Course Rigor for College Readiness

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• Course Rigor for College Readiness

Bill Melinda Gates Foundation Grantee Convening
July 17, 2007 Russlynn Ali, Director The
Education TrustWest


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The Right Goal All Students College and Work
Ready.But What Does That Mean?
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There is a relationship between high level
courses and achievement.
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Math Achievement Increases as the Highest Level
of Math Course Completed Increases
NAEP Math Scale is 0-300
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, High School Transcript Study (HSTS),
2005
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Science Achievement Increases as the Highest
Level of Science Course Completed Increases
NAEP Science Scale is 0-300
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, High School Transcript Study (HSTS),
2005
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But there are big gaps in achievement, even among
students who complete the same courses.
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Gaps in Achievement by Highest Math Course
Completed
NAEP Math Scale is 0-300
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, High School Transcript Study (HSTS),
2005
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Gaps in Achievement by Highest Science Course
Completed
NAEP Science Scale is 0-300
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, High School Transcript Study (HSTS),
2005
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In 2006, California graduated36 of its seniors
college-ready, mastering at least Algebra II.
Source www.cde.ca.gov, California Department of
Education 2006
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Yet one year earlier, of Californias juniors in
Algebra II,only 12 were proficient.
Source www.cde.ca.gov, California Department of
Education 2006
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This happens everywhere.
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Example One District
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• Of the juniors who took Algebra II in 2006, 14
  were proficient on the CST that year.
• Yet 59 of them got a C or better in the course.

Source www.cde.ca.gov, California Department of
Education 2006 and ETW district transcript
analysis, Class of 2007
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Example One CMO
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100 of students within a particular CMO
graduated college-ready in 2006.

• Yet only 8 of students in those schools were
  proficient in geometry.
• And only 5 were proficient in Algebra II.

Source www.cde.ca.gov, California Department of
Education 2006
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Example One high school. A high performing,
high poverty and high minority high school.
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100 of students graduated college ready. Yet. .
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• Only 1 were proficient in Geometry.
• And none were proficient in Algebra II.

Source www.cde.ca.gov, California Department of
Education 2004-2006 Note Compared 2006 graduates
to 2004 Geometry CST scores (since students take
Geometry in 10th grade) and 2005 Algebra II CST
scores (since students take Algebra II in 11th
grade.)
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You cant judge the rigor of a course by its
name.
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All Kids College and Work Ready Focusing on
Course Quality, Redesign.Equity in Rigor?
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Grade 7 Standards Based, Rigorous Writing
Assignment
Essay on Anne Frank Your essay will consist of
an opening paragraph which introduced the title,
author and general background of the novel.
Your thesis will state specifically what Anne's
overall personality is, and what general
psychological and intellectual changes she
exhibits over the course of the book You might
organize your essay by grouping psychological and
intellectual changes OR you might choose 3 or 4
characteristics (like friendliness, patience,
optimism, self doubt) and show how she changes in
this area.
Source Unnamed school district in California,
2002-03 school year.
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Grade 7 Low-Level Writing Assignment

• My Best Friend
• A chore I hate
• A car I want
• My heartthrob

Source Unnamed school district in California,
2002-03 school year.
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Middle School Example

• 7th Grade Assignment
• Explain the difference between the systems of
  the body affected by an allergy to pollen and
  those affected by an allergy to food as well as
  the process by which different medicines reduce
  the symptoms of each allergy.

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Middle School Example

• 7th Grade Assignment
• Name and describe functions of the five body
  systems.

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The Odyssey Ninth Grade High-level Assignment
Comparison/Contrast Paper Between Homer's Epic
Poem, The Odyssey and the Movie "0 Brother Where
Art Thou" By nature, humans compare and contrast
all elements of their world. Why? Because in the
juxtaposition of two different things, one can
learn more about each individual thing as well as
something about the universal nature of the
things being compared. For this 2-3 page paper
you will want to ask yourself the following
questions what larger ideas do you see working
in The Odyssey and "0 Brother Where Art Thou"? Do
both works treat these issues in the same way?
What do the similarities and differences between
the works reveal about the underlying nature of
the larger idea?
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The Odyssey Ninth Grade Low-level Assignment
Divide class into 3 groups Group 1 designs a
brochure titled "Odyssey Cruises". The students
listen to the story and write down all the places
Odysseus visited in his adventures, and list the
cost to travel from place to place. Group 2
draws pictures of each adventure. Group 3 takes
the names of the characters in the story and gods
and goddesses in the story and designs a
crossword puzzle.
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Grade 10 Writing Assignment
A frequent theme in literature is the conflict
between the individual and society. From
literature you have read, select a character who
struggled with society. In a well-developed
essay, identify the character and explain why
this characters conflict with society is
important.
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Grade 10 Writing Assignment
Write a composition of at least 4 paragraphs on
Martin Luther Kings most important contribution
to this society. Illustrate your work with a
neat cover page. Neatness counts.
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Using the SAME TEXT BOOKCollege-prep assignments
from

• School A, District A, California
• 1467 students enrolled in 2005
• 82 White
• 6 Asian
• 4 Latino
• 2 Black
• 2 Low-Income

• School B, District B, California
• 2001 students enrolled in 2005
• 45 White
• 4 Asian
• 48 Latino
• 1 Black
• 27 Low-Income

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Same Text Book High-Level college-prep
assignment

• Describe the fundamental problems in the economy
  that helped cause the Great Depression. Consider
  agriculture, consumer spending and debt,
  distribution of wealth, the stock market
• Describe how people struggled to survive during
  the Depression
• How did Hoovers belief in rugged individualism
  shape his policies during the depression?

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Same Text BookLow Level college-prep assignment

• Role play (Meet the Press) interview key people
  of the era
• Draw a political cartoon highlighting a major
  event of the time
• Share excerpts from noted literary authors-Lewis,
  Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Hughes
• Listen to jazz artists of the 20s
• Construct a collage depicting new inventions

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Need to assess the rigor of CTE courses,
too.Are assignments rigorous? Or code language
for old-style vocational education tracking? Who
gets access to the rigorous academies, and who
gets courses that lead to dead end jobs?
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• The achievement gap lives in the quality of
  assignments we provide to students.
• Students can do no better than the assignments
  they are given.

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All Kids College and Work ReadyHow Do We
Measure?A Good Model CSUs EAP.
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Readiness for College Mathematics 11th graders in
Algebra II, by Ethnicity
Source Unpublished Data from Early Assessment
Program, California State University, June 2007
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Readiness for College Mathematics11th graders in
Algebra II, by Economic Status
Source Unpublished Data from Early Assessment
Program, California State University, June 2007
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Readiness for College English11th graders, by
Ethnicity
Source Unpublished Data from Early Assessment
Program, California State University, June 2007
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Readiness for College English11th graders, by
Economic Status
Source Unpublished Data from Early Assessment
Program, California State University, June 2007
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EAP revealing hugely important information.

• Expectations are clear to everyone. Parents,
  students, teacher and administrators.
• Sends strong (and only) signals about what the
  senior year should look like.
• Next step Alignment. CSU course modules can be
  adopted in full or used as a guide/rubric.

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Need meaningful measures of college and work
readiness.

• 1. Need agreement on common assessment. 2.
  Could be SAT. Could be ACT. Any number of ways
  to measure. Different cut scores for different
  institutions.
• Bottom Line Should Have Consistency Among the
  Different Systems. Principals and Teachers want
  to get students college and work ready, but have
  no idea on the criteria.

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And of course, the quality and rigor of high
school courses is HIGHLY correlated with teacher
quality.
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The Teacher Quality Index Developed by the
Illinois Education Research Council

• School Level Teacher Characteristics
• of Teachers with Emergency/Provisional
  Certification
• of Teachers from More/Most Selective Colleges
• of Teachers with
• of Teachers Failing Basic Skills Test on First
  Attempt
• Teachers ACT Composite and English Scores

School Teacher Quality Index (TQI)
Source DeAngelis, K., Presley, J. and White, B.
(2005). The Distribution of Teacher Quality in
Illinois. Illinois Education Research Council.
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Calculus in Name OnlyStudents in Schools With
Low TQI Who Complete Calculus Arent As Ready for
College as Students Who Complete Just Algebra II
in Schools With Higher Teacher Quality
Algebra II
Trigonometry or other advanced math
Calculus
Lowest Quartile
Lowest 11-25 TQI
Highest TQI Quartile
Upper- Middle TQI Quartile
Lower- Middle TQI Quartile
Lowest 10 TQI
Source Presley, J. and Gong, Y. (2005). The
Demographics and Academics of College Readiness
in Illinois. Illinois Education Research Council.
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SAVE THE DATE!
The Education Trust-West 510-465-6444
www.edtrustwest.org The Education
Trust 202-293-1217 www.edtrust.org