical thinking skills.
HR (human resource) professionals and employees both reported
that adaptability/flexibility and critical thinkingJproblem-soMng skiDs
were of greatest importance now compared with two years ago."
In the 2006 report, "Are They Really Ready to Work?,"5 employability
skills "dominate rankings of knowledge and skills expected to increase
in importance over the next five years." Employers identified critical
thinking/problem soMng, information~technology application,
teamwork/collaboration, creativitylinnovation and diversity as the top
five such skills.
Students must be provided opportunities to gain these skills and to
learn to apply them to real-world life and work situations. Many of
these employability skills are also necessary for "college readiness;
creating some additional overlap between the two areas.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
In order to actually be considered ready to enter a career, an individual
must also possess at least some level of job-specific knowledge and
skills. In the National Association of Manufacturers 2005 Skills Gap
Report, "technical skills" was the top response to the question, "What
types of skills will employees need more of over the next three
years?"6 While many career opportunities include a strong element of
on-the-job training, some of these technical or industry-based skills
must be acquired in advance. For example, technical skills are
required for licensure in many professions, such as in most health care
fields, or for broader industry certifications, such as the American
Welding Society's Certified Welder credential.
represent what students need to know and be able to do to be successful in the specified career area. While some of the statements
cover the academic and employability-related areas discussed above,
there are also key technical skills highlighted. The cluster-level skill
statements are very broad, providing students with a foundation of
knowledge that could be applied in numerous related careers. More
specific pathway-level skills begin to hone students' abifities in a more
defined career area.
CONCLUSION
Since most of the career opportunities for today's students will require
some form of postsecondary education, there are many times when
students will not be able to acquire the necessary academic, technical
or employability skills in high school that will allow them to be
career-ready without further education and training. Additional
knowledge and specialization in one or more of these areas is often
required either immediately after high school or in the future, depending
on a studenfs career choices.
However, regardless of a studenfs path, it takes all three of these
broad skill sets for students to be ready for a career. Twenty-first
century high schools should focus on providing all students a strong
foundation across all three areas so they are prepared for whatever
their lives may bring.
ENDNOTES
I Achieve, Inc., "What is College. and Career-Ready?: www.achleve.orgl
filesiConegeandCareerReady.pdf.
2 Olsen, Lynn, 'What Does 'Ready' Mean?: Education Week. www.
educationaDJance.orglStateScholarslDownloadsl
WhatDoesReadyMean.pdf. 3 Olsen, Lynn, 'What Does 'Ready' Mean?' 4 Society for
Human Resource Management, .Critical Skills Needs and
Resources for the Changing Workforce: Keeping Skills Competitive.' www.
shnn.orgJResearchiSurvf!!YFlndlngsiArticlesIPagesi CriticaISkinsNeeds.aspx.
5 The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for WOIIdng Families. Partnership for 21st
Century Sktlls, and the Society for Human Resource Management, 'Are They Really
Ready to Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowfedge and Applied Skills
of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S.
Workforce,' www.21stcenturyskills.org/documentslFlNAl_REPORT_ PDFIJ9.~6.pdf. .
6 National Association of Manufacturers. '2005 Skills Gap Report
- A SUlVey
of the American Manufacturing Workforce.' www.nam.org/-/medial
Filesls_nam/d0csJ2358001235731.pdf.ashx.
7 Stales Career Clusters Initiative, J..careerclusters.org.
Through the States Career Clusters Initialive7, business and industry
leaders have identified key knowledge and skill statements across 16
career clusters and 79 more-specific pathways. These statements
.Association for Career and Technical Education
. 1410 King Street Alexandna, VA 22314 . 800-826-9~72 . ~at 703-683-7424 . www.acteonline.org
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College for all? Experts say
not necessarily
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ~ May 13,2010
-
COLUMBIA, MO.
In a town dominated by the
University of Missouri's flagship campus and two
smaller colleges, higher education is practically a
birthright for high school seniors like Kate Hodges.
She has a 3.5 grade-point-average, a college savings
account and a family tree teeming with advanced degrees.
But in June, Hodges is headed to the Tulsa Welding School
in Oklahoma, where she hopes to earn an associate's degree
in welding technology in seven months.
an extra two years to finish, that group's graduation rate
increased only to 57 percent.
Spending more time in school also means greater
overall student debt. The average student debt load
in 2008 was $23,200 a nearly $5,000 increase 0
ver five years. Two-thirds of students graduating
from four-year schools owe money on student
-
loans.
And while the unemployment rate for college
graduates still trails the rate for high school graduates
(4.9 percent versus 10.8 percent), the figure has more
than doubled in less than two years.
-
'They fought me so hard," she said, referring to
disappointed family members. 'They still think I'm
going to college."
The notion that a four-year degree is essential for real
success is being challenged by a growing . number of
economists, policy analysts and academics. They say
more Americans should consider other options such as
technical training or two-year schools, which have been
embraced in Europe for decades.
As evidence, experts cite rising student debt, stagnant
graduation rates and a struggling job market flooded
with overqualified degree-holders. They pose a
fundamental question: Do too many students go to
college?
"College is what every parent wants for their child," said
Martin Scaglione, president and chief operating officer of
work force development for ACT, the lowabased
not-for-profit best known for its college entrance exam.
'The reality is, they may not be ready for college."
President Baraek Obama wants to restore the
country's status as the world leader in the proportion
of citizens with college degrees. The U.S. now ranks
10th among industrial nations, behind Canada,
Japan, Korea and several European countries.
"A four-year degree in business whafs that get you?"
asked Karl Christopher, a placement counselor at the
Columbia Area Career Center vocational program. "A shift
supervisor position at a store in the mall."
At Rock Bridge High School, one of Columbia's two high
schools, 72 percent of the class of 2008 moved on to
four-year colleges, with another 10 percent attending
community college. That college attendance rate is
consistent with national statistics.
Only 4 percent of Rock Bridge students chose technical
training like the Oklahoma welding school where
Hodges is headed.
Roughly 1,200 students from central Missouri take
classes at the career center, supplementing their
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core high school courses with specialized training in
automotive technology, culinary arts, animal science,
robotics, landscape design, electrical wiring and more.
Hodges has been set on a welding career since she was 13.
She craves independence and has little patience for fellow
students who seem to wind up in college more from a
sense of obligation than anything else.
"School is what they've been doing their whole
lives," she said. "So they just want to continue.
Because that's what they are used to."
Sue Popkes doesn't hide her disappointment over her
younger daughter's decision. At the same time, she realizes
that Hodges may achieve more financial security than a
college degree could ever provide.
"It's sad to know she's going to miss that mindopening
effect of an undergraduate degree," Popkes said. "To
discover new ideas, to become more worldly." .
Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder
blames the cultural notion of "credential inflation" for
the stream of unqualified students into four-year
colleges. His research has found that the number of new
jobs requiring college degrees is less than number of
college graduates.
AID=/20
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Page 2 of3
college," she said at a National Press Club forum
earlier this year. 'We Americans greatly believe that
education is the great equalizer."
For many, the dream of earning a college degree and the
social acceptance that comes with that accomplishment
trumps a more analytical, costbenefits approach.
-
John Reynolds, a Florida State sociology professor, found
that unrealized educational expectations do not lead to
depression or other long-term emotional costs.
-
"Rich kids, poor kids, 'A' students, 'C' students we
really didn't find any lasting impact on not getting the
degree," he said.
Scaglione suggested that nothing short of a new
definition for educational success is needed to diminish
the public bias toward four-year degrees. He advocates
"certification as the new education currency
documentation of skills as opposed to mastering
curriculum."
-
"Our national system is, 'Do you have a degree or not?'"
he said. "That doesn't really measure if you have
skills."
Vedder's work also yielded something surprising: The
more money states spend on higher education, the less the
economy grows the reverse of longheld assumptions.
-
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"If people want to go out and get a master's degree in
history and then cut down trees for a living, that's fine,"
he said, citing an example from a recent
encounter with a worker. "But I don't think the public
should be subsidizing it."
Margaret Spellings, former federal education secretary
under George W. Bush, remains a strong proponent of
increased college access. She points to research showing
that college graduates will on average earn $1 million
more over a lifetime than those with only high school
degrees.
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Plan B
- Skip College - NYTimes.com
~bt ~t\tJ Uork €imu.
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May 14, 2010
Plan B: Skip College
By JACQUES STEINBERG
WHAT'S the key to success in the United States?
Short of becoming a reality TV star, the answer is rote and, some would argue, rather knee-jerk: Earn
a college degree.
The idea that four years of higher education will translate into a better job, higher earnings and a
happier life - a refrain sure to be repeated this month at graduation ceremonies across the country has been pounded into the heads of schoolchildren, parents and educators. But there's an underside to
that conventional wisdom. Perhaps no more than half of those who began a four-year bachelor's
degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest
projections from the Department of Education. (The figures don't include transfer students, who
aren't tracked.)
For college students who ranked among the bottom quarter of their high school classes, the numbers
are even more stark: 80 percent will probably never get a bachelor's degree or even a two-year
associate's degree.
That can be a lot of tuition to pay, without a degree to show for it.
A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some
students, no college at all. It's time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to
be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.
Whether everyone in college needs to be there is not a new question; the subject has been hashed
out in books and dissertations for years. But the economic crisis has sharpened that focus, as
financially struggling states cut aid to higher education.
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- Skip College - NYTimes.com
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Among those calling for such alternatives are the economists Richard K. Vedder of Ohio University
and Robert 1. Lerman of American University, the political scientist Charles Murray, and James E.
Rosenbaum, an education professor at Northwestern. They would steer some students toward
intensive, short-term vocational and career training, through expanded high school programs and
corporate apprenticeships.
"It is true that we need more nanosurgeons than we did 10 to 15 years ago," said Professor Vedder,
founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a research nonprofit in Washington.
"But the numbers are still relatively small compared to the numbers of nurses' aides we're going to
need. We will need hundreds of thousands of them over the next decade."
And much of their training, he added, might be feasible outside the college setting.
College degrees are simply not necessary for many jobs. Of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the
fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven typically require a bachelor's
degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Among the top 10 growing job categories, two require college degrees: accounting (a bachelor's) and
postsecondary teachers (a doctorate). But this growth is expected to be dwarfed by the need for
registered nurses, home health aides, customer service representatives and store clerks.
None of those jobs require a bachelor's degree.
Professor Vedder likes to ask why 15 percent of mail carriers have bachelor's degrees, according to a
1999 federal study.
"Some of them could have bought a house for what they spent on their education, " he said.
Professor Lerman, the American University economist, said some high school graduates would be
better served by being taught how to behave and communicate in the workplace.
Such skills are ranked among the most desired - even ahead of educational attainment - in many
surveys of employers. In one 2008 survey of more than 2,000 businesses in Washington State,
employers said entry-level workers appeared to be most deficient in being able to "solve problems
and make decisions," "resolve conflict and negotiate," "cooperate with others" and "listen actively."
Yet despite the need, vocational programs, which might teach such skills, have been one
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- Skip College - NYTimes.com
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casualty in the push for national education standards, which has been focused on
preparing students for college.
While some educators propose a radical renovation of the community college system to teach work
readiness, Professor Lerman advocates a significant national investment by government and
employers in on-the-job apprenticeship training. He spoke with admiration, for example, about a
program in the CVS pharmacy chain in which aspiring pharmacists' assistants work as apprentices
in hundreds of stores, with many going on to study to become full-fledged pharmacists themselves.
"The health field is an obvious case where the manpower situation is less than ideal," he said. "I
would try to work with some of the major employers to develop these kinds of programs to yield
mastery in jobs that do demand high expertise."
While no country has a perfect model for such programs, Professor Lerman pointed to a modest study
of a German effort done last summer by an intern from that country. She found that of those who
passed the Abitur, the exam that allows some Germans to attend college for almost no tuition, 40
percent chose to go into apprenticeships in trades, accounting, sales management, and computers.
"Some of the people coming out of those apprenticeships are in more demand than college
graduates," he said, "because they've actually managed things in the workplace."
Still, by urging that some students be directed away from four-year colleges, academics like
Professor Lerman are touching a third rail of the education system. At the very least, they could be
accused oflowering expectations for some students. Some critics go further, suggesting that the
approach amounts ~o educational redlining, since many of the students who drop out of college are
black or non-white Hispanics.
Peggy Williams, a counselor at a high school in suburban New York City with a student body that
is mostly black or Hispanic, understands the argument for erring on the side of pushing more
students toward college.
"If we're telling kids, 'You can't cut the mustard, you shouldn't go to college or university,' then
we're shortchanging them from experiencing an environment in which they might grow," she said.
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But Ms. Williams said she would be more willing to counsel some students away from the
precollege track if her school, Mount Vernon High School, had a better vocational education
alternative. Over the last decade, she said, courses in culinary arts, nursing, dentistry and heating
and ventilation system repair were eliminated. Perhaps 1 percent of this year's graduates will
complete a concentration in vocational courses, she said, compared with 40 percent a decade ago.
There is another rejoinder to the case against college: People with college and graduate degrees
generally earn more than those without them, and face lower risks of unemployment, according to
figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Even those who experience a few years of college earn more money, on average, with less risk of
unemployment, than those who merely graduate from high school, said Morton Schapiro, an
economist who is the president of Northwestern University.
"You get some return even if you don't get the sheepskin, " Mr. Schapiro said.
He warned against overlooking the intangible benefits of a college experience - even an
incomplete experience - for those who might not apply what they learned directly to their
chosen work.
"It's not just about the economic return," he said. "Some college, whether you complete it or not,
contributes to aesthetic appreciation, better health and better voting behavior."
Nonetheless, Professor Rosenbaum said, high school counselors and teachers are not doing
enough to alert students unlikely to earn a college degree to the perilous road ahead.
"I'm not saying don't get the B.A," he said. "I'm saying, let's get them some intervening
credentials, some intervening milestones. Then, if they want to go further in their education, they
can."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 17, 2010
An earlier version of this article misspelled Morton Schapiro's last name as Shapiro on the second
reference.
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New Jersey Council of County
Vocational-Technical Schools
Comments on Updated Common Core Math Standards
April!,2010
The NJ Council of County V ocational- Technical Schools appreciates the consideration given to
the comments submitted last fall and the opportunity to review and comment again on the updated
common core math standards. As previously stated, our association of 21 county-based area technical
school districts serving approximately 30,000 secondary students acknowledges the value of common core
math standards that can be adopted by multiple states. Establishing rigorous standards for what all
students should know and be able to do each year through high school graduation will drive educational
improvement and enhance student achievement across the nation.
The revised standards took a step in the right direction by recognizing that there is not a single set
of high school math standards appropriate for every youngster. The mathematical knowledge and skills
that a student needs to be "college and career-ready" depend to some degree on the type of college and/or
career the student seeks to pursue. A student aiming at engineering studies at MIT needs different math
skills than a student who plans to pursue a four-year liberal arts degree or a student who plans to enter the
workforce or pursue advanced technical training. Differentiating between the math content needed by
students pursuing advanced studies and careers in the STEM fields and the content appropriate for students
with non-STEM goals is a positive approach that will help educators, students and parents understand the
mathematical skills needed for success in college and beyond.
The standards designated as STEM are at an extremely high level that reaches beyond what is
currently required in most New Jersey high schools, including many highly competitive county
vocational-technical school career academies. A student's mastery of the high-level STEM objectives
will depend upon mastery of Algebra 1 concepts by the end of eighth grade. Top students will be able to
achieve these standards over time, as the level of rigor in K-8 is increased and more students enter high
school with strong algebra skills.
While the differentiation is positive, we remain concerned that the proposed common core
standards for non-STEM students include some concepts and content that are not essential for all students
to achieve college or career readiness. Of particular concern are career and technical education (CTE)
students preparing for employment or continued technical studies at the collegiate or apprenticeship level.
Work-bound students represent 16% ofNJ county vocational-technical school graduates last year, and these
students will suffer immeasurably if forced to pursue a college-preparatory math program at the
expense ofCTE studies and job-related math skills that develop marketable employment skills and lead to
industry-recognized certifications. New Jersey's CTE educators hear over and over again from employers
that what they value (and many students lack) are basic math skills, such as the ability to use mathematical
operations without a calculator, facility with fractions, decimals and measurement. Basic
algebra and geometry skills are also essential for work-bound students, and these elements are being
infused and reinforced in CTE classrooms with increasing frequency and success.
Career and technical school math educators have expressed concerns that many of the concepts
addressed in the non-STEM objectives go beyond content normally covered in Algebra 2 and extend into
pre-calculus territory. For example, some of the objectives associated with logarithms, exponential
functions, and polynomials and rational expressions extend well beyond what required for entry into the
workplace, apprenticeship or two-year college. Many students will derive more benefit from reinforcement
in basic mathematics, as well as increased focus on the practical applications of algebra and geometry, than
from progressing to more complex concepts.
Math specialists who reviewed the standards raised concerns about the numerous objectives that
would require students to "understand" a particular math concept. It is difficult to measure "understanding,"
which leaves a question as to what content mastery is expected. For example, the objective "understand
that solutions to a linear inequality in two variables can be graphed as a half-plane" is unclear about
whether it intends students to "identifY linear inequalities with two variables graphed as a half plane," or
students to be able to "graph linear inequalities with two variables as a half plane." We recommend that the
term "understand" be replaced throughout by a more precise statement of what students will be expected to
demonstrate, such as students will "evaluate," students will "analyze," or students will ''use (concept) to
calculate and explain." While many students might ''understand'' complex mathematical concepts, the
challenge will be to demonstrate mastery on an assessment.
Though not stated in the standards, it is our understanding that a fundamental goal of the common
core math standards is to drive multi-state assessments. Again, this makes sense, but standards and the
assessments they drive must be appropriate for all students. A multi-state assessment keyed to the proposed
common core math standards for college and career readiness would be far beyond what is required by
New Jersey's High School Proficiency Assessment. Last year, only 43% of black students and 56% of
Hispanic students passed the HSPA math exam. Until at-risk students in New Jersey and other states are
able to demonstrate mastery of existing requirements, raising the bar to demand even higher level skills for
high school graduation will have a devastating impact on our most vulnerable students.
With respect to the model for several potential sequences of math courses, the NJ Council of
County Vocational-Technical Schools suggests the following:
. Greater differentiation is needed between pathway A and B.
. Pathway B should have more practical options for non-STEM students, including coursework that
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will deepen knowledge and applications of basic algebra and geometry. Some of the "precalculus"
alternatives such as discrete mathematics and linear algebra are well beyond what would be
appropriate and meaningful for work-bound students and college-bound students not desiring to
pre for calculus. The only relevant third year option to the career bound student seemed to be
"Financial Management." These students need the option of devoting more time to technical and
applied math, rather than statistics, modeling, or discrete mathematics.
While all students should have the option of four years of math, no state should be required to adopt
a four-year math requirement as a condition of participating in the common core standards
initiative.
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The NJ Council of County V ocational- Technical Schools respectfully recommends that the
leadership of the common core standards initiative seek to actively engage the CTE community in a
thorough review of the math standards and model course sequence to get broader input about the math
skills and concepts that are essential for students pursuing CTE programs of study leading to
postsecondary credentials, and how these key standards can and should be addressed in that context.
Absent a coordinated effort to identifY common core math standards that align with essential CTE skills
and knowledge, we will end up with disjointed requirements that fail to serve students and their future
employers.
On behalf ofNJ's 21 county vocational-technical schools and nearly 30,000 enrolled secondary
students, we appreciate the opportunity to comment again on the common core math standards. We believe
that solid progress has been made in differentiating the standards for STEM and non-STEM students, but
further work is needed to ensure that the standards are appropriate for all students, especially those with a
clear career focus.
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