Measuring What Matters: Indicators of College and Career Readiness

Over the last several years, policymakers, educators, and philanthropy have increasingly highlighted the challenge of maintaining a college educated work force in the US: both the economy and American society increasingly require more than a high school diploma. And, across the country, high school graduation and college enrollment rates have risen. But, many states have found that the more students who enroll in college, the more students who need remediation – and that graduation rates for students who need remediation are dismally low.

 

Thus, attention at all levels has turned to preparing young people to succeed in college. States are “aligning” k- 12 curricula and college curricula and working to develop “college ready standards” and hold districts and schools accountable to them. Some of the most exciting and promising work in this area is being done right here in New York, where both the City and the State are recalculating their metrics for college and career readiness. So far, official standards have focused on academic preparedness, but the City and State are each looking at ways to measure two other crucial dimensions of college readiness: attitudes and behaviors (“metacognitive” factors) and the college or career-specific knowledge that enable students to enter college or career propitiously.

 

Moreover, it is not just New York’s policymakers whose work on college and career readiness has gained national acclaim: New York is also the site of one of the most promising pilots in the College Ready Indicator Systems study. New Visions for Public Schools is actively working with its schools to develop metrics that enable schools to help each student graduate high school ready to succeed in post-secondary life.

 

The New York City Youth Funders Network, Education Working Group of Philanthropy New York, and the Donors’ Education Collaborative invite you to learn more about how policymakers and educators are rethinking how to measure what matters.

 

 

A Philanthropy Connects program presented by The Education Working Group, New York City Youth Funders Network, and the Donors’ Education Collaborative.

This Program is “Partially Open.”

 

 

 

All interested funders