College Readiness: A Guide to the Field - ERIC Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) ... Many initiatives. College Readiness: A Guide to the Field. College Readiness: A Guide

CollegeReadiness:A Guide tothe Field

prepared by the Annenberg Institutefor School Reform at Brown University

ABOUT GATES COLLEGE READINESS INDICATOR SYSTEMS

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) at Brown University and the John W. Gardner Center(JGC) at Stanford University have each received three-year grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationto work together to select a network of sites and develop models for College Readiness Indicator Systems(CRIS). As part of this collaborative effort, AISR and JGC develop, test, and disseminate effective tools andresources that provide early diagnostic indications of what students need to become college ready. Thetwo organizations serve complementary, but distinct roles. JGC develops and studies the implementationof a tri-level (individual, setting, and system) early warning system using a flexible, “design-build” approachwith the partner districts. AISR focuses on cross-site learning; brokering expertise and supports for partnerdistricts; understanding issues related to district, municipal, state, and federal contexts; and process docu-mentation. The CRIS sites are Dallas, New Visions for Public Schools (New York City), Philadelphia, Pitts-burgh, and San Jose, California.

http://annenberginstitute.org/cris

ABOUT THE ANNENBERG INSTITUTE FOR SCHOOL REFORM

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) is a national policy-research and reform-support organi-zation, affiliated with Brown University, that focuses on improving conditions and outcomes for all studentsin urban public schools, especially those attended by traditionally underserved children. AISR’s vision isthe transformation of traditional school systems into “smart education systems” that develop and integratehigh-quality learning opportunities in all areas of students’ lives – at school, at home, and in the community.AISR conducts research; works with a variety of partners committed to educational improvement to buildcapacity in school districts and communities; and shares its work through print and Web publications.

Rather than providing a specific reform design or model to be implemented, AISR’s approach is to offer anarray of tools and strategies to help districts and communities strengthen their local capacity to provideand sustain high-quality education for all students.

http://annenberginstitute.org

Prepared by: Sara McAlister and Pascale Mevs

Research Support:Jaein Lee and Emily Rodriguez

Editing:O’rya Hyde-Keller and Margaret Balch-Gonzalez

Graphic Design: Haewon Kim

Photos:P. 9 courtesy of The Posse FoundationP.12 courtesy of The College Crusade of Rhode IslandCover courtesy of Raja R. Sambasivan

© 2012 Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University

Contents

1 Introduction

2 What is College Readiness?

4 A Brief Overview of the Field

5 Academic Preparedness

9 Academic Tenacity

12 College Knowledge

15 The Growth of the Field: College Readiness Hot Spots

16 Summing It Up: Implications for the Field

18 References

20 Appendix: Information on Highlighted College Readiness Initiatives and Programs

COLLEGE READINESS INDICATOR SYSTEMS 1

Introduction

In recent years, the education spotlight in theUnited States has shifted from focusing on

high school graduation to postsecondary success.Acknowledging that to thrive in today’s economyrequires more than just a high school diploma,policy-makers and practitioners at the local, state,and federal level, along with their community part-ners, have turned their attention to equipping stu-dents with the skills and knowledge needed toenroll and succeed – without remediation – in apostsecondary program that leads to a degree(Conley 2007, 2011; Gates Foundation 2009). This shift in attention has been accompanied by awealth of policies and initiatives aimed at prepar-ing students to enter and succeed in college,including federal competitive grants programs,schoolwide reform initiatives, community-basededucation support structures, and many more.Over the past few years, the emergent field of col-lege readiness has blossomed into an expansiveeffort involving multiple actors and spanning mul-tiple sectors.

Considering the rapid emergence and growth ofthe field, as well as the numerous players involved,keeping abreast of relevant policies and initiativesis both a challenge and a necessity. A scan of thecollege readiness field can highlight successfulstrategies for increasing readiness, as well as gapsin research, policy, and practice, and can point toimportant roles for community, business, and phil-anthropic partners to play in developing a coordi-nated approach to college readiness.

Researchers at the Annenberg Institute for SchoolReform at Brown University (AISR) have under-taken to develop a brief guide to this burgeoningfield, as part of the College Readiness IndicatorSystem (CRIS) initiative funded by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation. The CRIS initiative,led in collaboration with the John W. GardnerCenter for Youth and Their Communities (JGC)at Stanford University, aims to develop a collectionof actionable indicators that measures the differentdimensions of college readiness and allows forearly identification of students who may need extrasupport to be able to finish high school ready tosucceed in college. The CRIS initiative also aimsto help districts develop a set of supports con-nected to these indicators.

As an offshoot of this work, our guide to the fieldhighlights opportunities to address students’ needsboth in and out of school to ensure they have whatit takes to be successful throughout college. To thisend, we conducted a scan of the field, which drewon a review of education news coverage and publi-cations by national education research and policyorganizations from fall 2010 through summer2011, supplemented with Web searches, covering a range of initiatives and organizations from thenational to the local level, including school dis-tricts, states, and non-governmental organizations.

College Readiness:A Guide to the Field

2 College Readiness: A Guide to the Field

What is College Readiness?

W hat does it mean to be college ready? In2010, the Obama administration released

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act(ESEA) blueprint, which proposes that states holdK–12 students to higher standards that promoteglobal competiveness. Soon after, heeding this call,state leaders and partners began to develop col-lege-ready standards as part of the Common CoreState Standards Initiative (CCSSI).1 This initiativereflects in large part the blueprint’s proposal thatcollege-ready students have completed a rigorouselementary and secondary academic program inEnglish language arts and math, as well as otherkey subjects, and that students are assessed regu-larly on their progress toward these standards.

To develop assessment systems that map students’college-ready trajectories, two overlapping coali-tions of states – the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)2

and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium(S-BAC)3 – were awarded a substantial Race to theTop grant from the federal government. LikeCCSSI, the PARCC and S-BAC initiatives suggestthat a strong academic foundation is the corner-stone of college readiness.

For a long time, researchers have attempted todefine just what it means to be college ready. Pre-vious research suggests that being ready for collegemeans having the academic content knowledge andskills needed to pass college-level courses (Conley2007; Roderick, Nagaoka & Coca 2009). Common

1 For more on the Common Core State Standards Initiative, go towww.corestandards.org.

2 For more information on the Partnership for Assessment of Readi-ness for College and Careers, go to www.parcconline.org.

3 For more information on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Con-sortium, go to www.k12.wa.us/smarter.

This brief highlights the findings from this scan.There has been some debate about whether prepa-ration for college is the right goal for all students,given that only about 30 percent of young adultscurrently attain a bachelor’s degree. Many expertstreat “college readiness” and “career readiness” as synonymous, arguing that the same set of skillsand knowledge that prepares young people for a four-year college program also prepares them for well-paying careers. Others argue that a focuson college readiness narrows educational optionsand ignores the needs of many young people (seepage 16).

Since the CRIS project aims to help districts andschools prepare students for success in postsec-ondary education, in this brief we focus on collegereadiness rather than career readiness (althoughmany of the initiatives we highlight focus on both:see pages 9 and 10, for example). We hope it willserve as a useful reference for all of those with aninterest in preparing students to enter and succeedin college.


indicators of readiness lend significant weight toacademic measures of preparation, includingcourse grades, standardized test scores, and thedegree of rigor of courses taken. Additionalresearch, however, suggests that motivational ornon-cognitive factors can be important determi-nants of success in college (Dweck, Walton &Cohen 2011). These factors include maintaining apositive attitude toward learning and being able topersist when the going gets tough. David Conley(2007) also notes that being ready for collegemeans having the “information, formal and infor-mal, stated and unstated, necessary for gainingadmission to, and navigating within, the postsec-ondary system” (p. 13). Accordingly, being collegeready also encompasses having “college knowl-edge” that includes knowing how to apply to col-lege and for financial aid.

Synthesizing this and additional research,researchers at JGC have developed a working definition of key components of college readiness.For the purpose of this brief, being ready for col-lege means having the knowledge and skills neededto enroll and succeed in college and has been con-ceptualized by JGC as comprising three dimen-sions: academic preparedness, academic tenacity,and college knowledge.

• Academic preparedness refers to the academicknowledge and skills students need to succeed incollege. These include content-area proficienciesand key cognitive strategies that span contentareas, such as the ability to formulate and solveproblems, conduct research, and construct anargument or complete tasks with precision oraccuracy.

• Academic tenacity is defined as the “underlyingbeliefs, attitudes, values . . . and accompanyingbehaviors that drive students to embrace andengage with challenging work, and to pursueacademic achievement,” and is also key to stu-dents’ academic success both before andthroughout college (Gates Foundation 2009;Conley 2008).

• College knowledge captures the ability to gainaccess to postsecondary institutions as well assuccessfully navigate through college. These“contextual skills and awareness” enable studentsto, among other actions, apply to college and forfinancial aid, develop appropriate relationshipswith peers and professors, and be resourcefullearners and self-advocates (Conley 2008).


A Brief Overview of the Field

To better conceptualize the field of collegereadiness, it is also useful to have an under-

standing of the key players involved. As noted, ini-tiatives aimed at preparing students forpostsecondary access and success extend beyondthe school walls. Additional players in this fieldinclude district, state, and federal departments ofeducation; national coalitions led by foundationsand nonprofit organizations; local nonprofit andcommunity-based organizations; school reform andeducational management organizations; universitiesand research centers; and the business community.

In the following sections of this brief, we highlightcommon strategies and approaches within each of the three college readiness dimensions thatemerged from our look at the field and provideexamples of how various initiatives and policieshave used these strategies in their efforts toincrease college-going and completion rates acrossthe country.

Rather than presenting a comprehensive view ofthe field, each section highlights representative ini-tiatives that are spearheading this work within eachdimension. While the main text of this brief pres-ents dominant policies and initiatives that spanmultiple sites, readers may refer to the sidebars forvignettes of how the strategies are carried out byvarious players at the local and state levels.

The three college readiness dimensions – academicpreparedness, academic tenacity, and collegeknowledge – are the CRIS network’s framework;they don’t necessarily represent the way that play-ers in the field define their work. Many initiativesaddress two or even three of the dimensions anduse different language to describe their goals. Weuse the three dimensions as a useful frame forthinking about this complex field and to give asense of what strategies have emerged for address-ing different aspects of students’ readiness – not asrigid categories. This “field” is also not static. Aspolicies shift, new actors enter the field, and dataand research drive changes in strategy. This brief ismeant to provide a snapshot in time of the collegereadiness field and represents a necessary oversim-plification.

We hope that this scan of the field can help policy-makers and practitioners at the local level examinethe range of strategies for improving college readi-ness currently at use in their district or communityand identify aspects of college readiness that areun- or under-addressed. It might also suggeststrategies and places where the capacity of outsidepartners can complement district- or school-basedefforts. In addition, we highlight a number of ini-tiatives that aim to coordinate investments andprograms across a whole neighborhood, district, orcity.


Academic Preparedness

This section presents a few of the commonstrategies used to help students gain the con-

tent-area knowledge and skills and the key cogni-tive skills needed for success in college. Thefollowing strategies, as well as brief descriptions ofrelated policies and initiatives, are highlightedbelow:

• Align standards, curricula, and assessment to col-lege-ready expectations

• Use data to drive college readiness policies

• Intervene early to keep students on a college-ready track

Align standards, curricula, and assessment to college-ready expectationsEnsuring students’ strong academic preparationfor postsecondary education has been at the heartof college readiness initiatives and policies; as a2010 Achieve report pointed out,

States [are] becoming increasingly aware thattheir high schools, which [have] changed littlesince the mid-20th century, [are] not producingthe twenty-first-century graduates needed to

compete and succeed after high school in anincreasingly complex and interconnectedworld.” (p. 7)

Toward this end, many in the field are working atthe policy level to align rigorous academic stan-dards, curricula, and assessments to definitions andindicators of college readiness. A substantialamount of this work lives at the state policy level,with a number of overlapping coalitions of statesworking to raise standards and ensure alignmentbetween K–12 and postsecondary expectations. Anearly example is the American Diploma Project,convened by the Education Trust and Achieve Inc.in 2001, through which thirty-five states haveworked to increase alignment.4

Driven by the ESEA blueprint’s focus on prepar-ing students for higher education, CCSSI, alongwith PARCC and S-BAC, the two state consortiafunded by the federal education department’s Raceto the Top initiative,5 currently spearhead federalefforts around this dimension by aiming to developcommon academic standards and assessments thatfoster and measure academic preparedness. Led bythe National Governor’s Association and theCouncil of Chief State School Officers, CCSSI

4 For more information on the American Diploma Project, go towww.achieve.org/adp-network.

5 See the earlier section “What Is College Readiness?”


represents one of the largest and most influentialplayers in the field of academic preparedness, withall but four states having adopted these standardsby late 2011. CCSSI’s goal is to develop rigorousstandards in English language arts and mathemat-ics that, when mastered, indicate that students areready to complete credit-bearing freshman yearcourses.

The standards align with our definition of aca-demic preparedness in two ways. First, they meas-ure important content knowledge and skills thatstudents need to succeed in college, namely Eng-lish language arts and math content. According toCCSSI, the standards are meant to be rigorousmeasures of real-world skills and knowledge. Sec-ond, the standards strive to measure key cognitivestrategies that students can apply across subjectareas, including the ability to form a logical, coher-ent argument; conduct research; and analyze vari-ous forms of media.

In the same vein, PARCC and S-BAC are overlap-ping coalitions that together represent forty-twostates – and the two- and four-year colleges thatreceive a majority of those states’ college-goers –whose purpose is to develop and implement assess-ments that provide the information states need toincrease their college-ready graduation rates.These initiatives are aligning standards and assess-ments to college readiness expectations by usingthe Common Core State Standards as their indica-tors of what students should know and be able todo. The initiatives will also produce capacity-building tools, including data portals and instruc-tional materials that can be adapted to theclassroom to help teachers prepare students forpostsecondary success (Center for K–12 Assess-ment & Performance Management at ETS 2011).States, districts, and educational publishers areworking to develop complete curricula to helpteachers put the new standards into practice.

Individual states have also taken on the chal-lenge of aligning pre- and post-secondary stan-dards. In Florida, for example, as part of theCollege and Career Readiness Initiative, thestate legislature voted to expand its collegereadiness assessment system. Under new legisla-tion, all students who express an interest in col-lege are now allowed to take the FloridaCollege Entry-Level Placement Test during theirjunior rather than senior year in high school,while there is still time for them to further pre-pare in their senior year. Seniors who are notyet prepared for college based on these meas-ures are provided remedial services (FloridaDepartment of Education 2010).

Several states and school districts are using dualenrollment policies to put students on an earlypath toward college success. The Hidalgo Inde-pendent School District (HISD) in Texas, forexample, has adopted an Early College HighSchool model throughout its schools as a way toexpose students to rigorous, college-level course-work as early as ninth grade. Rather than view-ing dual enrollment as an enrichmentopportunity for students who are ahead of thecurve, HISD encourages all students to completethe Recommended High School Program,Texas’s college readiness curriculum. This policyis reflective, in part, of the Texas push to pro-mote college readiness. Dual enrollment policiesin Texas are supported in large part by HouseBill 1, fiscal legislation that provides additionalfunds for programs aimed at increasing collegeenrollment and completion rates (Jobs for theFuture 2009).

ON THE GROUND: HOW STATES AND DISTRICTS AREALIGNING PRE- AND POST-SECONDARY STANDARDS


Use data to drive college readiness policiesThe recent emphasis on data-driven policy andpractice has extended to the college readinessworld as well. Much of this work has been led bynational nonprofits that have developed collegereadiness indicators, such as the College Board’sAccuplacer Diagnostic and the ACT CollegeReadiness Standards and Assessments.6 Both datatools measure students’ academic preparedness forcollege based on predetermined standards, andboth have been used by states and districts to bet-ter measure college preparation, target interven-tions, and set policy.

Investments by the U.S. Department of Educationand foundations support better alignment of datasystems at the state and district level to drive col-lege readiness policies by promoting data systempartnerships that track and analyze data as far backas pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. Through afederal Statewide Longitudinal Data SystemsGrant, the Kentucky P–20 Data Collaborative produces high school feedback reports on the postsecondary performance of each high school’sgraduates that help teachers and administratorstweak curriculum and policy.7 With support fromthe Gates Foundation, researchers at the NewYork City Department of Education partneredwith the City University of New York to developcollege readiness indicators that are now includedin school report cards (see the sidebar on thispage). Similar measures are being supported byGates Foundation grants in Riverside, California,and Mesa, Arizona, where Mesa Community Col-lege is spearheading efforts to use data-informeddecision making to improve college-going andcompletion rates (Gates Foundation 2010).

In 2010, the New York City Department of Edu-cation (NYCDOE) received a grant from the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation to partner withCity University of New York (CUNY) in order todevelop indicators of college readiness. Goalsof the project included conducting research thatwould directly affect local policy and creatingdata that would be useful to school-level collegereadiness efforts. Using data from the NYC-DOE, CUNY, and the National Student Clear-inghouse, researchers were able to determinekey characteristics of successful graduates andcreate useful tools for school administrators.These tools include:

• Where Are They Now Reports that help prin-cipals track data for graduated students;

• revised Progress Reports that now include acollege prep course index; a college readi-ness index that tracks the percentage of stu-dents who pass out of remedial collegecourses; and a college enrollment rate.

Beyond influencing local policy, the NYCDOE/CUNY collaborative aims to be a model foradditional school districts that wish to engage inthis work.

DATA-DRIVEN POLICYMAKING: A LOOK AT NEW YORK CITY’S COLLEGE READINESS INDICATORS PARTNERSHIP

6 For more on the College Board’s Accuplacer Diagnostic, go tohttp://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/placement/accuplacer. For more on the ACT College Readiness Standardsand Assessments, go to http://www.act.org/standard.

7 For more information on the Kentucky P-20 Data Collaborative,go to http://Kentuckyp20.ky.gov.


Intervene early to keep students on a college-ready trackRecognizing that the road to college starts longbefore high school, players in the field of collegereadiness have begun identifying and targeting students as early as middle school to keep studentson track to timely graduation and college success.These efforts are supported in part by researchfrom the Consortium on Chicago School Researchand the Center for the Social Organization ofSchools at Johns Hopkins University demonstrat-ing that students’ likelihood of graduating fromhigh school prepared to tackle college-level workcan be predicted as early as middle school andninth grade. Early intervention can be crucial inkeeping students on a college-ready trajectory,especially for students who struggle academicallyor socially (Allensworth & Easton 2005; Neild,Balfanz & Herzog 2007).

The Early College High School Initiative, coordi-nated by Jobs for the Future and supported by sev-eral philanthropic organizations, has redesignedmore than 230 schools across the country to pro-vide special academic support for students who areat risk of dropping out of high school and/orunderrepresented in higher education.8 Whilerequiring academic rigor and providing individual-ized support, the Early College High School Ini-tiative also motivates students with the opportunityto save time and money to work hard and over-come intellectual challenges by blending highschool and the two first years of college.

Talent Development models developed byresearchers at Johns Hopkins University (TalentDevelopment High Schools and Talent Develop-ment Middle Grades), which have spread to morethan 125 schools throughout the nation, pay par-ticular attention to students in middle school andninth grade, when they are especially vulnerable todropping out.9 For instance, in the Talent Devel-opment’s “ninth-grade academy,” a team of inter-disciplinary teachers provide academic support,such as a skills-building curriculum in math andreading comprehension, two areas in which ninth-graders often need extra support, so that ninth-graders can have a smooth transition to highschool and don’t drop out (Institute for EducationSciences 2007).

8 The Early College High School Initiative defines underrepre-sented students as those who are low-income students; racial andethnic minorities; first-generation college-goers; English languagelearners; and students at risk of dropping out of high school, not matriculating to college, and not completing a degree (see“Early College High School Initiative, Core Principles” atwww.earlycolleges.org/Downloads/ECHSICorePrin.pdf). Formore information on the Early College High School Initiative, goto www.earlycolleges.org.

9 For more information on Talent Development schools, go towww.talentdevelopmentschools.com.


Academic Tenacity

A s noted, making it through college takes morethan having the academic skills and content

knowledge needed to complete college-levelcoursework. The demands of college warranttenacity to persist through academic challenges. To this end, several initiatives aim to directlyincrease students’ academic tenacity, while othersdo this indirectly by increasing their ability to per-sist through high school and college and attain apostsecondary degree. The following commonstrategies emerged from our analysis:

• Expose students to tenacity-building activities

• Provide accelerated and extended learningopportunities that promote persistence andattainment

• Restructure schools into personalized learningcommunities

• Provide additional supports for at-risk students

Expose students to tenacity-building activitiesAs Melissa Roderick and colleagues (2009) note,“Meeting the developmental demands of collegerequires behavioral, problem-solving, and copingskills that allow students to successfully managenew environments and the new academic andsocial demands of college” (p. 190). Several pro-grams have emerged that aim to explicitly equipstudents with the educational values, attitudes, and behaviors needed for success in college. Suchprograms transform schools to create a culture oftenacity, in which students are directly exposed totenacity-building activities throughout the day. For example, the Advancement Via IndividualDetermination program (AVID) is a nationalschool-based initiative reaching more than 400,000students in forty-seven states that provides stu-dents with both academic and non-cognitive sup-ports as early as elementary school. Students learn

THE POSSE APPROACH: A COMPLETE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A COHORT OF STUDENTS

The Posse Foundation is a nonprofit with a novelapproach to college access. The Foundationassembles cohorts or “posses” of students whowill attend college together and encourage thedevelopment of student diversity on campus.Posse has partnered with forty institutions ofhigher education, and together they work toidentify underrepresented students with extraor-dinary leadership potential. Applicants must benominated by their high school or by a commu-nity-based organization in order to apply. Oncechosen, Posse scholars undergo a rigorouseight-month pre-collegiate training program andare then awarded four-year, full-tuition leader-ship scholarships to attend one of the partnerinstitutions. The built-in support system has con-tributed to a 90 percent graduation rate forPosse scholars. More than 4,245 students fromurban public high schools across the countryhave participated in Posse. For more informa-tion, go to www.possefoundation.org.


important behaviors like self-awareness, meta-cog-nition, self-control, organization, study habits,critical thinking, and inquiry, as well as receive aca-demic support and motivation for college.10

Similarly, the national Navigation 101 programengages students in developing their non-academicskills, including the ability to self-assess and studyeffectively, and identifies the best course of actionto meet their college goals. As a schoolwide collegereadiness program, Navigation 101 is implementedin ninth grade, and students remain in the pro-gram until graduation to gain the “self-manage-ment” and “navigational” skills needed for collegesuccess.11

Provide accelerated and extended learning opportunities that promote persistence and attainmentWhile accelerated learning opportunities may notexplicitly teach academic tenacity, initiatives aimedat decreasing the amount of time students spend inhigh school and/or college may contribute to stu-dents’ college readiness by increasing their highschool persistence and college credit attainment.The Gateway to College National Network helpshigh school dropouts re-engage in secondaryschool while at the same time earning college cred-its. The program accomplishes this in large part bycreating partnerships between K–12 institutionsand higher education institutions, especially com-munity colleges.12 The Gateway to CollegeNational Network uses an approach similar toEarly College High Schools to transform highschools into places where traditionally low-per-forming students, low-income students, and

minority students, as well as first-generation col-lege students, are able to obtain a high schooldiploma and accumulate up to two years of collegecredit at no cost. Research on Early College HighSchools suggests that graduates of this program aremore capable of adapting to challenges and pursu-ing their academic strengths in college.

Other initiatives make use of out-of-school time toexpose students to career and technical educationopportunities that make learning relevant whileproviding a rigorous academic curriculum. TheLinked Learning model, supported in part by the James Irvine Foundation and coordinated byConnectEd, provides career-based pathways tohigh school students in several California cities.These pathways combine a college preparatorycurriculum, rigorous career education, work-basedexperiences including job shadowing, internships,counseling, and other supports.13

These strategies highlight the interconnectednessof the college readiness dimensions – students whoare well prepared academically and are supportedto tackle rigorous curriculum are enabled to seethemselves as college material, which encouragestheir persistence and removes some of the very realbarriers of cost and time.

Restructure schools into personalized learning communitiesMulti-site, school-based initiatives also lead thefield when it comes to creating personalized learn-ing communities that contribute to students’ academic success. The Talent Development HighSchool model uses this personalized learning strategy by helping students meet high academicexpectations through ninth-grade academies andinterventions so that ninth-graders can have asmoother transition to high school. The programalso relies on flexible staff roles so that teachersand other faculty members can provide personal-ized academic attention to struggling students.

10 For more information on AVID, go to www.avid.org.11 For more information on Navigation 101, go to

www.envictus.com/Navigation-101.12 For more information on the Gateway to College Network,

go to www.gatewaytocollege.org.13 For information on the Linked Learning model, go to

www.linkedlearning.org.


The U.S. Department of Education’s SmallerLearning Communities (SLC) program providesfunding to large urban high schools to create smalllearning communities. Grantees use small learningcommunities to pay specific attention to poten-tially struggling students, often through ninth-grade academies.14 Teaching students in smalllearning communities also helps schools identifyat-risk students and target interventions rangingfrom after-school remediation to summer enrich-ment opportunities. Approximately 2,500 careeracademies across the country, many supported bythe federal SLC program, use internships and job-skills instruction to make learning more relevantwhile providing rigorous academics and personalsupports (Kemple & Snipes 2000; Kemple 2001).Creating small and personalized learning environ-ments has been proven to be a successful and apowerful strategy to not only build tenacity butalso to strengthen academic preparation.

Provide additional supports for at-risk students Students who are at risk for dropping out of highschool or not enrolling in or completing collegedeserve special attention to promote their collegereadiness. This need has been widely recognized inthe field, with many policies and initiatives specifi-cally targeting these students. The federal govern-ment contributes greatly to this effort. One ofeight U.S. Department of Education TRIO pro-grams designed to help students from disadvan-taged backgrounds succeed from middle schoolthrough college, Upward Bound15 supports stu-dents via pre-college workshops, tutoring, counsel-ing, and mentoring, among other services.

14 For more information on the SLC program, go towww2.ed.gov/programs/slcp/index.html.

15 For more information on Upward Bound, go towww2.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound.

FROM AT-RISK TO COLLEGE READY: A LOOK AT PHILADELPHIA’S APPROACH TO A DROPOUT CRISIS

The Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) is leadinga public campaign to end its dropout crisis.Through partnerships with the School District ofPhiladelphia and community-based organizationsand foundations, PYN developed Project U-Turn in2006, a local initiative that has successfully cham-pioned funds to address the needs of at-risk andout-of-school youth. Key components of the pro-gram include:

• Student Success Centers that coordinate collegereadiness and college transition services inneighborhood high schools

• Re-engagement Centers where out-of-schoolyouth can receive the information and supportsthey need to re-enroll in high school or earn aGED

• E3 Power Centers designed to provide case-management services and skills-building oppor-tunities for out-of-school or delinquent youth

• A Summer Bridge Program designed to serve2,500 students as they transition from middle tohigh school

Between 2006 and 2009, Project U-Turn suc-ceeded in referring more than 1,600 students toeducational options and is gaining recognition asa national leader in addressing the needs of at-riskstudents (Philadelphia Youth Network 2006; Proj-ect U-Turn 2009).

For more information on Project U-Turn, go to www.pyninc.org/projectuturn.


Similarly, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awarenessand Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) pro-vides funding to states and partnerships to supporthigh-need students through middle and highschool and through their first year of college.GEAR UP partnerships provide mentoring, coun-seling, tutoring, and scholarships.16

The previously mentioned Gateway to CollegeNational Network represents one of the largestinitiatives to re-engage out-of-school youth. Thenetwork reaches out to students between ages six-teen and twenty-one who have dropped out ofschool to help them persist through high schooland strive for college attainment through individu-alized mentoring, coaching, and advising to leadand keep them on the road to college success.Diplomas Now, a partnership of Talent Develop-ment, City Year, and Communities in Schools,provides intensive supports to struggling students,including support groups, counseling, and healthcare. City Year places young adults full time inDiplomas Now schools to form supportive rela-tionships with students and provide tutoring, men-toring, and after-school enrichment.17

Crucially, the programs described here offer sup-ports and interventions aimed at strengtheningtenacity in combination with attention to academicpreparation and college knowledge. All supportstudents in accessing more rigorous courseworkand incorporate activities that develop collegeknowledge and awareness, and the same supportsthat build tenacity also directly impact students’ability to focus on and succeed in academic work.

College Knowledge

F inally, students need an understanding of howto get into, pay for, and navigate through col-

lege in order to attain a post-secondary degree.Common strategies that have been employed toequip students with this college knowledgeinclude:

• Create a college-going culture in the school andcommunity

• Support students through the college planningprocess

• Engage families in learning about and supportingcollege going

Create a college-going cultureDavid Conley (2011) notes:

Many students fail to apply to college simplybecause the process seems so daunting, and theyfeel intimidated or overwhelmed by all of therequirements and activities associated with theapplication process. (p. 23)

Among the most common strategies used to helpstudents overcome this obstacle and develop col-lege knowledge are to create a culture in which allstudents have the expectation that they will go tocollege and help them to develop the know-how togo. Multi-site, school-based initiatives lead muchof the work in this area. Aspire Public Schools,which operates public charter schools in Califor-nia, for example, begins as early as elementaryschool to instill the notion of attending college inits students and has adopted the motto “Collegefor Certain.”18

The college-going culture can also be emphasizedby creating a comprehensive college preparatoryprogram at the school site, as in the case of theKnowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a national

16 For more information on GEAR UP, go to www2.ed.gov/programs/gearup.

17 For more information on Diplomas Now, go to http://diplomasnow.org.

18 For more information on Aspire Public Schools, go to www.aspirepublicschools.org


THE COLLEGE CRUSADE OF RHODE ISLAND

charter school network of 109 schools in twentystates. This comprehensive college preparatoryprogram at KIPP, called KIPP Through College(KTC), provides students with all the necessaryresources to prepare for, apply to, and attend col-lege. Most importantly, it affirms the high expecta-tion of the school that all students will go tocollege. KTC support is customized by eachregion or school to meet the specific needs of theirstudents, including SAT/ACT prep classes, coun-seling, academic advisement, enrichment activities,and financial literacy classes.19

Entire school districts have also engaged in creat-ing a college-going culture to increase collegeknowledge. Initiatives such as the Pittsburgh, Indi-anapolis, Detroit, and Kalamazoo Promises andSay Yes to Education sites – including Syracuse,Harlem, and Hartford – mobilize public and pri-vate resources to focus on college readiness andguarantee tuition for students who meet certainbenchmarks. By laying out a clear pathway to col-lege, these initiatives help families see further edu-cation as a realistic goal. Many of these initiativesinclude public campaigns to foster a college-goingculture.20

The College Crusade of Rhode Island is a non-profit organization that provides college readi-ness and scholarship programs for middleschool and high school students in low-incomeurban school districts. The organization reachesout early to motivated students and provideslong-term guidance (grades 6 to12) and supportfor them to get ready for and succeed in col-lege. The College Crusade of Rhode Islandoffers programs that focus on academic enrich-ment, social and personal development, careerawareness and exploration, and preparation forpostsecondary education. For more information,go to www.thecollegecrusade.org.

19 For more information on KIPP Through College, go towww.kipp.org/students/kipp-through-college.

20 For more information on Say Yes to Education, go towww.sayyestoeducation.org.


Support students through the college planning andapplication processWhile research shows that most students aspire to attend college, many lack the knowledge andsupport needed to apply for, fund, and enroll in college. To address this challenge, the U.S.Department of Education launched the CollegeAccess Challenge Grant Program that aims toincrease the number of low-income students whoare ready for college, especially by supportingthem through the college planning and applicationprocess. Each grantee designs its own plan toaddress this need, and proposals include FreshmanSeminar in Arkansas, aimed at equipping ninthgraders with early college knowledge; FAFSA Firstin Connecticut, a continuation of a financial aidapplication assistance program for low-incomeyouth; and the College Info Road Show in Ken-tucky, designed to travel to schools to spread col-lege knowledge.21

While Pennsylvania is using its grant award todevelop partnerships between the national non-profit Project Grad USA, the PennsylvaniaDepartment of Education, and the PennsylvaniaHigher Education Assistance Agency to improveits graduation rates, in Maryland, funds are beingused to bring together the national nonprofit Col-lege Goal Sunday, the Maryland Business Round-table, the University of Maryland, and MarylandPublic Television, among others, to develop thecollege knowledge students and their families needfor postsecondary access and success (U.S. Depart-ment of Education 2008).

Community-based organizations (CBOs) also playa very active role in supporting students throughthis process. CBOs often step in to bridge gaps incollege knowledge for students in high-needsschools where few of their peers apply to collegeand guidance counselors are stretched thin. Somepartner formally with school districts or schools,while others serve children in a particular neigh-borhood. In Los Angeles, for example, theSOURCE program pairs UCLA students with

public high school students to mentor themthroughout the college and financial aid applica-tion process (Adams 2011).22 Philadelphia’s Stu-dent Success Centers (see the sidebar on page 11:From At-Risk to College Ready), the result oforganizing by youth-led community groups, arelocated in schools but staffed by local CBOs withsupport from the Philadelphia Youth Network andthe Public Education Fund (Philadelphia PublicSchool Notebook 2004).

Engage families in learning about and supportingcollege goingParents and families are key partners and impor-tant decision-makers when it comes to their children’s college-going behaviors. A commonstrategy for increasing students’ college knowledgeand college-going rates has thus been to engagefamilies in the process of acquiring college knowl-edge and applying to college and for financial aid.At the national level, the College Board has been avocal advocate for keeping parents informed andequipped to make college decisions. This work isalso supported by a national collaboration betweenthe American Council on Education, the LuminaFoundation for Education, and the Ad Council,which have developed the KnowHow2Go Initia-tive, which serves as a “one-stop resource to helpstudents and parents plan for college and careers . . . and learn about financial aid options.”23

21 For more information on the College Access Grant Program, goto www2.ed.gov/programs/cacg.

22 For more information on SOURCE, go to www.edboost.org/SOURCE.

23 For more information on KnowHow2Go, go towww.knowhow2go.org.


The Growth of the Field: CollegeReadiness Hot Spots

F igure 1 maps the emerging college readiness“hot spots,” cities and regions in which the

field is heavily saturated. As the map indicates,cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York,Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., house a highconcentration of college readiness initiatives.Other cities including Portland, Oregon; Seattle;and Indianapolis are emerging as newer collegereadiness hot spots, heavily supported by the workof foundations. In Texas, strong state policy has ledto the emergence of multiple hot spots, includingDallas and the southern Texas region.

Such a concentration of activity, layered on top ofstates’ and districts’ responses to federal policychanges and the CCSSI, raise important questionsabout alignment and efficient resource use. Severalfoundations have launched initiatives in “hot spot”cities to address the need for coordination acrossplayers and dimensions. One of these, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation (in partnership withthe National League of Cities), facilitates collabo-ration between city leaders, school districts, com-munity colleges and universities, and community-based organizations to share data, align expecta-tions, and create coordinated networks of collegeaccess and support services, as part of the Founda-tion’s Communities Learning in Partnership pro-gram (Gates Foundation 2010). The LuminaFoundation’s Partnerships for College Access andSuccess and Citi Foundations’ Postsecondary Suc-cess Program similarly build collaboration andcoordination across sectors. These initiativesinclude asset mapping of existing college readinessresources to identify gaps and avoid duplication(Academy for Educational Development 2008).

FIGURE 1. College readiness “hot spots”


Summing It Up: Implications forthe Field

This brief has organized the burgeoning andcomplex field of college readiness work using

the framework of academic preparedness, aca-demic tenacity, and college knowledge. It high-lights common strategies that have emerged tostrengthen these three college readiness dimen-sions, as summarized in the Figure 2.

Academic preparation, traditionally the focus ofmuch college readiness work, is currently the mostdeveloped college readiness dimension. Federalpolicy emphasizes rigorous pre-college course-work; state policy aims to align and strengthenacademic rigor and supports; and a range of othereducation stakeholders – foundations, nonprofitorganizations, school reform intermediaries,research centers, and community-based organiza-tions – are also well represented in this dimension.

In contrast, relatively few initiatives target tenacitydirectly. Since tenacity involves “soft” skills thatdon’t lend themselves to easy definition or meas-urement, the development of interventions is morechallenging. Severalinterventions, such asearly college highschools, work toincrease persistenceand attainment, andothers provide individ-ualized supports tominimize barriers toschool success, but few– Advancement ViaIndividual Determina-tion (AVID) being anotable exception –directly build students’self-management and motivational skills.

Conversely, as the result of school-based effortsand community partnerships, and more recently asthe direct result of the federal College AccessChallenge Grant Program, college knowledge sup-ports are becoming more and more widely avail-able. Community-based organizations are wellrepresented in college knowledge initiatives andplay an important role in serving first-generationcollege-goers and students who receive less col-lege-knowledge support in school.

Of course, the three dimensions are not rigid cate-gories, and they overlap and are interconnected inpractice more extensively than this snapshot cancapture. Improvement in one dimension is influen-tial and dependent on the other two dimensions.Students are more likely to be tenacious when theyfeel that college is financially possible. Accord-ingly, when students are more tenacious, they willbe better prepared academically for college. Manystrategies develop skills across two or three dimen-sions, and many initiatives employ multiple strate-gies in a holistic approach to college readiness.Personalized learning communities, for example,support academic preparation by allowing teachersto provide intensive, differentiated academic sup-ports but also contribute to college knowledge and academic tenacity by forging close personalrelationships.

DIMENSION STRATEGIES

Academic Preparedness

• Align standards, curricula, and assessment to college-ready expec-tations

• Use data to drive college readiness policies• Intervene early to keep students on a college-ready track

AcademicTenacity

• Expose students to tenacity-building activities• Provide accelerated learning opportunities that promote persist-

ence and attainment• Restructure schools into personalized learning communities• Provide additional supports for at-risk students

College Knowledge

• Create a college-going culture in the school and community• Support students through the college planning process • Engage families in learning about and supporting college going

FIGURE 2. Common strategies for college readiness work


Implications for ResearchDespite the burgeoning activity in the field of col-lege readiness, there is still much we do not knowabout it. Efforts to define college readiness weresummarized earlier. Original, empirical research ispart of the College Readiness Indicator System(CRIS) initiative for both partners. The John W.Gardner Center (JGC) is focusing on identifyingindicators of college readiness for all three dimen-sions. The Annenberg Institute for School Reform(AISR) will examine district and community sup-ports that affect implementation of CRIS. Keyquestions include:

• How can college readiness efforts cohere, bothwithin and across local sites?

• How do local and state policies affect the rangeof strategies employed and how they are imple-mented? How do schools, districts, and statesprioritize interventions?

• How do school-based supports like traditionalcounseling connect or overlap with community-based supports, foundation initiatives, and fed-eral programs?

• What strategies for increasing motivation andperseverance might be borrowed from commu-nity and extracurricular settings?

Implications for Policy-makers and PractitionersWhile the proliferation of college readiness effortsand the vast range of strategies available to policy-makers and practitioners is an exciting develop-ment, the messiness of the field poses dilemmas forstakeholders making decisions about how toadvance college readiness in a particular place.

Whether through a foundation grant or via rela-tionships that exist among state and local leaders,coordination of the multiple efforts is essential, ifonly to communicate a coherent message aboutthe importance of and path to college readiness.Pushback about whether college readiness is theright goal is becoming more frequent.24 Policy-makers at both the state and local levels need to beclear about their rationale for promoting collegereadiness, as well as its connection to career readi-ness and vocational education. It also requires pol-icy-makers and school and district leaders to applywhat the education and social services fields havelearned about service integration and coordinationover the last two or three decades to achieve thenew and more ambitious goal of college readiness.

Data systems and technology will also be impli-cated. A focus on college readiness requires betterinformation about postsecondary outcomes andabout what services are available, where they areoffered, who is getting them, and how they are far-ing. Just implementing the new Common CoreStandards and their related assessments will be achallenge for many states and school districts,especially under the trying economic conditionsmany are facing.

But we know that college readiness requires morethan just academic preparation.

This brief has attempted to organize the burgeon-ing and complex field of college readiness work.Using the framework of academic preparedness,academic tenacity, and college knowledge, we have highlighted common strategies that haveemerged to strengthen these three college readi-ness dimensions.

Through the work of the CRIS network, we hopeto support our CRIS sites as they work to measure,implement, and cohere college readiness.25 AsCRIS sites work to develop indicator systems tomeasure and monitor students’ readiness alongeach dimension and build inventories of targetedsupports, we will identify lessons and share strate-gies for navigating the growing field of collegereadiness.

24 See, for example, William C. Symonds, Robert B. Schwartz,and Ronald Ferguson, Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Chal-lenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century (reportissued by the Pathways to Prosperity Project, Harvard GraduateSchool of Education, February 2011).

25 The CRIS sites are Dallas, New Visions for Public Schools (NewYork City), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Jose (California).


References

Academy for Educational Development. 2008.Partnerships for College Access and Success: A Technical Assistance, Toolkit and Resource Guide.Washington, DC: Academy for EducationalDevelopment.

Achieve. 2010. Closing the Expectations Gap 2010.2010. Washington, DC: Achieve. Available fordownload at <www.achieve.org/ClosingtheExpectationsGap2010>.

Adams, C. 2011. “Mentors Guide High SchoolsStudents through College Process,” EducationWeek, College Bound Blog (March 4), <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/03/new_research_shows_benefits_of_outside_mentors_helping_guide_high_school_students_through_college_pr.html>.

Allensworth, E. M., and J. Q. Easton. 2005. TheOn-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High SchoolGraduation. Chicago: University of Chicago,Consortium on Chicago School Research.

Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance Man-agement at ETS. 2011. Coming Together to RaiseAchievement: New Assessments for the Common CoreState Standards. Austin, TX: ETS. Available fordownload at < http://www. k12center.org/publications/raise_achievement.html>.

Conley, D. T. 2007. Toward a More ComprehensiveConception of College Readiness. Eugene, OR: Edu-cational Policy Improvement Center, Universityof Oregon.

Conley, D. T. 2008. “Rethinking College Readi-ness,” New Directions for Higher Education 144: 3–13.

Conley, D. T. 2011. Redefining College Readiness,Volume 5. Eugene, OR: Educational PolicyImprovement Center, University of Oregon.

Dweck, C., G. M. Walton, and G. L. Cohen. 2011.“Academic Tenacity: Mindset and Skills thatPromote Long-term Learning.” Paper preparedfor the Gates Foundation. Seattle, WA: Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.

Florida Department of Education. 2010. Collegeand Career Readiness Initiative: College PlacementResting Results for High School Students. Tallahas-see, FL: Florida Department of Education.Downloadable PDF at <www.fldoe.org/cc/osas/Evaluations/pdf/fyi2010-04.pdf>.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 2009. StudentSupport Strategy. Seattle, WA: Bill & MelindaGates Foundation.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 2010. Pressrelease (September 27). “Four Cities Receive $12Million to Improve College Graduation Rates.”<www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/communities-learning-in-partnership-grants-announced-100927.aspx>

Institute for Education Sciences. 2007. WhatWorks Clearinghouse Report: Talent DevelopmentHigh Schools. Washington, DC: Institute forEducation Sciences.

Jobs for the Future. 2009. College and Career Readi-ness for All Texas High School Graduates. An IssueBrief Submitted to the Community Foundation ofTexas. Boston, MA: Jobs for the Future.

Kemple, J. J. 2001. Career Academies: Impacts onStudents’ Initial Transitions to Post-Secondary Edu-cation and Employment. New York: MDRC.

Kemple, J. J., and J. C. Snipes. 2000. Career Acade-mies: Impacts on Students’ Engagement and Per-formance in High School. New York: MDRC.

Neild, R. C., B. Balfanz, and L. Herzog. 2007. “AnEarly Warning System,” Educational Leadership65, no. 2:28–33.


Philadelphia Public School Notebook. 2004. “Stu-dent Success Centers Open to Address Needs ofOft-Neglected High Schoolers” (November),<www.thenotebook.org/november-2004/041386/student-success-centers-open-address-needs-oft-neglected-high-schoolers>.

Philadelphia Youth Network. 2006. Turning ItAround: A Collective Effort to Understand andResolve Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis. Philadelphia,PA: Philadelphia Youth Network. DownloadablePDF at <www.pyninc.org/downloads/Turning_it_around_Project_U-Turn.pdf>.

Project U-Turn. 2009. Project U-Turn @ 2.5.Broadening and Deepening Success: An Update to the Community. Philadelphia. PA: PhiladelphiaYouth Network. Downloadable PDF at<www.pyninc.org/downloads/uturn_progress_09_high_res.pdf>.

Roderick, M., J. Nagaoka, and V. Coca. 2009.“College Readiness for All: The Challenge forUrban High Schools.” The Future of Children 19,no. 1:185–210.

U.S. Department of Education. 2008. College Access Challenge Grant FY08 Project Abstracts.Downloadable PDF available at <www2.ed.gov/programs/cacg/cacgabstracts2008.doc>.


MODEL

FOR MORE INFORMATIONDESCRIPTION

Common Core State Standards Initiative

www.corestandards.org/

Education initiative currently exercised in 43 states, steered by theNational Governors Association and the Council of Chief State SchoolOfficers. The initiative looks to align various state curricula to commonacademic standards in order to promote and assess academic prepared-ness. The standards focus on essential English language arts and mathcontent knowledge/skills that students need to be successful in college.

American Diploma Project (ADP)

www.achieve.org/adp-network

Network of 35 states, dedicated to a shared set of strategic policy priori-ties that drive improvements in postsecondary preparation and gradua-tion rates. The benchmarks developed by ADP are notably morerigorous than existing high school standards and focus on acquiring thecontent knowledge and skills necessary to be college and career ready.

Smarter-Balanced Assessment Consortium (S-BAC)

www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER/

A multi-state consortium dedicated to developing an assessment systembased on the new Common Core State Standards. Assessments will beused to collect student data that will drive instruction, influence inter-vention programs, assist in the development of professional training, andguarantee a valid measure of individual student progress regardingcareer and college readiness.

Partnership for Assessment of Readi-ness for College and Career (PARCC)

www.parcconline.org/about-parcc

A partnership between 24 states dedicated to developing a K–12 assess-ment system that will be administered during the 2014-2015 academicyear. The system will guide all students to be college and career ready byevaluating all Common Core State Standards from third grade throughhigh school, supporting teachers in the classroom, driving interventionsto keep students on track to graduate, and utilizing technology forassessments.

MODEL


Upward Bound

www2.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/index.html

Educational program developed to assist low-income, first-generation,and rural students from middle school through college. Students par-ticipate in pre-college workshops and mentoring programs and areprovided with supplementary tutoring and counseling services.

Gear Up

www2.ed.gov/programs/gearup/index.html

Program to award states and partnerships six-year matching grantsthat aim to deliver services that will support high-need students at themiddle and high school level through a cohort-style intervention pro-gram with an early intervention and scholarship component designedto increase college-going rates and success for low-income students.

College Access Challenge Grant Program

www2.ed.gov/programs/cacg/index.html

Grants that allow grantees to design an individual strategy to increasethe number of low-income students who are college ready by improv-ing their college knowledge through college-planning workshops andby guiding them through the application or financial aid process.

National Coalitions

Federal TRIO Programs

APPENDIX

Information on Highlighted College Readiness Initiatives and Programs


MODEL


Hidalgo Independent School District (HISD)Dual Enrollment Program

www.earlycolleges.org/publications.html

HISD aims to develop a college-going culture by engaging not juststudents, but the entire school community. With the goal of increas-ing college-going rates and student success, the district starts asearly as pre-school with a well-developed curriculum that is aligneduntil high school. By ninth grade, students are positioned to earnwithout charge both a high school diploma and an associate’s degreeor up to two years of college credit toward a bachelor’s degree.

New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE)/City University of New York(CUNY) Leaky Pipeline Project

http://annenberginstitute.org/cris/webinars/cris-webinar-linking-high-school-data-and-post-secondary-outcomes-nyc

Data collaboration system between the NYCDOE and CUNYdeveloped to better understand the factors that lead to college-readystudents. The collaboration led to the development of new account-ability metrics for the NYCDOE that help schools improve instruc-tion and identify successful strategies in preventing courseremediation at the college level.

Kentucky P20 Data Collaborative

http://kentuckyp20.ky.gov/

A collaborative that connects Kentucky student data from a numberof sources in an effort to meet the concerns of various educationalgroups and present state and local policy makers with informationneeded to improve the state’s education system.

State- and District-Led Initiatives

Multi-site School-Based ModelsMODEL


Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)

www.avid.org

Schoolwide elementary-through-postsecondary college readiness sys-tem based on rigorous standards, higher-order thinking skills (writing,inquiry, collaboration, and reading), and organizational skills like note-taking taught through the AVID elective course.

Project GRAD

www.projectgrad.org/

Program to partner with local school districts to foster a rigorous col-lege-going culture from pre-K through college by building an individ-ual support system for students. The program focuses on delivering six critical elements including a college preparatory curriculum, sum-mer programming, college and career planning, increasing parentalinvolvement, scholarship money, and increasing student tenacity.

Navigation 101

www.k12.wa.us/SecondaryEducation/CareerCollegeReadiness/default.aspx

A “guidance and life-planning program” for grades 6 through 12 inthe Washington State area. It is intended to act as a catalyst for con-structing future goals and informing students on the prerequisites thatare essential to achieving their postsecondary goals.

POSSE Foundation

www.possefoundation.org/

A national college access program whose mission is to identify, recruit,and train underrepresented students with extraordinary leadershippotential. Students must be nominated by their high school or by acommunity-based organization to apply. Posse Scholars are awardedfour-year, full-tuition leadership merit scholarships and attend collegein teams of ten, known as Posses.


MODEL


Talent Development HighSchools

www.talentdevelopmentschools.com/TDHS.html

A model that aims to improve the academic success of students through thedevelopment of small learning communities led by teacher teams, starting inninth grade, and structured around courses guiding students toward higher-level English and mathematics coursework. Supports are offered to the entireschool community through tutoring sessions for students, professional devel-opment for educators, and parental involvement in events that cultivate stu-dents’ career and college readiness.

Talent Development MiddleGrades

www.talentdevelopmentschools.com/TDMG.html

A schoolwide model devised to increase student achievement in urban middleschools that serve high numbers of low-income students. The school is trans-formed into small learning communities taught by a team of teachers. Themodel utilizes an academic curriculum centered on nationally acknowledgedstandards, provides professional development to teachers, and provides addi-tional assistance to students grappling with math or reading.

Diplomas Now

http://diplomasnow.org/

A partnership between Talent Development, City Year, and Communities inSchools. It combines aspects of the Talent Development model with mentor-ship and academic support by City Year corps members and well-coordinatedcommunity supports.

Early College High Schools

www.earlycolleges.org/

A model that encourages underrepresented students, such as first-generationcollege students and low-income youth, to take college-credit-bearing courseswhile working toward their high school diploma. Through the use of smalllearning communities students can potentially earn a high school diploma andan associate’s degree or up to two years of course credit toward a bachelor’sdegree, for free. The model is used in over 270 schools in 28 states.

KIPP Through College

www.kipp.org/students/kipp-through-college

National network of college-preparatory public charter schools dedicated topreparing underserved students for success in college and beyond though thedevelopment of academic and life skills. KIPP schools provide students withacademic supports, counseling services, mentoring services, financial literacy,and career awareness at the middle school, high school, and college levels.

Aspire Public Schools

www.aspirepublicschools.org/

Charter network in California that emphasizes college aspirations and collegeenrollment through its “College for Certain” motto. Aspire high schools par-ticipate in the Early College High School inititaive.

Gateway to College

www.gatewaytocollege.org

This model connects school districts and public universities to provide acceler-ated dual-credit opportunities to students who have dropped out or areunlikely to graduate. The students are enrolled in college and complete collegecoursework on the college campus while simultaneously earning a high schooldiploma. The model provides a range of personalized supports.

Linked Learning California

www.connectedcalifornia.org/linked_learning

A California multiple-pathways model that redesigns high schools to provideintegrated college and career preparation. Schools using the model combine arigorous college preparatory curriculum with technical education in one ofCalifornia’s 15 major industry sectors and work-based learning, plus individu-alized academic and social supports. Funded by the James Irvine Foundation.

Multi-site School-Based Models (continued)


MODEL


Partnership for College Access and Success

http://aed.org/News/Stories/lumina.cfm

www.luminafoundation.org/publications/Results_and_Reflections-Making_the_numbers_add_up.pdf

Lumina Foundation initiative in eight cities to formpartnerships of community-based organizations, col-leges and universities, school districts, business lead-ers, and support organizations to align data andsupports for college access and success, particularly forunderserved students. Lead organization in each sitehas extensive experience supporting underserved stu-dents.

Postsecondary Success Program

www.philaedfund.org/programs/advancing-education/philadelphia-postsecondary-success-program

www.educationfund.org/programs/citipostsecondarysuccessprogramcpsp/

www.sfedfund.org/partners/postsecondary.php

Citi Foundation initiative to increase college goingamong first-generation and low-income students.Public education funds in three cities coordinate col-laborations of schools, colleges, community organiza-tions, and service providers. Sites conduct inventoriesof services and service providers to increase alignmentwork to build college-going cultures in specificschools.

Communities Learning in Partnership

www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/iyef/education/higher-education/communities-learning-in-partnership

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative to supportlow-income students’ college going by coordinatingcommunity, school system, and college resources.Builds learning communities and long-term partner-ships to streamline guidance and other services forhigh school and college students

“Promise” Programs

www.pittsburghpromise.org/

For links to several Promise programs see:www.wmich.edu/conferencemanagement/promisenet/importantlinks.php

Place-based scholarship programs that seek to increasethe college-educated population in a given citythrough coordinated education reform, economic andneighborhood development, and guaranteed financialaid for students who meet certain basic requirements.See, for example, the Pittsburgh Promise.

Say Yes to Education

www.sayyestoeducation.org

National nonprofit with chapters in several northeast-ern cities that provides academic support, out-of-school programming, health and mental health care,and college scholarships to cohorts of students in sev-eral cities. Say Yes Syracuse uses a citywide strategy.

Success Boston

www.successboston.org

Citywide alignment strategy to dramatically increasethe number of Boston Public Schools students com-pleting college. Includes increased access to rigorouscoursework in high school, college and financial aidadvising, and transition mentoring through college.

Project U-Turn

www.pyninc.org/projectuturn

Citywide campaign led by the Philadelphia YouthNetwork to end the dropout crisis in Philadelphia.Collaborations with the school district and other com-munity partners include a summer bridge high schooltransition program, re-engagement centers for out-of-school youth, case management, and student successcenters to support college access.

Site-Based Collaborations


MODEL


College Crusade of Rhode Island

www.thecollegecrusade.org

Recruits motivated middle and high school students and provides ongo-ing adult support along with academic enrichment, college prep andcareer exploration, and social and personal development activities. TheCrusade provides four-year scholarships to financially eligible “cru-saders.”

SOURCE and VSOURCE, University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles

www.edboost.org/vsource

SOURCE trains current college students to provide one-on-one men-toring and college advising to Los Angeles Unified School District(LAUSD) students, as well as college access materials and curriculum toLAUSD schools. VSOURCE provides reminders via text, email, andsocial networking about deadlines, as well as access to online SAT prepa-ration and virtual support from trained college mentors.

Local Community-Based Organizations

MODEL


Accuplacer Diagnostic

www.connection-collegeboard.com/09dec/programs_3.html

Suite of diagnostic tests developed by College Board to comple-ment its Accuplacer college placement tests. Diagnostic testsare used in colleges and high schools to target individualizedsupports and remediation and to plan for high school to collegetransitions.

College Readiness Standards and Assessments

www.act.org/standards

Relates scores on its three sequential assessments to widelyshared expectations for success in high school and college. Thestandards are used for coursework placement and to informinstructional decisions and targeted supports.

KnowHow2Go Initiative

www.knowhow2go.org

Online resource for middle school through high school studentsand mentors that provides information on preparing for andapplying for college, as well as links to useful resources.

Other Resources


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� Box 1985Providence, Rhode Island 02912

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[email protected]

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Documents

College Readiness: A Guide to the Field - ERIC Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) ... Many initiatives. College Readiness: A Guide to the Field. College Readiness: A Guide