CCC-CIO Fall 2011 Conference:A Call to Action

Jeff Burdick, M.A.English faculty, Willow International

Ellen Melocik, Ed. D.English department chair, Clovis West

College Readiness Partnership between

Post-Secondary and Secondary Institutions

Abstract

• Clovis West High School (CW) and Willow International Community College (WI) entered into a partnership during the 2010-2011 school year to examine: • student performance data, • share resources and experiences, and • determine ways to increase student college and career

readiness.

• Specific goals and strategies, including a revision of 12th

grade curriculum, have been established and are in the process of implementation.

Introduction

Problem Identification

Problem Analysis

Discussion

Call to Action

Issues for Further Discussion

Problem Identification

Stakeholder Issues

Institutional Practices

Focus Questions

Institutional Observations

Secondary Institutions place too

few students into College Freshman

English classes

Post-Secondary Institutions allocate too many funds to remediate students

Post-Secondary Institutions

graduate/transfer too few students

Secondary Institutions do not

necessarily promote the academic behaviors and

curriculum required for post-secondary

success

(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006; Darlaston-Jones, et. al., 2003; League for Innovation in the Community College, 2010; Parker, 2007 )

Field Stakeholder Observations

Too many college/university instructors complain that their students aren’t prepared well enough to succeed in post-

secondary classes

Too many high school teachers insist they are teaching exactly what they should be teaching and should not have to

change class content

Too many parents are confused and angry that their student is failing in college/university

Too many students struggle in post-secondary classes and accuse the educational system of being unfair

CW Graduates Needing Remedial English

School Year UC CSU SCCCD

2005-2006 NA 45% 70%

2006-2007 NA 47% 75%

2007-2008 NA 47% 74%

2008-2009 NA 53% 79%

2009-2010 NA 45% 67%

2010 - 2011 NA NO REMEDIATIONOFFERED

54% after starting the conversation

(CW Counseling Office, 2011)

Focus Questions

• Leading Question:• What should students be able to do when they leave high

school?

• Sub-Questions:• Why are good high schools with good teachers producing

so many graduates who struggle with post-secondary reading and writing?

• Is the current high school English curriculum preparing students to be college and career ready?

Problem Analysis

Shared Data

Academic Practices

Focus Strategies

Comparison of English Remediation

National 4 year

National 2 year

CSUF All HS

CSU CWHS

WI All HS

WI CWHS

71%57%

35%55%

17%33%

29%43%

65%45%

83%67%

Remediation Rates

Freshman English Remedial English

(California Department of Education , 2010; CW Counseling Office, 2010; WI Counseling Office, 2010; )

October 2010-2011 Senior Pre-Assessment

Seniors Non- AP Comp Seniors AP Comp Seniors

Total Number of Students

563 429 134

Total Tested out of Total Number

410 ( 73.8% ) 276 (64.3% ) 114 (85.0%)

Percentage Tested

410/410 (100%) 276/410 (67.3%) 114/410 (27.8% )

PercentagePlaced from Number Tested

192/410 (46.8%) 99/276 (35.9% ) 93/114 (81.6% )

CW Counseling Office, 2010; WI Counseling Office, 2010)

Previous Course Offerings

•English 9 •Honors 9 Grade 9•English 10 •Honors 10 Grade 10•English 11 •American Literature •AP Language /Composition Grade 11•Bible as Literature Contemporary Cultures •Creative Writing World Literature/Composition •AP Literature /Composition Grade 12

CW Demographics: 2010-2011

Cont C

ultu

res

Creati

ve W

ritin

g

Bible

Lit/Con

t Issu

es

Wor

ld L

itera

ture

AP Lite

ratu

re

63

3829

50 49

Percentage of minorities in senior course offerings

Africa

n Am

erica

nAsia

n

Hispan

ic

Whi

te

Mul

tiple

614

29

48

3

Senior class percentages by ethnicity

Current Course Offerings

•English 9 •Honors 9 Grade 9•English 10 •Honors 10 Grade 10•American Literature and Composition •AP Language and Composition Grade 11•World Literature and Composition •AP Literature and Composition Grade 12

WI Data Sharing

• For the 2010-2011 school year:• Willow International has been tracking Clovis West

students on our college campus, gathering data and instructor impressions on student achievement and problems. • Some data relies on qualitative research questions:• What do you think is the cause of student failure? • What problems are common for this failing student?

• Some data relies on quantitative research questions:• What is the success rate for students enrolled in 1A and 125? • At what point do students drop or fail a class?

Top Two Feeder Schools for WI - 2010

State Buchannan Clovis West

16

4036

Ready for College?

EAP Freshman Placement %

(Willow International Counseling Office, 2010)

15.6% of 1A Students failed at the 9-Week Point; (currently 13.5%) at the six-week

Hard Skills (Academic)

12%9%

5%

25%25%

25%

UnpreparedWriting DeficiencyReading DeficiencyCritical AnalyisisTopic OrganizationTopic Limiting

Soft Skills (Behavior)

4%22%

26%16%

16%

16%

AttendancePersonal ResponsibilityTime ManagementStudy SkillsProfessional Interactions

Top Two Feeder Schools for WI - 2011

State Buchanan Clovis West

16

32

46

Ready for College?

EAP Freshman Placement %

(CW Counseling Office, 2011)

English 1A Statistics 2010-2011

All WI Students CWHS Students at WI

7067

3033

Pass 1A Fail 1A

Exit Points

WI 252•43% will successfully complete the course•60% of those students will have success in 125•If 30 students begin the class, 8 will succeed in 125

WI 125•52% will successfully complete the course•68% of those students will have success in 1A•If 30 students begin the class, 10 will succeed in 1A

Nationally •58% of high school students who initially place into freshman English actually complete a college degree•64% of students who pass ELA AP exams complete a college degree having placed into freshman or sophomore English

Dougherty, Mellor, & Jian, 2006; Schneiders, 2010; WI Counseling Office, 2010)

Focus Strategies: Ways to Measure College Readiness

• Key Cognitive Strategies (formative)• Learning activities and tasks deeply embedded in the course• Collection of classroom evidence collected over time• Reasoning; argumentation and proof; interpretation, precision and accuracy;

problem-solving; and research

• Key Content Knowledge• College admissions tests• Final exams; AP exams• California State exams (district benchmarks would be here as well)

• Academic Behaviors• Student surveys that measure methods, tools, and strategies in areas such as

study skills, time management, and self-management• Discussions between teachers and/or advisors concerning students professed

and actual behaviors

• Contextual Skills and Awareness• Assessing student understanding of the entire process of college admissions,

financial aid, registration, course selections, and the overall function of college

(Conklin & Sanford, 2007; Conley, 2007; Tell & Cohen, 2007)

Discussion

Standards and Outcomes

Institutional Practices

Key Academic Behaviors

Standards and Outcomes

… respond to literature by identifying significant ideas, analyzing imagery, diction, and theme, supporting ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed textual references, demonstrating an appreciation of the effects caused by an author’s stylistic devices, and assessing the impact of perceived textual ambiguities, nuances and complexities

… produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary sources, cogent explanations, and clear transitions;

… Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly; write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts; Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources using advanced searches effectively

Institutional Practices

Common Goals

•Student post-secondary readiness •Student academic performance•Student academic behaviors•Collaboration between secondary and post-secondary institutions

Divergent Practices

•Formative Assessment Focus vs. Summative Assessment Focus•Concurrent Remediation vs. Prerequisite Remediation•Teacher-Student-Parent Relationships vs. Teacher-Student Relationships

Key Academic Behaviors(Conley, 2007; Kirst & Venezia, 2004; Tell & Cohen, 2007)

Implications for Change

Secondary Schools need to ask:

•How many students need English remediation in college?•How many students take AP/concurrent college classes?•How many students have appropriate academic behaviors?

Post-Secondary Schools

need to ask:•Are students successfully completing freshman English? •Are students successfully navigating through registration systems and research mediums?•Are students adding value to their educational community?

Call to Action

Reversed Engineered Articulation

Revised Curriculum

Monitor and Review

Reverse Engineering

ContentAssignmentsAssessments

Behaviors

ContentAssignmentsAssessments

Behaviors

Academic Behaviors

Time Management

Persistence

Common Policies

Online DialogueRevision

Grading PolicyMake-up PolicyMastery Policy

Weekly AgendaDue Date Calendar

Units based on Rhetorical Strategies

Initial Instruction

Themed Model Texts

Guided Practice

Supplementary Activities

Mastery and Intervention

Culminating Essays and

Presentations

Building Global Awareness vs Literary Canon

• Poverty• Health• Technology• Consumerism

Economics

Guided Practice

Philosophical Chairs

Background ActivityState and Support

SummarizeRebuttal and Support

Reflection

Graphic OrganizersPre-Writing Outlines

Thesis Support

SyllogismFallacies

Structure and StyleConclusion

Socratic Seminar

Pre-ReadingReading

Question GenerationDiscussionEvaluation

Supplementary Activities

Technology

•Research•Tool Bar

Grammar

•Revision•Editing

Vocabulary

•Academic •Content

College and Career

•Application•Navigation

Mastery

Revision

Intervention

Rubrics

Rhetorical Strategy Due Dates

Introduction to Rhetorical Strategies September 2

Narration September 20

Exemplification October 11

Definition October 25

Description November 8

Argumentation December 13

Synthesis Research January 10

Division and Classification February 7

Cause and Effect February 21

Compare and Contrast March 6

Process Analysis March 27

Synthesis Research May 22

12 Culminating Essays for Each Unit

Issues for Further Discussion

Observations

Resistance

Administrative Support

All stakeholders need to take responsibility for student success

Colleges need to be accountable

for degree completion

High schools need to be

accountable for teaching to

college readiness standards

Parents need to promote positive attitudes about

education

Students need to accountable for

positive academic

contributions

There is a disconnect between secondary and post-secondary academic goals

Secondary state assessments are not aligned with

college placement

assessments

There is little longitudinal data that analyzes how post-secondary student

performance compares to secondary student

performance

There are few conversations

between secondary and post-secondary

teachers

Link high school juniors and seniors to college activities

Promote AP and concurrent enrollment

opportunities

Create initiatives that target college

readiness

Share data on specific student

populations

Initiate and promote college visitations and

college presentations

Many students cannot navigate a post-secondary culture

Knowledge varies by student group;

College preparatory opportunities have been inequitable

There is a lack of college

counseling for all students.

A Note about Staff Resistance

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (Hirschman, 1970), a quintessential business text, outlines three possible responses when an employee is asked to implement a policy with which the employee disagrees. Exit: an employee leaves the organization (retire, teach elsewhere, or

begin a new career) Voice: an employee speaks up about the policy; and Loyalty: an employee quietly or openly fails to conform to the policy.

When Hirsch (1996) uses the term “loyalty” in The schools we need; Why we don’t have them, he is actually referring to the disintegration of loyalty. Token compliance: only some of the policy is carried out Delayed compliance: employees put off carrying out a policy Outright sabotage: employees might fabricate or lose paperwork.

Upping the “Anti”

Curriculum SupportProfessional Development

ERWC9-10-11

InitiativesOn-Staff Coach

DiscrepanciesBenchmark Protocol

Essay NormingEssay Assignments

District SupportDistrict grade 12 Initiative

Revised CurriculumReorganized PLTs

On the Offensive Climate Survey

Petition Job Applications

Community Meetings Former Students

Student Quote (Aug 2011)

• “I feel that this class and the things it has to offer will help me in the long run because it will get me ready for college. I just took the placement test, and without this class which gives me three more chances I would be in the lowest English class they had to offer and would be way behind going into college.”

Student Quotes (August 2011)

• “As in for my educational experience, I still don’t feel ready, even for this class. When I started my freshman and sophomore English, it was really easy with nothing hard to do, and so I wasted like two whole year of learning mainly nothing. I know that I’m not good in English but I still managed to pass those classes.”

Student Quote (August 2011)

• “Push us. Push us till we can all succeed in freshman english. Past english classes were a joke and while that was good for the short term but if that continued then no one would make it to college. I just want to be qualified to get into college. What ever that takes to get me there I am willing to do.”

Student Quote (August 2011)

• “The changes are going to make school more challenging but I’m glad they changed it because I want to be successful. I think we all need to be challenged and pushed more. I don’t want to go into college unprepared. I want to be college ready.”

Student Quote (August 2011)

• “In past classes teachers would have the class read a passage from the text, and then answer a series of questions about what they just read. This made it possible for some people to just pay attention to what was going on during class, and get credit for work they weren’t actually doing. This new way of doing things seems to put more responsibility with the student to actually read and understand the texts provided by the teacher. This change from more traditional styles seems to be a pretty good idea seeing it is that most things in life rely on yourself.”

Continued Administrative Support

CW• Placement Tests/Benchmarks

• Administer• Professional Development

• ERWC• District Curriculum Development• CW/WI Essay Calibration

• Meetings• Team• Staff• Parent• Board

• Conferences• Attend• Present

WI• Placement Tests/Benchmarks• Fund• Deliver• Retrieve and Score

• Meetings• Team• Staff• Parent• Board

• Conferences• Attend• Present

Partnership Goals

CW

Increase 1A Placement

Clear curriculum alignment

Increase assignment rigor

Increase assessment rigor

Current Status

• Clovis West High School is piloting these changes through a PLT • The team teaches the AP Language and Composition Class and the new

World Literature and Composition class in tandem for rigor and consistency

• Each teacher has committed to teaching the same curriculum at the same time using Common Core Standards

• Each teacher has committed to using the same common assessments and analyzing assessment data for student performance comparisons• Comparisons between current students• Comparisons between past students

• The District selected a team of one teacher from each of the five high schools to create a template to be used for each of the 12 units; currently three of those teachers are writing curriculum

• A new writing-based textbook has been District Board-approved• McCuen-Metherell, J. R. & Winkler, A. C.2010, 2007. Reading

For Writers. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

2011-2012 Pre-Assessment Senior Statistics: 66% on track

PlacementResults

Freshman Grade 12 Grade 11 ESL Test Not Taken TOTAL

Numbers 75 94 59 18 11 257

Percentage 29.1% 36.5% 22.9 7.0% 4.0% 100.0%

CST Results

Advanced Proficient Basic Below Basic Far Below Basic TOTAL

Numbers 63 100 53 23 4 243

Percentage 25.9% 41.1% 21.8% 9.4% 1.6% 100.0%

Projected Outcomes

2009-2010 School Year• No Partnership

• Scarce dialogue, data sharing• Inconsistent evaluations

• 33% place into 1A• Literature-based units• Negligible nonfiction texts• 0-6 processed essays per year• No benchmark assessments• Inconsistent classroom policies

• Negligible RtI• Revisions • Extra credit

2011-2012 School Year• Continued Partnership

• Consistent dialogue, data sharing• Normed evaluations

• 66% place into 1A• Writing-based units• 80% nonfiction texts• 12 processed essays per year• 3 benchmark assessments• Consistent classroom policies

• Built-in RtI• Mastery • No extra credit

11.2% failing to turn in work

A B C D F0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

6-Week Progress

6-Week Progress

Why Does This Matter?

These are kids who have dreams and we are teachers who want to lead them to their dreams.

A college-ready high school curriculum will allow many more young people to achieve their goals.

It is simply the right thing to do.

Questions

• If you would like a copy of this presentation or have questions, contact either:

• Jeff.Burdick@scccd.edu

• ellenmelocik@cusd.com

References

• Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006). "Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation." Alliance for Excellent Education.

• Borden, V. M., Coles, A., Conley, D. T., Lindholm, J. A., McDonogh, P. M., Schneider, B., & Tell, C. A. (2006). Fostering access and persistence in higher education. Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, Retrieved from: http://administration.ucok.edu/good2great/pdf/Scans/wp003Reader.pdf

• California Department of Education . (2010) Assessment, Accountability, & Awards Division. http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2010/

• Conklin, K. D., & Sanford, S. (2007) A College‐Ready Nation: An Idea Who Time Has Come. Chapter 5 of Minding the Gap – Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It. Hoffman, N., Vargas, J., Venezia, et al., eds. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge, Mass.

• Conley, D. T. (2007). Redefining college readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.

References

Darlaston-Jones, D., Pike, L., Cohen, L., Young, A., Haunold, S., & Drew, N. (2003). Are they being served? Student expectations of higher education. Issues In Educational Research, 13(1), 31–52.

Dougherty, C., Mellor, l., Jian, S. 2006. The Relationship between Advanced Placement and College Graduation. Austin, TX. The National Center for Educational Responsibility.

• Hirsch, Jr., E. D. (1996). The schools we need: Why we don’t have them. New York: Doubleday.

• Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

• Kirst, M., & Venezia, A. (2004). From high school to college: Improving opportunities for success in postsecondary education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Larose, S., & Boivin, M. (1998). Attachment of parents, social support expectations, and socioemotional adjustment during the high school-college transition. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8(1), 1–27.

References

• League for Innovation in the Community College. (2010). Significant Discussions: A Guide for Secondary and Postsecondary Curriculum Alignment. Produced with a grant from MetLife Foundation. Laurance J. Warford, Principal Investigator, and Marsha VanNahmen, Project Assistant. Phoenix: League for Innovation in the Community College. Available: www.league.org/significantdiscussions.

• Parker, T. L. (2007). Ending college remediation: Consequences for access and opportunity. (ASHE/Lumina Policy Briefs and Critical Essays No. 2). Ames: Iowa State University, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Schneiders, R. 2010. Remedial College Courses: A Point of No Return. Chicago. The University of Chicago Urban Education Institute.

• School Innovations and Advocacy. (2010). Single Plan for Student Achievement. Fresno, CA: Clovis West High School.

• Tell, C. & Cohen, M. (2007). Alignment of High School Expectations to College and Work. Chapter 7 of Minding the Gap – Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It. Hoffman, N., Vargas, J., Venezia, et al., eds. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge, Mass.