WEBVTT

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Hi, my name is Dave
Conley, and I am a professor

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at the University of Oregon.

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I am the founder and the
director of the Center

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for Educational Policy Research

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and the Educational
Policy Improvement Center,

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both located here
in Eugene, Oregon.

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A number of schools
really have, I think,

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distinguished themselves
in developing programs

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that are much more aligned,
much more focused on career

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and college readiness-creating
a college-going culture

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within their schools, aligning
assignments and grading policies

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so that students move from
high school to college

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with some feedback and
readiness, creating greater

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and closer connections to their 
postsecondary institutions locally.

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We studied 38 of those schools
and wrote up the results of it

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in a publication entitled
Creating College Readiness.

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Those schools are all types,

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from small to very
large, rural to urban.

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In general, what we see is
the teachers there agree

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that the purpose of high
school is to prepare kids

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for postsecondary education-that's 
the central purpose.

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We see very specific programs
where students get exposed

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to postsecondary education while
they are still in high school;

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they get to visit the
campus or they get to work

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with a college instructor
or college students.

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We see that the counseling
departments are really much more

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clearly oriented towards getting
students the information they

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need, because college
readiness is information-heavy.

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It requires a lot of what we
call privileged knowledge,

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information that
you are not going

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to have unless somebody
helps you to locate it

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and gets it in your hands.

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Many of the schools that we
have studied and visited,

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one of the characteristics we
find is that they pay attention

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to the students from the
day they come in the door

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in ninth grade and before that.

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I mean, they are connecting
with the middle schools,

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getting information about
how the students have done

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in middle school,
bringing that information

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into the ninth-grade
environment,

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having an orientation program,
setting goals with students,

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having students lay out
their plan for their courses

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for all four years in the ninth
grade, and then making sure

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that they adhere to that plan or
that someone is keeping an eye

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on them if they change it.

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If those students start
to get behind at all,

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the schools have
support services.

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They make sure that there
is options and opportunities

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for the students to catch back up,
they don't get too far behind.

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And throughout it all they
are introducing the notions

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of college and career readiness, each year
-ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade,

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twelfth grade-and not
waiting until the end.

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In fact, schools already
have available to them a lot

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of information, I think,

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that cumulatively tells you
a lot more about how ready

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for postsecondary
education students will be.

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I mean, you have commercial
instruments available

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where you can test students:
PSAT, the ACT program,

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the EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT.

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You even have available
to you, potentially,

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some of the placement tests
that community colleges

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or four-year institutions
would give.

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All this would start to
get you more information

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as students move
along the continuum

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on how well prepared they are:

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Are they meeting some basic
levels of readiness for college?

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It doesn't give you
enough information, maybe,

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that's detailed enough to
know exactly what kinds

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of changes you need to
make in your program,

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but in general it helps you to see
if the student is on track or not.

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I think we are going
to need to recognize

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that the solution is going
to require new methods,

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new tools, new techniques.

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We are going to need to think
particularly about the kind

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of information we have on
student assessment in areas

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like writing, reading,
thinking skills,

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what we like to call key
cognitive strategies.

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Our research has identified
a set of thinking skills

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that really are closely
associated with success

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in postsecondary education.

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Those don't show
up in the grades

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and the other measures
that we have.

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Admissions tests that we
use, they are not terrible,

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but they are not enough.

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We need to go beyond a
simple one-dimensional score.

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We need to get more information,
almost like a profile

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of student readiness
for college.

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Our model really is
based on four dimensions:

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key cognitive strategies,
which is how well they think;

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key content knowledge,
which is the kinds

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of foundational information
they need to succeed

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in postsecondary education;
what we call academic behaviors,

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which is largely
self-management types of skills;

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and finally what we
call college knowledge,

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which is their awareness of what
it's going to take to succeed

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in a postsecondary
environment-how to apply,

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how to get financial aid, how to interact
with professors, and so on.

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In the final analysis
this isn't just a matter

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of adding some new assessments
and getting some more test scores.

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This is about really
transforming the high school

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environment so that
it is focused

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on postsecondary education and
so that we have connections

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between the assessments we
are doing, the curriculum

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that we have, the instructional
techniques that we are using.

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We need to be cognizant and
very conscious of the fact

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that the experiences
students have

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in high school cumulatively
are going to lead

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up to what they take
to college with them.

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It's not enough for them just to get
through high school with a diploma.

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They need really challenging and 
appropriate learning expectations

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and learning opportunities in all
of their high school courses.

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So this is going to require
an alignment activity

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that really says, what are we doing
in those high school courses?

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Let's look at the syllabi,
let's look at our objectives

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and outcomes, let's look
at our teaching techniques.

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Are we engaging students actively?
Do we have them writing?

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Do we have them solving
problems in mathematics?

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Are we using formative
assessments

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that require complex thinking
over a long period of time?

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Are they learning to
manage their time?

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Are they developing the
knowledge that they need to go

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on to postsecondary education?

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All of that requires, I think,
a more comprehensive look

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at the high school program, and it's one
that I think we are ready to do.

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I think we are ready
to undertake this.

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I think we have a lot of
emphasis on going this direction

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at the federal and state level,
so I am very hopeful about the future.

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And I believe that the
time is now, really,

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for us to move forward
toward this goal.

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[Music]