Education Week - January 23, 2019 - 15

States Using Post-High School Readiness as ESSA Yardstick
Still some soft spots
in how they apply it
By Alyson Klein
Participating in dual enrollment.
Getting a certain score on the ACT
or Advanced Placement. Meeting
entrance requirements for the state
university system. Snagging an
industry-recognized certification.
Proving "military-readiness." Participating in work-based learning.
Nearly every state is gauging
school performance in part by
whether students show that they
are ready for life after high school.
A big part of the reason: States had
to choose at least one measure of
school quality or student success-
something beyond test scores-
under the Every Student Succeeds
Act. Career readiness was by far one
of the most popular choices.
In fact, a total of 44 states are
looking at college and/or career
readiness somewhere in their accountability systems, whether for
ESSA or under state systems for
rating schools, according to a forthcoming analysis by Education Strategy Group, an organization that
works with states on K-12 and postsecondary transitions. The analysis was completed in collaboration
with Advance CTE and Achieve,
nonprofit organizations that work
with states on college and/or career
readiness and other issues.
Advocates and state officials say
these measures can hold schools accountable for putting students on
the path to college, or to earning a
living wage after gra duation-both
goals that parents and the business
community are deeply interested in.
Ohio gauged schools on collegeand-career readiness even before
ESSA's passage in 2015, in part
because of parent input, said Chris
Woolard, the state's senior executive director for performance and
impact.

Patchwork of 'Readiness'
Postsecondary and workforce
preparation "tends to be the number one thing that parents are interested in," he said. "Knowing that
[students] leave the system and they
are ready for what comes next is an
important question, and it's a tangible one."
But some experts are concerned
that only a handful of states consider some measure beyond high
school, such as postsecondary enrollment, in gauging college-andcareer readiness. And while most
states offer students a choice of
possibilities for demonstrating that
students are prepared for what
comes after high school, most aren't
tracking for accountabiilty purposes
whether historically overlooked
groups of students, including black
and Hispanic students, are more
likely to go down the "career" path
as opposed to the "college" track, experts say.
The specifics of how states are
measuring college readiness vary.

Coursework-such as taking Advanced Placement or dual-enrollment classes-are a popular way
to meet the requirement. Thirty-six
states are using this approach for
federal accountability, according to
Education Strategy Group's analysis.
Other states are taking a closer
look at work-based learning experiences, which could include an apprenticeship or internship. Twelve
states are including some sort of
measure of work-based learning
or leadership experience in their
ESSA plans, Education Strategy
Group found. And 21 states consider
whether students have earned industry credentials, according to an
analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a research and advocacy organization in Washington.

Many 'Menus'
In most states, students have several options for demonstrating that
they are ready for postsecondary
education or the workplace. In fact,
about 30 states offer such "menus,"
according to the Alliance's analysis.
Typically, states give students a
choice of either demonstrating that
they are ready for college or for postsecondary careers.
Although there are common elements-course-taking, college-entrance tests, industry-recognized
certification-"college-and-career
readiness" looks a little different everywhere. And experts are split on
whether that's a good thing.
Ryan Reyna, the director of the
Education Strategy Group, sees the
diversity among states as "positive
for the country."
"I think it's important that we

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have states looking at things that
matter directly to their constituents," he said. "I think states have to
define that for themselves and have
to define it within their context."
Opportunities, he said, can vary
across the country when it comes to
things like work-based learning. He
expects, though, that expectations
may become more similar nationwide over time, as officials learn
from each other.
But Phillip Lovell, the vice president for policy development and government relations at the Alliance,
worries it will be tough to figure out
how different states stack up on the
issue.
"I think that because there's not
a standard way by which it's measured, we're not actually going to be
sure what these data tell us," Lovell
said. "It will be pretty unclear what
it means when we say 'oh, 60 percent of students are college-andcareer ready in state x.' "
And he added that "What we do
know is that by-and-large it will
not mean that students enter college, or enter college without remediation," That's because only a
handful of states are rolling postsecondary outcomes into their accountability systems, he said"And
one might say that's our problem,
or our opportunity for improvement," Lovell added.
Only eight states, by Education
Strategy Group's count, look at some
sort of transition beyond high school
such as postsecondary enrollment.
Connecticut, which looks at
whether students start college, is
among them. "We want at least a
little bit of the accountability for a
public system to extend beyond that
system and bridge to another sys-

tem," said Ajit Gopalakrishnan the
state's chief performance officer.
By the Alliance's count, just one
state - Georgia-is looking at
whether students are ready for college-bearing coursework without remediation. Being able to take creditbearing college coursework right
from the start is one way students
can prove they are college-and-career ready in the state's system.
"You could have fairly high graduation rates but still pretty high remediation rates when kids go onto
to postsecondary studies. And that's
a problem, right?" said Allison Timberlake, the state's deputy superintendent for assessment and accountability. "The intent of high school is
to prepare for you those next steps.
If we see lots of kids needing remediation that's extending the length
of time they need to be in college, it's
increasing their costs, it may even
be a bit more difficult for them to
persevere through college if they are
trying to catch up."

Vulnerable Students
It's unclear at this point whether
the same schools that get flagged for
having low test scores will also be
called out for doing poorly on collegeand-career readiness. But state officials are hoping to at least shine a
spotlight on schools that don't offer
students opportunities to take advanced courses or do an apprenticeship.
Connecticut is rating schools both
on whether students participate in
courses or activities that will get
them ready for college, and separately, on whether they are successful. That means, for instance, that
the accountability system considers

whether a student took an Advanced
Placement class, and separately,
whether that student received a '3',
which is typically a high enough
score to earn college credit.
"Accountability systems on their
own can't close skill gaps or ensure
that students will be successful,"
said Christy Hovanetz, a senior
policy fellow at the Foundation for
Excellence in Education, a research
and advocacy organization. "But
the information gleaned from these
systems can lead to critical actions
that are taken in the classroom to
meet students' needs and also help
increase access to college-ready
coursework."
Most states aren't publicly tracking for accountability purposes
Whether students from historically disadvantaged groups, such
as African-American and Hispanic
students- are more likely to choose
the "career" path as opposed to the
"college" one.
That information would be helpful from both an "equity perspective
and a policy perspective," Lovell
said. "That way you could really tell
that it's the students of color who are
in [career and technical education]
or who are in the military route and
it's our white kids who are AP and
IB. Or maybe that's not the case,
and those schools should be particularly applauded."
Ohio doesn't yet break out its data
that way. But Woolard, the state's
performance and impact director,
sees the value in it and aims to report it down the line.
"We want to be as transparent
about this as possible," he said.
"This is an equity issue, and if we
end up with subgroup issues, that
defeats the purpose."

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Education Week - January 23, 2019

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