Schools are using data about college and career readiness of students to focus and refine their systems of support.
T
he term “college and career ready” has become widely used as a result of the proposed El- ementary and Secondary Educa-
tion Act (ESEA) reauthorization and Com- mon Core State Standards movement. As we move toward what may be considered a moral and economic imperative for our nation’s students, it is essential that we first identify the gaps of college and career readi- ness both in our students and within our systems of practice. In working with districts across Califor-
nia, a simple yet compelling example ob- served while leading instructional rounds in a high school conveys the extent to which these gaps exist. In the first classroom the following occurred:
n On the board were five terms: setting,
tone, mood, character and plot. The teacher asked students to spend three minutes writ- ing independently how these terms are used
12 Leadership
to describe a story. At the conclusion of three minutes, students were asked to turn to a part- ner and share what they had written for two minutes. Following the dialogue, four students were randomly selected to read what they had written and what their partner dialog may have clarified. Each student spoke with clarity and precision as to how these terms explained the structure of a story. In the second classroom the following
occurred: n On the board was the number 2/3. Stu-
dents were asked by the teacher to name the reciprocal. After many prompts without cor- rect student responses, the terms opposite and negative were shared by the teacher and written on the board. With additional stu- dent prompting the teacher wrote the number -3/2 on the board. Students then were given the opportunity in pairs to find the reciprocals of several other fractions, during which time students struggled with the structured interac-
tion. After 10 minutes students were confident in their ability to conceptually understand the meaning of a reciprocal number.
How does this observation convey the
gaps of college and career readiness? In de- briefing with teachers participating in the instructional rounds, it was asked what would be required for the students in the Algebra 1 class to successfully complete the same task asked of the freshman English stu- dents. After a discussion of the scaffolding needed, the time frame of two periods was decided upon. The stark difference between these two
classrooms conveys the gaps of college and career readiness of our students – academic language, higher order skills, academic be- haviors and real-world applications. These four attributes both define a college and ca-
By Jay Westover
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